The Roanoke-Blacksburg Technology Council honored a talented group of companies and individuals at its annual TechNite awards banquet, which was held at the Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center on April 21, 2017.
Nominations were accepted for five awards: STEM-H Educator, Entrepreneur, Innovator, Regional Leadership, and Rising Star.
Nominees were narrowed down to a subset of contenders in each category, from which award recipients were selected. This year the awards committee chose to recognize a recipient of the Ruby Award, an occasional award that recognizes a brilliant and valuable asset to the Roanoke-Blacksburg region.
The committee also added a new award, the Regional Go To Geek, which recognizes a person that is working to connect technology practitioners across our region.
The RBTC was honored to present the following awards:
- Regional Go to Geek: Thomas “Tweeks” Weeks, Virginia Tech Cyber Range
- STEM Educator: Nick Cornwell, Montgomery County Public Schools & Hannah Weiss, Science Muesum of Western Virginia
- Entrepreneur: Baraka Kosongo, Volatia Language Network Inc.
- Innovator: Josep Bassaganya-Riera, BioTherapeutics
- Regional Leadership: Greg Feldmann, Skyline Capital Strategies
- Rising Star: Qualtrax
- Ruby Award: Sam English, Attention Point
TechNite is an annual celebration of the Roanoke – Blacksburg region’s technology community. The event featured Caitlyn Scaggs, Founder of Blue Mobius Marketing, as the Master of Ceremonies and special guest speaker Bonz Hart, founder of Meridium, local entrepreneur, and former president of the RBTC board of directors.
After the awards were presented, attendees were invited to attend the 5th annual TechNite after party held at the Science Museum of Western Virginia located inside the Center in the Square.
More information from TechNite 2017 can be found online at https://rbtc.tech/technite.
