It is time once again to invite you to nominate an innovative new product or service for the 2008 Chicago Innovation Awards.

Nominees can be high-tech, low-tech or no-tech; for-profit or not-for-profit; big products from large companies or small products from small companies. The sole requirement is innovation.

Last year, winners came from a variety of industries. Companies that took home honors included Abbott Laboratories, Radio Flyer, Threadless and driFire, a fire retardant (FR) performance garment producer. driFire was awarded for their ingenuity in FR performance wear -- keeping firefighters, military and first responders not only safe from flames, but also comfortable and dry.

You can nominate any innovative new product, service or process from your own organization or others. Nominations are accepted from any organization located in the greater Chicago area -- including southeastern Wisconsin, southwestern Michigan and northwestern Indiana. The nomination deadline is July 31.

The nomination form is designed to respect the time of busy people. You can find it at: www.chicagoinnovationawards.com.

Criteria for nominees are products or services that have:
-- Been introduced since January 1, 2006
-- Perhaps created a whole new category of business (e.g., electronic stock trading)
-- Triggered a "me-too" response from competitors
-- Changed or elevated customer expectations (e.g., overnight package delivery)
-- Solved unmet customer or consumer needs
-- Received market support (number of users) or financial success (revenues,
   although not necessarily profits)

The 2008 Chicago Innovation Award winners will be honored at an awards ceremony on Oct. 27 at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. All nominees will also be honored at a reception and networking event in September where they will be recognized for their commitment to innovation.

The 2008 awards welcome three Gold Sponsors: IBM, McGuire Woods and Wrigley; and supporting sponsors Interocean, SIM Chicago, Microsoft, Slack Barshinger, The Goodman Theatre, Maggiano's and Boka+Landmark Restaurant Group.

More than a dozen business and civic groups endorse the Innovation Awards, including the Illinois Venture Capital Association, World Business Chicago, the Executives' Club of Chicago, AeA and the Illinois Technology Association.

Trader Monthly magazine has once again ranked Chicago the #1 trading city in the world -- two years in a row! Home to 25% of all global futures, options and derivatives trading, Chicago boasts more than twice as much trading volume as New York and more trading volume than all European exchanges combined. The following excerpt from Trader Monthly tells the story of why Chicago is once again on top:

From the Midwest to the Middle East: Presenting our Second Annual Ranking of the World's Best Trading Cities
-- Trader Monthly Magazine, June/July 2008

Whether you buy into globalization or just want to rule the world, where you trade matters less than what you trade. These days, you don't need to be sitting in a Midtown Manhattan office to short financials.

#1 Chicago
Commodities Capital

Number 1 two years running. With the CME/NYMEX merger pending, a more powerful commodities hub than ever before.

It's no wonder that Chicago, birthplace of the financial derivative, has held fast to its title as the world's top trading town for the second year running. True, pit veterans at both the CBOT and the CME have been grumbling about the merger between the two exchanges ever since the deal was announced in 2006, with much of their displeasure rooted in nostalgia for open-outcry as the world inexorably makes the shift to electronic matching.

But the merger has created a global behemoth with a reach second to none, buttressing a trading culture steeped in tradition -- not to mention swimming in capital. Now, with the CME's pending merger with the NYMEX, the Second City will indisputably be the geographic center of the commodities and derivatives universe.

Turf wars (and homicide rates) aside, Chicago is a trader's town, defined by the vocation perhaps more than any other place on earth. "It's a very exciting time to be in Chicago," says Scott Kaminski, an independent futures, equities and forex trader and longtime Windy City resident. "There's so much trading talent in this city. And it's not just the fund business, like in Boston. Here you have some major spreaders, yield-curve guys, scalpers, discretionary and black-box guys."

Former CBOE veteran Tom Sosnoff, founder of the options prop-trading shop Thinkorswim, has spent his entire 27-year career in Chicago -- even though he was born and raised in New York. "There's a trader's mentality and a trader's presence in the lifeblood of Chicago," he says.

Adds Leo Melamed, the legendary former chairman of the Merc, "God knows where Chicago would be today without traders."

Echoing last year, Chicago scored high in trading infrastructure and trading opportunities (including access to capital, which the city has never lacked). Why, ultimately, is Chicago our kind of town? Let's start with taxes. It's not exactly a haven, that's for sure, but relative to its financial-center peers on the Hudson and the Thames, Chicago is a paradise on Lake Michigan. For high earners here, the tax burden ranks among the lowest of any big city in the country, outpaced only by peer trading cities in Florida, Texas and Nevada, all of which have no state income tax.

In a similar vein, compared to other world-class cities, real estate in Chicago remains downright cheap, and -- like every residential market in the United States outside Manhattan -- is getting cheaper. Want a fully renovated, three-story, nineteenth-century townhouse with a backyard and a two-car garage in a leafy neighborhood within three miles of LaSalle Street? Expect to pay a third as much for that kind of space and proximity as you would in New York -- assuming, that is, that you could even find such a place in New York. Chicago does have its pricey districts, but for real-estate quality in a top-notch cosmopolitan setting, the Windy City simply cannot be beat. One strike against it, without question, is its weather; its winters can make New York's look subtropical -- though Chicago does boast 28 miles of lakefront and 29 beaches for enjoyment in the warmer months.

The Top 10
#1 Chicago
#2 London
#3 New York
#4 Hong Kong
#5 Miami
#6 Sao Paulo
#7 Los Angeles
#8 Paris
#9 Toronto
#10 Dubai