Behind the scenes of Fast Company’s Next Big Things in Tech 2024

For the last four years, Fast Company’s Next Big Things in Tech awards have celebrated technological breakthroughs that are changing the way we work and live. This year’s awards include 138 honors for innovations impacting everything from transportation and telecommunications to agriculture.

Arriving at that cadre of winners from a pool of 1,400 applicants requires many hours of work sifting through applications, scrutinizing projects, and deciding which achievements rank at the top. Here is a peek into how our small army of editorial staffers make it happen.

Methodology

Our team of editors and writers assessed each application based on factors such as:

  • Relevancy: What pressing problem does the technology solve?
  • Ingenuity: How novel is the technology?
  • Progress and potential: In what ways has the technology already proven itself? Is it positioned for long-term viability and scalability?
  • Impact: What kind of impact—from economic to cultural—might the technology have over the next five years?

Each winner is chosen after multiple rounds of evaluation and conversation between judges about its performance on the above criteria, a monthslong process.

“With Next Big Things in Tech, our aim is to honor projects based not only on what they’ve already achieved but where they’re poised to go,” says Fast Company global technology editor Harry McCracken. “Whether honorees are still in the lab or already on the market, they’re driving progress in tangible ways on an array of fronts.”

Meet the team

Judges
Adele Peters, Aimee Rawlins, Alex Pasternack, Connie Lin, David Salazar, Eric Sullivan, Harry McCracken, Jared Newman, Jessica Bursztynsky, Lydia Dishman, Maia McCann, Mark Wilson, Max Ufberg, Morgan Clendaniel, Rob Pegoraro, Ross Rubin, Steven Melendez, Yasmin Gagne

Coordinator
Shealon Calkins

Design/Photo
Alice Alves, Heda Hokschirr, Haewon Kye, Anne Latini, Lila Nathanson, Eric Perry, Daniel Salo, Mike Schnaidt

Development: Bryan Cuellar, Heda Hokschirr, Cayleigh Parrish

https://www.fastcompany.com/91224660/methodology-next-big-things-in-tech-2024?partner=rss&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=rss+fastcompany&utm_content=rss

Vytvořeno 3mo | 19. 11. 2024 13:40:23


Chcete-li přidat komentář, přihlaste se

Ostatní příspěvky v této skupině

The internet has suspicions about family vloggers fleeing California. Here’s why

An unsubstantiated online theory has recently taken hold, claiming that family vloggers are fleeing Los Angeles to escape newly introduced California laws designed to protect children featured in

28. 2. 2025 21:40:02 | Fast company - tech
DOGE isn’t Silicon Valley innovation—it’s just a sloppy rebrand of free-market dogma

At a press conference in the Oval Office earlier this month, Elon Musk—a billionaire who is not, at least formally, the President of the United States—was asked how the Department of Government Ef

28. 2. 2025 19:20:04 | Fast company - tech
Next-gen nuclear startup plans 30 reactors to fuel Texas data centers

Last Energy, a nuclear upstart backed by an Elon Musk-linked venture capital fund, says it plans to construct 30 microreactors on a site in Texas to supply electricity to data centers across the s

28. 2. 2025 16:50:10 | Fast company - tech
Who at DOGE has access to U.S. intelligence secrets? Democrats are demanding answers

Democratic lawmakers demanded answers from billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Govern

28. 2. 2025 16:50:09 | Fast company - tech
Ethan Klein declares war on r/Fauxmoi. But can a subreddit even be sued?

Pop culture subreddit r/Fauxmoi is facing accusations of defamation from YouTuber and podcaster Ethan Klein.

Klein first rose to internet fame through his YouTube channel,

28. 2. 2025 14:40:03 | Fast company - tech
The creator economy is facing an authenticity crisis

For years, the creator economy has become increasingly accepted as the future of media. These days, makeup tutorials on TikTok could have the same impact for a brand as a multi-million dollar mark

28. 2. 2025 12:20:08 | Fast company - tech
Google’s AI summaries are changing search. Now it’s facing a lawsuit

For more than two decades, users have turned to search engines like Google, typed in a query, and received a familiar list of 10 blue links—the gateway to the wider web. Ranking high on that list,

28. 2. 2025 12:20:07 | Fast company - tech