TechColumbus Innovation Awards website up !!!

The website is now live for the TechColumbus Innovation Awards on Feb 5, 2009 www.techcolumbusinnovationawards.org . (These awards were formerly known as the TopCat) awards

The Innovation Awards is an event for everyone in the business and technology community – from small company to large, from entrepreneur to investor, from research institute to university, from individual contributor to CEO’s!! GET YOUR NOMINATIONS IN NOW (it’s easy and anyone can do it!!), spread the word, and encourage sponsors.

Here's a refresh of a blog posting regarding the event I did earlier this year.

For those of you unfamiliar with the TopCAT Innovation Award it is the tech community's equivalent of the Emmy's.

The energy in the room palpable. I've been fortunate to been part of the organizing committee for a few years and have seen the awards grow in stature, scope, and meaning. It's a reflection of the growth of our tech community. Let's keep the momentum going.

Following is a link to a youtubevideo of the event (taken with flipvideo camera) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9A5BVKrVhms



Here's a list of the 2007 winners. Take a look at their websites and get a feel for what's happening right in Columbus.

Student Innovation Award: Laura Phillips of Bishop Hartley High School and Aaditya Shidham of Upper Arlington High School.

Outstanding Woman of the Year: Jeanne Gokcen of FutureCom Technologies Inc.

Outstanding Product (less than 50 employees): Pam Springer, EC Next for their product Manta.com

Outstanding Product (50 or more employees): Joseph Sanda, Astute Solutions RealDialog

Innovation in Non-Profit Service Delivery: John Hrusovsky and the GroundWork Group

Executive of the Year (less than 50 employees): William Dawson of NexTech Materials

Executive of the Year (50 or more employees): Bob Irwin of Sterling Commerce

Outstanding Start-up Business: Doug Stewart, AirCraft Logs

Minority Owned Enterprise: Ravi Kunduru and Ventech Solutions

Green Innovation: Dr. Bruce Monzyk and Battelle

Inventor of the Year: Dr. Wayne Poll of Minimally Invasive Devices

Outstanding Service of the Year (less than 50 employees): Adel Mikhail and Phylogeny

Outstanding Service (50 or more employees): Ben Blanquera representing the Progressive Medical team

Outstanding Technology Team: Michael von Fahnestock and the AMD VEP Team from Battelle.