OneEvent Technologies, a Mount Horeb, Wisconsin-based home and business monitoring software company, earned the prestigious title of Most Innovative Company at the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce’s Nex7 Stage Event on Wednesday, Dec. 14, at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.
The Nex7 startup showcase featured five-minute pitches from seven Dane County early stage companies. OneEvent’s pitch — given by Jim Zirbel, Vice President of Markets — won over the crowd, which voted overwhelmingly for OneEvent, according to event organizers. Zirbel talked about how OneEvent Co-Founders Kurt Wedig and Dan Parent came up with their product idea, how the safety and security industries have been operating in the alarm/report/respond “reactive” mode for more than 50 years, and how oneEvent is shifting the paradigm to a predict/alert/prevent system so there’s a chance for someone to completely prevent an emergency rather than simply respond. Zirbel credited the Madison region with embracing the company’s ideas, investing in the company, providing a rich talent pool to draw staff from, and offering guidance through supportive organizations like the Greater Madison Chamber and Madison Region Economic Partnership (MadREP), which provide helpful resources to do business in south central Wisconsin.
“The OneEvent team is thrilled that the Dane County business community voted for us to win the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce’s Most Innovative Company Award,” said oneEvent Co-Founder and CEO Wedig. “With our OneEvent® System launching soon locally, the timing couldn’t be better. This is our community. People here have stood behind us since day one — fundraising, helping us make business connections, and some even leaving their jobs to join our staff. They deserve to have the first opportunity to benefit from our technology that empowers the protection of lives and property.”
View media coverage of OneEvent winning the Most Innovative Company Award here.
OneEvent has 13 full-time employees and seven consultants. The company has selected and trained three local dealer-installers — J&K Security, Fearing’s Audio Video Security, and The Electrician — that will sell and install the onePrevent system throughout south central Wisconsin, with more dealer-installers to be added as the market area expands.
The same week that the company won what’s being called the MIC Award, OneEvent collaborated with Chippewa Valley Technical College’s Fire Safety Center to conduct fire safety research that benefits OneEvent’s software development, as well as students and instructors in the college’s fire training program. Various types of fires were set in a controlled environment — an “Apartment Within a Building,” constructed specifically to house burn projects — from oven and microwave fires to kerosene heater and space heater fires to Christmas tree fires.