The Beam Instrumentation Workshop (BIW) was started to provide a forum for in depth discussions of techniques for measuring charged particle beams produced in high energy accelerators. The large US and European Particle Accelerator Conferences   dedicated a few sessions to instrumentation,  making it difficult to have significant interaction among those in the field. It became apparent to Dick Witkover at BNL that a conference or workshop  dedicated to instrumentation was needed. After meetings with representatives from the other National Labs across the US the first   Accelerator Instrumentation Workshop was held at Brookhaven National Laboratory in 1989. The idea for the Award was born during the last day round-table discussion as a means of encouraging young engineers and physicists to become more innovative. Discussions between Bergoz and the Organizing Committee continued through the Beam Instrumentation Workshop (as it was now called) at the Fermi National Laboratory in 1990, with final agreement  on how to keep the Award fair and non-commercial reached in 1991. The procedures for selecting the winner were written, primarily by Bob Shafer soon after and have remained virtually unchanged since. The clever name of the Award, referring to both a trophy and a measurement device, is attributed to Bob Webber.