Our 2020 Innovation Awards Winners Are Making an Impact Using Zoom – Zoom Blog

October 15, 20204 min read

Every year at Zoomtopia, our annual user conference, we highlight the creative and unique ways our customers are using Zoom with our Zoomtopia Innovation Awards. This video submission contest recognizes the Zoom customers that most embody innovation, inspiration, and creativity in using Zoom solutions. Seeing these real-world Zoom use cases is so inspiring, and the Innovation Awards are so special for all of us Zoomies! 

This year we had a ton of great submissions that showed us all the amazing ways our customers are using Zoom, especially during these unprecedented times. Here are this year’s winners: 

Innovation Award – Overall Winner

Children’s Cancer Research Fund 

For the past few years, the Children’s Cancer Research Fund has hosted a program that connects pediatric cancer patients with songwriters to write, record, and animate their own cartoon music videos. And as the world has changed, Children’s Cancer Research Fund has adapted with the launch of the Big Dreams Virtual Tour, a program that uses Zoom to connect and interact with pediatric cancer patients to create unique virtual reality experiences and give these brave children a creative outlet during these difficult times. 

Check out the video below to see how Children’s Cancer Research Fund and these patients are creating these amazing experiences:  

Innovation Award – Category Winners

These organizations were the tops in our category competition and showed us how they’re using Zoom to leave a lasting impact on the world:

Extraordinary Connections: Vivo Tech

Vivo Tech provides support to ChildFund International, an organization that works in 24 different countries to ensure children in poverty have access to healthcare, education, and nutrition. ChildFund has leveraged Zoom to continue supporting children and families during the pandemic, including using the platform to connect children from all over the world to policymakers in their own countries. 

Exemplary Educators: Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College 

When Dartmouth’s Thayer School of Engineering moved to remote learning, they needed to create digital spaces that were as dynamic as their on-campus classrooms. Using Zoom’s API, the organization recreated its iconic “Couch Lab” in a digital space, providing a functional virtual space for classes and labs as well as space for students to meet and interact. 

Exceptional Healthcare: Project ECHO 

Project ECHO, a guided-practice model that educates healthcare practitioners in underserved and remote areas of the world, has been leveraging Zoom to reach healthcare workers since 2013. Since the start of the pandemic, the organization has used Zoom to deliver critical information and education about COVID-19 to hospitals and healthcare clinics around the globe, providing them the knowledge they need to treat the virus and save lives. 

Evolution of Business: Quacquarelli Symonds

When COVID-19 swept across the world, Quacquarelli Symonds, a company that organizes and hosts international student recruitment events, needed to pivot its operations to survive. Using Zoom, the organization has taken its recruitment events completely virtual, connecting students from around the world with university admission staff at more than 70 virtual events. 

Emphasis on Diversity: San Jose State University 

Alonzo Carter, San Jose State University’s assistant football coach, started a bi-weekly call with Black football coaches to address upward mobility in the sport, which has evolved into a nationwide effort to help our communities grow. The bi-weekly call now discusses how African-American coaches can address the issues in their community, educate athletes on creating change, and give them the voice they need to make a difference and implement creative solutions. 

Honorable mentions

We had SO MANY incredible submissions from organizations creatively using Zoom, so we’re sharing our list of honorable mentions that also exemplify the spirit and innovation that Zoomtopia is all about: 

Thank you to all of our Innovation Awards participants who took the time to put together these videos for our competition. Visit www.zoomtopia.com to see more videos and get your own innovation inspiration!

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