CHICAGO TOY & GAME GROUP ANNOUNCES YOUNG TECH CHALLENGE WINNERS
Media Contacts: Scott Goldberg
scott@salmonborre.com
First-Annual Tech Invention Contest Presented by Spin Master
Crowns Winners at Chicago Toy & Game Fair
CHICAGO (December 15, 2016) ― The winners of the first-annual Young Tech Challenge have been announced! Chicago Toy & Game Fair’s inaugural Tech Challenge, presented by Spin Master, invited inventors from the ages of 8 to 22 years to bring together imagination, play and tech to create a playful tech product. Winners were selected in 3 age categories: Junior (8-13 year old), Middle (14-18 year old), and Senior (19-22 year old).
1st Place Junior: Jeffrey Huang—WiCar
Runner Up Junior: Kaitlyn Monzon—Sushi Cats 2
1st Place Middle: Ishan Patel & Nathan Pruyne—Number 1 Hits
Runner Up Middle: Aniruddha Bohra & Omkar Shitole—Polluink
1st Place Senior: Glenn Careau, Julian Rojas & Raphael Alvarado—Fizz
Runner Up Senior: Aliza Miller—Run
Fantastic prize packages were made available by the event’s presenting sponsor, Spin Master, the innovative children’s entertainment company. The first-place winners in each age category won some of Spin Master’s hottest toys including Spy Gear Spy Go Action, Air Hogs Sentinel Drone and Meccano Micronoid and a $350 cash sponsored by the Genius of Play.
The Keynote speech was given by Nick Metzler, a previous Young Inventor Challenge winner and now a game designer at Spin Master.
“We saw many bright and remarkable inventors at the first annual Young Tech Challenge,” said Ben Dermer, Vice President, New Ideas and Inventions, Spin Master Ltd. “The submissions we reviewed displayed creativity, innovation and fun, which are the elements we consider when we design toys and games at Spin Master. ”
The judging panel featured a lineup of industry professionals including Dan Klitsner, Founder of KID Group, Richard Melohn, Director of Design-Games at Spin Master, Ken Perera, Account Executive at Devbridge Group, John W Ostler, Co-Founder Eight Bit Studios, Tonda Bunge Sellers of Digital Kids Summit, Amy Kraft, Co-Founder of Monkey Bar Collective and many more.
To learn more about the Young Tech Challenge, visit: http://www.chitag.com/ytc.
Partners of the Young Tech Challenge included Code Play Learn, Illinois Institute of Technology, See-Chicago, Columbia College, TechTrep Academy, United Inventors Association and more.
About the Chicago Toy & Game Group, Inc.
The Chicago Toy & Game Group, Inc. promotes and hosts initiatives designed to encourage and promote the power of play and invention in social, educational, and professional environments. Chicago Toy & Game Group initiatives include the Chicago Toy & Game Fair (ChiTAG), the Toy & Game Innovation Awards (the TAGIEs), Inventor Conferences for New and Professional Inventors and Product Acquisition Executives, the Young Inventor Challenge, the Young TECH Challenge, Play in Education Conference, DiscoverGames Inventor Co-op, the PlayCHIC Fashion Show, and the Chicago Toy & Game Foundation. For more information, visit www.ChiTAG.com.
About Spin Master
Spin Master is a leading global children's entertainment company that creates, designs, manufactures and markets a diversified portfolio of innovative toys, games, products and entertainment properties. Spin Master is best known for award-winning brands including Zoomer™ Dino, Bakugan Battle Brawlers™, Air Hogs®, and 2016 Toys of The Year, Bunchems and Meccanoid G15. Since 2005, Spin Master has received 82 TIA Toy of The Year (TOTY) nominations with 18 wins across a variety of product categories. Spin Master has been recognized with 13 TOTY nominations for Innovative Toy of the Year, more than any of its competitors. Spin Master is among a limited number of companies that not only develop and produce global entertainment properties, characters and content, but also monetize that content through the creation, sale and licensing of products. To date, Spin Master has produced six television series, including 2007 hit series Bakugan Battle Brawlers and its current hit PAW Patrol, which is broadcast in over 160 countries and territories globally. Spin Master employs over 1,000 people globally with offices in Canada, United States, Mexico, France, Italy, United Kingdom, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, China, Hong Kong, Japan, and Australia.
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