ORLANDO, FL – Only six exhibitors took home coveted booth/product awards at the recently concluded Medtrade. With so many top-notch companies in attendance, judges had a difficult time making their selections. What put these companies over the top? We asked the people behind the products.
Winner for Best Booth (Larger than 400 Square Feet): CAIRE Inc – www.cairemedical.com
Taylor Erwin, Global BioMed trade show coordinator, Chart BioMedical: “Our theme at this year’s Medtrade was ‘Let us help you cross the finish line with our Powerhouse of Home Oxygen Products.’ We understand the ‘race’ that providers feel they are running with competitive bidding and reimbursement pressures, and offer a variety of solutions and assistance to help them reach the finish line.
“Our Medtrade booth featured a NASCAR simulator that brought a fun and unique experience to our visitors and enhanced our theme. CAIRE invested great energy into incorporating a new, fresh look into our Medtrade display that reflected our new products and brands. The Medtrade attendees and judges responded to these exciting changes.”
Winner for Best Booth (100-400 Square Feet): Maxtec – www.maxtecinc.com
Jack Cisneros, unit manager, Homecare Business, Oxygen Sensing, Analyzing, and Delivery: “I feel that we won because of our preparation. We started planning our new booth design last year at Medtrade. A lot of thought and focus went into our new design. We wanted our booth to not only showcase our core home care products, but also be informative and utilize technology. Overall, our booth is a good representation of Maxtec—high quality, informative, innovative—while also being fun! We were surprised on how many people stopped by because another attendee said ‘You have to check out the Maxtec booth.’ ”
Winner of the Merit Award: FrozenPeaz – www.frozenpeaz.com
MaryCarol Dolivier, founder, FrozenPeaz®: “Almost everyone in the DME/HME market relies on hot or cold therapy for pain relief and recovery. But the category has lacked innovation and excitement. FrozenPeaz® is a patent pending, innovative product that combines all the benefits of a bag of frozen vegetables (super flexible even when frozen) with the convenience of a traditional gel pack (reusable, hot or cold).
“And like frozen vegetables, FrozenPeaz is also made from a plant based alternative to petroleum gels. We packaged FrozenPeaz with a compression wrap that simultaneously insulates the pack from the environment while driving the hot or cold therapy into the injured tissue. Bottom line, FrozenPeaz doesn’t look or feel like a typical gel pack because FrozenPeaz is anything but typical.”
Winner of the Providers Choice Award: – Triloc by iLoc Technologies – www.iloctech.com
Yves Messier, CTO and co-founder: “We believe the unique mix of advanced cellular, Bluetooth 4.0, and GPS technologies, as well as purposeful features and ease of use of our TRiLOC™ GPS Locator is what those who voted for us recognized. TRiLOC™ provides end users and HME distributors a mobile Personal Emergency Response System (mPERS) that is reliable and easy to use.
“As the general population gets older, the need for this type of solution for home and mobile health care is immediate and growing fast. We’re essentially filling a void that until now had no solution. Over three years of market research and product development went into its development. TRiLOC™ is the only wrist-worn 3G cellular-based mPERS solution available today, specifically designed for individuals with special needs such as Alzheimer’s, Autism Spectrum Disorder, or for individuals that require emergency assistance inside or outside of the home.”
Winner of the Innovation Award: iWALK2.0 by iWALKFree Inc – www.iwalk-free.com
Brad Hunter, director of Business Development, iWALKFree Inc: “We were somewhat surprised that we won the Innovation Award – mostly because ‘innovation’ in many people’s mind is interpreted as ‘high tech,’ and there were some impressive high tech products. In contrast, our product appears simple in concept. The complexities that make it function beyond expectation are mostly invisible to the end user. We’re honored that a seemingly simple concept can still be viewed as innovative and appreciated for its appeal and ease of function.
“People understood that our hands-free crutch allowed you to walk utilizing your leg, instead of your hands and arms. What they expected was a difficult learning curve. So we brought a lot of samples and challenged them to demo it right there at the booth. We fitted hundreds of attendees. The response was always the same—within a couple minutes, sometimes within seconds—attendees were walking confidently. They were totally surprised at how easily they adapted to the iWALK2.0. Then they placed orders. We’re going crazy processing orders from Medtrade – it’s a landslide.”
Winner of the Creative Concepts Award: Strategic AR – www.strategicar.com
Jennifer Leon, director of Marketing, Strategic AR: “We have an amazing group of creative minds within the marketing department at Strategic AR that keep things light and fun. Our team worked diligently on creating a concept that we felt would be receptive to attendees from department staff all the way to a CEO level. What good is standing in a tradeshow booth for 7 to 8 hours a day if you can’t have a little fun?
“At first, everyone thought we were giving real tattoos when they saw the tattoo sign, but they quickly realized that was not the case. We had a couple hundred stop to either get ‘tatted’ up or take some home to children/grandchildren. The overall consensus was ‘Wow, you guys are so creative.’ ”