Commissioner of the NBA Adam Silver to Receive Prestigious Achievement Award

FORT MYERS, Fla., Jan. 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Today, the Edison Awards reveals its 2026 finalists: a curated collective of builders, disruptors, and visionaries whose work is already shaping tomorrow. This isn’t just recognition, it’s admission into an elite network where the world’s most consequential innovators connect, collaborate, and catalyze change.

For 39 years, the Edison Awards has been the proving ground for breakthrough innovation. Our finalists don’t just create products, they ignite movements. They don’t follow trends, they set them. From AI redefining creativity to biotech extending human potential, this year’s finalists represent the cutting edge of what’s possible when imagination meets execution.

“Edison built the world’s first true innovation lab, a place where brilliant minds could collide, collaborate, and create,” said Frank Bonafilia, CEO of the Edison Awards. “That’s what we’ve built here. Our finalists aren’t just competing for recognition; they’re joining a community where the connections made often become as transformative as the innovations themselves. When you bring together this caliber of talent, anything is possible.”

Where Excellence Meets Elevation
Being named an Edison Awards finalist is just the beginning. This community is built on the understanding that today’s emerging innovator is tomorrow’s industry disruptor. Past finalists and winners have gone on to secure billions in funding, launch category-defining products, and fundamentally reshape their industries.

This year’s Achievement Award honors Adam Silver, whose visionary leadership exemplifies innovation at the highest level. Silver has revolutionized professional sports through visionary leadership as NBA Commissioner, driving unprecedented growth across the league’s global ecosystem. Since 2014, he has launched the Basketball Africa League, introduced the NBA Emirates Cup to elevate in-season competition, advanced plans for NBA Europe, overseen landmark 11-year media rights deals with Disney, NBCUniversal, and Amazon, created the NBA 2K League as the first official esports league operated by a U.S. professional sports league, and spearheaded the WNBA’s most significant growth era with expansion planned to 18 teams by 2030. His vision has helped position basketball as the world’s fastest-growing major sport and set a modern blueprint for sports business and global engagement.

The Edison Advantage
The Edison Awards ceremony will take place April 15–16, 2026, in Fort Myers, Florida—home to Thomas Edison’s winter estate and a city rapidly emerging as a hub for innovative enterprise. This year’s gathering brings together the names the world already knows and the ones it soon will. It is where emerging founders connect with established CEOs, where breakthrough ideas earn new believers, and where the next decade of innovation begins to take shape.

The Edison Awards finalists are selected from thousands of global submissions and evaluated by an independent panel of senior scientists, engineers, designers, and industry leaders who assess each innovation on their Concept, Value, and Impact. The result is a unique group that represents not just the best of the year, but the innovations that will go on to define the next generation.

Building the Future, Together
The Edison Awards extends deep gratitude to our 2025 sponsors, whose commitment to innovation makes this platform possible: Babcock Ranch, Black & Veatch, Blue Waters Development Group, Cargill, City of Fort Myers, Collaboratory, Cushman & Wakefield, EmCyte, FGCU, 35 Mules, HBKS Wealth Advisors, Horizon Foundation, Lovesac, U.S. News & World Report, and U.S. Sugar.

About the Edison Awards
Established in 1987, the Edison Best New Product Awards™ honor excellence in innovation, celebrating the products, services, and leaders transforming how we live and work. Inspired by Thomas Edison’s legacy, the program recognizes game-changing solutions across industries worldwide, offering global recognition, credibility, and connections that drive growth. The 2026 Edison Awards will be held April 15–16 in Fort Myers, Florida. Register at www.edisonawards.com.

Media Contact:
Rachel Reed, Marketing Director
rachel@edisonawards.com

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