Makers Madness Contest For The Coolest Thing Made In Illinois The Illinois Manufacturers’ Association launched the second annual Makers Madness contest to crown the coolest thing made in Illinois. Now through February 14 Illinoisans can nominate products as “The Coolest Thing Made in Illinois”. The Illinois Manufacturers’ Association President and CEO Mark Denzler says anything made in Illinois can be nominated. “You just submit the name of the product, a picture of the product, we ask for the nominators name, email and phone number in the event we have questions, once all the nominations come through we vet them, verify just to make sure they’re made in Illinois, because in some cases you might have a headquarters here but the product is made elsewhere.”