ISPA 2019 Day 3

The ISPA Innovate winners were welcomed to the stage to receive their awards presented by Garret Mersberger

Deborah Szekeley, at 97 years old, talked about the 80-year-old trees she panted on her arrival at Rancho La Puerta in 1940. Living proof of the benefit of a healthy lifestyle, Deborah presented the 2019 Alex Szekely Humanitarian Award to Mick Ebeling for his organization, Not Impossible – change the world through technology and story. With the aim of ‘help one, help many’. Solving a problem for one person and using their story inspires more action and creates an impact.

Via the creation of a budget version of glasses that detect eye movement, a young man with ALS was able to draw and speak again and the company was formed and recognized in mainstream media. Creating a prosthetic arm for a Daniel, a young amputee in Sudan for under $100 USD changed lives across the region. Intel sponsored this and it generated more loyalty and business growth than all of their marketing campaigns. Doing good for the world helps your business!

To tackle hunger, Not Impossible created an app to content people who don’t have food to local restaurants or businesses that have a surplus of food. Not Impossible tackled the problem of heavy, difficult to move wheelchairs by creating a modular chair that is also sleek and stylish. By creating vests and cuffs for deaf people to feel the vibration of music, they found that the music industry and people with hearing also loved the feeling. The wristbands also stopped the tremors for people with Parkinson’s allowing then control over their hands again and has the potential to help people live normal lives again.