In a ceremony held at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York City last night, six honorees were inducted into CT Hall of Fame Class of 2021 last night. It was the first time that the annual ceremony and gala dinner was held since 2019, so the Class of 2020 was also officially honored at the event.
Launched by the Consumer Technology Association (CT) in 2000, the CT Hall of Fame has each year inducted consumer technology leaders who have made an impact on the industry throughout their careers. Currently, the CT Hall of Fame has 279 members, including the most current classes of honorees.
CTA President and CEO Gary Shapiro presented the honors and statuettes to each inductee, which included the following consumer electronics industry luminaries:
Class of 2020:
Vinton Gray “Vint” Cerf and Robert Elliot “Bob” Kahn (Co-Inventors of TCP/IP)
Frank Conrad (Designed the first factory-produced radio, the RA-DA, in 1920)
Peter M. Fannon (President, ATTC; Panasonic Government Affairs VP; helped establish the HDTV standard)
Kazuo Kaz Hirai (Former CEO and Chairman, Sony Corp.)
James E. “Jim” Meyer (Longtime RCA, Sirius XM, DirecTV Executive)
Robin Raskin (Journalist, Founder of Living in Digital Times)
Class of 2021:
Mike Fasulo (Former President & COO, Sony Electronics)
Nancy Klosek (CT Journalist and former editor-in-chief of Dealerscope)
Barbara “Barb” Pearse and William “Bill” Pearse (Co-Founders, Ultimate Electronics)
Roberta Williams (Graphic Adventure Game Creator; Co-Founder Sierra On-Line)
In accepting the honor, Vint Cerf, who is sometimes known as the “Father of the Internet” for his work with Bob Kahn on the creation of TCP/IP, which remains one of the main protocols for sending information over the Internet, gave one of the best quotes of the night. “Some people think that seniors don’t know how to use the Internet,” Cerf said. “I have news for you. We invented it.” Cerf’s witty and spot-on dig against ageism was among the best quotes of the night (and would certainly make a great T-shirt).
And last, but definitely not least, we’d like to congratulate our own Nancy Klosek on being inducted into the CT Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2021. Over the course of 37 years as an editor and journalist on the technology beat, Nancy has covered most of the CE industry’s biggest innovations since the introduction of the compact disc player. We at the CT Lab Global Media family are fortunate to work with Nancy, who remains a contributing editor here after serving as the editor-in-chief of both Dealerscope and Connected Design until her retirement earlier this year.
“It is my hope that, in the course of my career, I have succeeded in fully communicating retailers’, custom integrators’, and manufacturers’ points of view,” said Nancy in her acceptance speech. “I thank them all for their generosity in sharing with me their stories of success, and of how they overcame the non-stop challenges in this fast-paced industry with nimbleness, cleverness, and always with a full appreciation of the market’s needs.”
Also honored were the Class of 2021 and 2020 Innovation Entrepreneur Awards, which included 2021 Executive of the Year Dr. James Mault (Founder, BioIntelliSense), 2021 Company of the Year Nuheara, 2021 Startup of the Year ROYBI, 2020 Executive of the Year Vicki Mayo (TouchPoint), 2020 Company of the Year re:3D, and 2020 Startup of the Year Nuro.
