-By Jennifer Thiele Busch

In a year that is notoriously lacking reasons to celebrate, Contract is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Best of NeoCon®, the industry's leading competition recognizing excellence and innovation in product design for commercial interiors. Twenty years ago when Facilities Design & Management magazine first introduced the competition (for a full history, see Best of NeoCon Retrospective) we had no way of knowing that it's two-decade milestone would fall smack in the middle of the worst economic recession that the country, and the world, has seen since the Great Depression. But this is both a challenging time—when product development budgets are severely restricted—and a time of great opportunity to stand out from the crowd by pressing on with design innovation, as many of our 2009 Best of NeoCon® winners have opted to do (see Best of NeoCon® winners section).

I am always gratified to see a more obscure company like Powermat take the overall Best of Competition prize—though the company smartly increased its visibility tenfold by partnering with Teknion to demonstrate its wireless energy hub technology (see Best of Competition). And though the conversation at NeoCon® was that this technology still has some imperfections and logistical challenges, the fact that it caught the judges' attention enough to win best overall in a field of 280 entries shows that the industry appreciates new ideas, even if they need refinement.

At a time like this we have to ask ourselves: Does the world really need another beautiful piece of furniture? Or is it more important now to introduce innovations that help us envision a different future? With the increasingly viral nature of communication, the dialogue that these new ideas spark will increase awareness, which will eventually drive improved product solutions.

Herman Miller's Aeron Chair, surprisingly a non-Best of Competition winner in 1994 (though it did take a Gold that year) went on to become a design icon of the 20th century, not only because designers loved it, but also because users ultimately loved it and began a word-of-mouth campaign that turned the chair into a status symbol—and perhaps the only generally recognizable name in office furniture—in recent history. And that was before Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or even Web sites themselves were prevalent.

In the case of Aeron, the whole industry benefited from the glimpse into what excited the user community. As we all become more comfortable with the concept of social networking in our professional lives, it is likely that the traditional routes of product marketing—and perhaps even product development—will have to be rethought, as public discussion plays an increasingly influential role in the creation of the design icons of the 21st century.