Yesterday the Accenture Innovation Awards for the Communication & High-Tech industry were announced. In a packed exhibition hall in Amsterdam, the audience witnessed during an lively event what the professional jury found to be the most innovative concept of 2010. The coverage of the event via twitter (#aia10) even made it to a trending topic in the Netherlands.

As if to underwrite the relevance of the Innovation Awards, the breaking news was announced that same day that the 2007 AIA winner Hyves – the Dutch social network site – was sold to Dutch media giant TMG (Telegraaf Media Groep) for an undisclosed sum. Truly a stimulating foresight for every competitor for this year’s awards.

Winner of the Accenture Innovation awards 2010 and the prestigious Blue Tulip was tenpages.com, for its disruptive new business model that allows aspiring authors to publish the first ten pages of their manuscript on the web. Everyone can buy shares of 5 Euros a piece. When 20.000 shares have been sold within 4 months, the book will be published and distributed. Winner of the public choice award was the sympathetic Catawiki, which offers collectors of items an online platform to create a catalogue and easily sell and buy collectibles to fellow enthusiasts. A full list of all category winners can be found here.

The most relevant comment of the day was actually made by Ralph Cohen, of runner-up IceMobile. IceMobile developed the hugely popular mobile phone app Appie together with the largest retailer in the Netherlands Albert Heijn. The app helps shoppers to compile their grocery lists, complete with a function to scan barcodes, thousands of recepies and store maps to help navigate efficiently through the shopping aisles.

During his pitch Ralph explained the main reason behind the success of Appie: “We never set out to innovate. Innovation is not a goal on itself, it is the logical consequence of our intention to help the consumer. Truer words have not been spoken that day.

I’m very eager to find out what tomorrow’s innovation awards for the Financial services will bring!