by Aaron Eden
The Washington Technology Industry Association recognizes local technology innovators, celebrates 25th anniversary at annual celebration
The Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA), North America’s largest statewide association of technology companies, IT departments and individual technology professionals, honored the winners of its 14th annual Industry Achievement Awards (IAAs) last night during an awards ceremony at the Paramount Theater. The event, which celebrated the local technology community and its innovations, also marked the WTIA’s 25th anniversary.
“For the first time ever, thousands of votes from the local technology community determined this year’s IAA winners,” said Ken Myer, president and CEO of the WTIA. “To be named by your peers as one of our region’s best and brightest is a great honor.”
The IAAs recognize local companies, individuals and students who best demonstrate innovation and excellence in creating new technologies, applications and services. The 2009 winners, as determined by online votes, were:
Commercial Product or Service of the Year: Visible Technologies for TruCast(R)
Visible Technologies helps companies listen to and learn what consumers are saying about them online via its comprehensive social media analysis and participation software platform, TruCast.
Consumer Product or Service of the Year: Wetpaint for Wetpaint.com
Wetpaint powers socially published Web sites that enable anyone to collaboratively create, collect and organize content to build an online community around whatever he or she is passionate about.
Breakthrough Start-up of the Year: Ontela for Ontela PicDeck
Ontela provides a simple, one-click solution that automatically saves every camera phone picture users snap to their email, PC and Web photo albums.
Service Provider of the Year: AdReady(TM), Inc. for AdReady(R)
AdReady makes the creation and management of sophisticated online display advertising campaigns incredibly easy and effective for advertisers and publishers of all sizes.
Best Use of Technology in the Government, Non-profit or Educational Sector: Snohomish County Planning & Development Services for the Inspection Improvement Project
The Inspection Improvement Project uses technology available today to provide great customer service for how inspections are requested and documented as well as how results are communicated.
Technology Innovator of the Year: Darrin Massena, Picnik
Darrin, co-founder and CTO of Picnik, has developed software for the past 28 years. Prior to Picnik, he co-founded Spiffcode and was a development manager at Microsoft for 11 years, where he was a “Leonardo da Vinci Award” winner.
Technology Leader of Tomorrow: Israel Zemeadim, Washington Middle School — 8th Grade
“We’ve watched the local technology community grow exponentially during our 25 years as an organization, and we believe this year’s winners demonstrated that Washington continues to be a home for world class-innovations,” said Myer. “We’re honored to be able to recognize these companies and individuals, and we look forward to seeing what great things they will do next.”
IAA presenting sponsors are AH&T Insurance, Intelius, Microsoft, RealNetworks, Regence BlueShield, Vertafore and Wells Fargo Insurance Services.
The Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA), founded in 1984, is the largest statewide association of technology companies, IT departments and individual technology professionals in North America. With more than 1,000 member companies representing more than 100,000 employees in Washington State, the association is a catalyst for sharing expertise, fostering collaboration, delivering key business services and advancing the value and global impact of technology companies doing business in Washington. The association’s global partners are Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, Microsoft, Regence BlueShield, Sun Microsystems, Vertafore and Wells Fargo Insurance Services. The association’s funding partners are AH&T Insurance, F5 Networks, GrapeCity, Moss Adams and RealNetworks. For more information, go to www.washingtontechnology.org. Don Ledford is the CTO of VANTOS, Inc. Don, an industry veteran in software architectures and component assembly, has over two decades of deep knowledge with recognized innovations and proven experience./
Darrin Massena, Picnik
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Darrin is the Co-Founder & CTO at Picnik. Darrin has developed software for the last 28 years. Prior to Picnik, Darrin co-founded Spiffcode and was a development manager at Microsoft for 11 years.
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Startup of the Year
Apptio
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Apptio is the leading IT Cost Optimization solution providing better understanding of the true TCO of IT services, driving a reduction in IT costs and better decision making.
LiquidPlanner
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LiquidPlanner is the first and only online project management software to incorporate ranged estimates and statistical probability to deliver schedules that can be trusted.
Ontela
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Ontela provides a ridiculously simple solution that automatically saves every camera phone picture a user snaps to their e-mail, PC, and web photo albums.
Commercial Service of the Year
Concur
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Nominated for Concur Travel & Expense. Concur is the worlds leading provider of on-demand Employee Spend Management services. Concur unites and streamlines travel and expense, and invoice processes.
INRIX
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INRIX is the leading provider of accurate real-time, historical and predictive traffic information in North America and Europe, with over 68 customers and industry partners.
Visible Technologies
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Visible Technologies helps companies listen to and learn what consumers are saying about them online via its comprehensive social media analysis and participation software platform, TruCast®.
Commercial Product of the Year
Wetpaint
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Wetpaint powers socially published websites that let anyone collaboratively create, collect, and organize content to build an online community around whatever theyre passionate about.
Picnik
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Picnik is an online photo editor that gives real people photo-editing superpowers, giving anyone the ability to quickly and easily edit, enhance, share and print photos from any Internet browser.
Pet Holdings, Inc.
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Pet Holdings specializes in creating communities of passionate users who compete to create the funniest viral content. We make people happy for 5-minutes per day.
Best Use of Technology in the Government, Non-profit or Educational Sector
eCityGov Alliance
Nominated for Shared Procurement Portal
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eCityGov is dramatically improving local government services by exploiting technology to align business practices across jurisdictions that result in seamless, consistent services for citizens and businesses.
Snohomish County Planning & Development Services
Nominated for The Inspection Improvement Project
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The Inspection Improvement Project uses technology available today to provide great customer service for how inspections are requested, documented and results communicated.
South Sound Health Communication Network
Nominated for Clarity Health Referral Management
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Service SSHCN provides secure information handling and clinical tools that enable community based physicians and their staffs to provide personal, effective and coordinated healthcare.
