Calgary, AB - SMART Technologies Inc. revolutionized the concept of distance collaboration and interactive learning with the world's first interactive whiteboard, enabling people to work and learn in a "shared space." Now the co-founders and principal officers of SMART, David Martin and Nancy Knowlton, have won a prestigious $10,000 Manning Innovation Award.

The husband and wife team started their Calgary-based company in 1987, based on Martin's vision of an interactive whiteboard system. He described the innovative system, which fused the best from television, computers and the Internet, in detail during a 16,000-kilometre road trip the couple took.

"The idea itself was totally novel in the world," says Knowlton, who has an MBA in marketing and finance and is a former Chartered Accountant. "Out of that novelty came the opportunity."

Martin, who has a degree in applied mathematics, says: "We invented a product category, and invented the products for that category, and found our way through a market education phase to get people interested in the product in each of the vertical markets. And we continue to innovate."

Martin and Knowlton have won the $10,000 Manning Innovation Award sponsored by The Westaim Corporation. Since 1982, the annual Manning Awards program has encouraged and recognized leading Canadian innovators with more than $2.9 million in prize money. This year's four winners will share a total of $145,000.

SMART's interactive whiteboard was the first to provide touch control of computer applications, annotation over top of standard Windows applications and the ability to save these notes. The SMART Board™ interactive whiteboard introduced the world to interactive technology in classrooms, group meetings and presentations.

A "who's who" of SMART customers includes Procter & Gamble, Ford Motor Company, M.I.T., University of Western Ontario, Prudential Insurance, NASA, Bell Canada and Intel Corporation.

"We found that SMART Technologies' presentation products have had a definite impact on the way learning occurs in our classrooms," says Brent Hay, manager of technology and innovation at Master's Academy & College in Calgary. "Not only are the students more engaged, but teachers are incorporating more multimedia, research and interaction into the lessons ever day."

Along with its patented interactive whiteboards, SMART Technologies' award-winning collaborative products now include mobile multimedia cabinets, whiteboard cameras and meeting productivity software. SMART installations range from a White House Situation Room to the Los Angeles Lakers' locker room to kindergarten-to-post-secondary classrooms around the world.

SMART's revenues have grown by at least 43 per cent annually during the last five years, and the company projects sales of about $100 million for fiscal year 2002. More than 400 employees now work in Calgary, Stittsville, Washington, D.C., New York, the Los Angeles area, Bonn and Tokyo.

The Ernest C. Manning Awards Foundation will announce all four of this year's award recipients, including the $100,000 Manning Principal Award, throughout September prior to the annual awards gala Oct. 4 in Ottawa.