There Are Big Ideas. Then There Are Powerful Answers

As the weather heats up, so has the competition for Verizon’s $10 million Powerful Answers Award challenge. The deadline to enter the competition closed July 1 and we have received more than 1,000 applications.

Verizon, which is recognized worldwide as a leader in innovation, created the Powerful Answers Award this year to give companies, entrepreneurs and individuals an opportunity to generate innovative ideas that address some of the world’s biggest challenges.

We are challenging the best minds in the technology industry and beyond to put forward ideas that deliver powerful answers in the areas of education, health care and sustainability. These global issues can be transformed with wireless, wireline or cloud-based technology. Verizon has the unique combination of networks, technology and people to lead, and more importantly, sustain innovation across the ecosystem and to help deliver these powerful solutions for consumers and businesses.

For example, Verizon continues to forge relationships and create partnerships with innovators and entrepreneurs, including a pair of technology “meetups” in partnership with the MIT Enterprise Forum earlier this year—one in Cambridge, Massachusetts and one in New York City.

Intended to spark innovative thinking and creative problem-solving across industries, the Verizon Powerful Answers Award will be judged by a blue-ribbon panel of experts from academia, the media and the venture capital community. The winners will be ideas that best address these challenges.

We will award prizes to the top 5 innovations in each of the three core categories—education, healthcare and sustainability. The top prize in each category is $1 million. The winners will be announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. More information can be found at by clicking here.