“If someone goes on a journey, they have a story to tell”. With this in mind, we ventured on our second US trade show tour in October and participated in the HCD in San Antonio to kick things off. Full of expectations, we registered as exhibitors at the overseas conference. We took the opportunity to enter the Nightingale Awards in the Storage & Accessories category.

The Nightingale Awards are named after Florence Nightingale, a tireless advocate for improving care and conditions in hospitals in the 1800s. The Awards are regarded as the industry's leading indicator for recognizing the best and most innovative products. Presented annually at HCD, the awards serve to recognize excellence and innovation in healthcare product designs.

After submitting our application, it was first reviewed digitally before moving on to the on-site judging round. Thus, on the first day of the conference, a selected jury of 14 experienced designers and managers from the healthcare sector reviewed the award participants’ products.

Along with almost 50 other products, our ZippSpace Pro system was also put through its paces. Among other things, questions were asked about functionality, quality and durability, aesthetics and, of course, the innovative strength of the product. After this evaluation round, three products were finally selected to enter the decisive round as finalists.

The first reason for joy was when we received a call from the jury and were told that we had made it to the finalists of the "Best of Competition" Award with our ZippSpace Pro system. But that was not to be the end of the story. After another seemingly endless period of waiting, the winners were announced and it was indeed us - Zippsafe! To our great surprise, we did not only win the main prize of the "Best of Competition" - no! - we were simultaneously awarded two other prizes, the "Innovation Award" and the Gold Award for "Storage & Accessories" for our Smart Soft Locker Solution. 

With the publicity of the awards ceremony, it was no surprise that our booth was literally stormed afterwards. Overwhelmed by the reactions and the enormous crowds, our team consisting of Carlo Loderer, Jonathan Grahm and Robert Graves ran out of business cards and had to get new ones for the next trade fair in Chicago.

When our Zippsafe team returned from the USA, they not only had a rousing story to tell, but also a glass trophy of the "Best of Competition" as well as the certificates for the Innovation Award and the Gold Award for Storage & Accessories in their luggage. And so it seems to be true: We went on a journey and definitely have a story to tell.