TechNite awards showcase innovation and entreprereurship

Montgomery County, Virginia  - Innovation and entrepreneurship in the New River and Roanoke Valleys were on full display last week. The Roanoke-Blacksburg Technology Council (RBTC) held its annual TechNite Awards Banquet at Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center on May 16 to celebrate the regional technology sector. A record crowd of over 500 leaders from business and innovation attended the event. The evening was highlighted with an awards ceremony, where leaders were recognized in a number of categories.

The Montgomery County Economic Development Department sponsored and presented the Rising Star award during the ceremony. The award recognizes a technology startup from the region that is on the verge of making it big. Craig Meadows, County Administrator of Montgomery County, presented the Rising Star award to Kirk Cameron, Co-founder and CEO of Montgomery County-based MiserWare. Located in Blacksburg, the company’s energy efficiency software, Granola Enterprise, helps organizations identify and eliminate energy waste in their computers.

MiserWare wasn’t the only Montgomery County nominee to win an award. The Tuxedo Pandas, a robotics team made up of middle and high school students from Montgomery County Public Schools, won the People’s Choice award. Earlier this year, the team won top honors at the FIRST Tech Challenge Virginia State Championship and recently competed in the World Championship in St. Louis. Impressively, the Tuxedo Pandas brought home a 54th place finish out of 2,500 competing teams from around the world.

Vinod Chachra, Founder and CEO of VTLS, was also induced into the Roanoke-Blacksburg Technology Councils Hall of Fame. Founded in the 1980s, VTLS provides library automation software and services to customers around the world. In 1988, the company became the first tenant in the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center, which has now grown to over 140 technology based companies and research centers.

"I commend the Roanoke-Blacksburg Technology Council on hosting another successful TechNite Awards Banquet,” said Craig Meadows. “Montgomery County sincerely appreciates the RBTC’s continual efforts to showcase, support and grow the technology sector in our community and the greater region. I congratulate all the award nominees and winners on their achievements.”

A number of companies and educators from Montgomery County were nominated for several categories, including:

Educators:

• Blacksburg High School - Michael Collver, Science Teacher
• Christiansburg Middle School - Lori Whitlow, Agriculture Teacher
• Eastern Montgomery High School - Josef Pociask, Science Teacher
• Prices Fork Elementary School - Andrea Langston, Fourth Grade Teacher

Companies:

• Aeroprobe Corp. - Designs, builds, and markets scientific instrumentation used in aerodynamic and hydrodynamic research (Innovation Award nominee)
• BC Genesis - Develops and commercialize bacterially produced nano-cellulose biomaterials for use in implantable medical devices and tissue scaffolds (Innovation Award nominee)
• Cognichoice - A personal awareness and social sharing software platform available to users in web, mobile web, and mobile versions, based on evidence-based techniques that result in behavior change (Entrepreneur Award nominee)
• Donoma Software - Creates productivity applications that empower an increasingly mobile workforce with tools for managing and streamlining communications (Innovation Award nominee)
• Emisshield - Products optimize heat applications by changing basic system physics and enabling positive improvements in any combustion or energy transfer (Innovation Award nominee)
• Heyo - Helps small and medium business owners, who may lack web development experience, the ability to drag and drop together Facebook fan pages, mobile apps, and websites (Entrepreneur Award nominee)
• JPI - An information technology and program management consulting firm specializing in bringing together disparate IT systems, open source and standards based technologies (Entrepreneur Award and Rising Star Award nominee)
• KinectHealth - Virtual fitness studio app with dozens of workouts. Find the right workout, track your progress with the webcam and workout with friends (Entrepreneur Award nominee)
• Kustomnote - A browser-based template system for Evernote that helps inidviduals keep their note-taking organized (Entrepreneur Award nominee)
• Modea - A digital advertising agency that focuses on branding and technology (Rising Star Award nominee)
• Polymer Solutions - An independent testing lab and strategic resource for polymer testing, materials analysis, and metals testing (Rising Star Award nominee)
• Rackspace - Blacksburg Division - Delivers enterprise-class hybrid cloud infrastructures to businesses of all sizes and kinds around the world (Regional Leadership Award nominee)
• SmartCollegeVisit - An award winning college-search and travel planning resource working with college & university admissions offices to provide efficient on-line and mobile products for college-bound students and their families (Entrepreneur Award and Rising Star Award nominee)
• TechPad - A 6,000 square-foot coworking space in downtown Blacksburg specializing in IT and software startups and hosting entrepreneurial events (Entrepreneur Award nominee)
• Techulon - Develops and sells biodegradable transfection reagents for cell research and genetic therapy development (Rising Star Award nominee)
• TWI - With more than 500 customer implementations, TWI is a leading provider of electronic billing, payment, and communication services for utilities across the U.S. and Canada (Rising Star Award nominee)
• Venveo - A marketing agency in Blacksburg, Virginia offering services in digital advertising, internet marketing, mobile marketing, and branding (Rising Star Award nominee)
• VirtualU - Leads the way in the evolution of online commerce by creating life-like 3D models of human bodies as well as consumer products, while integrating them into an interactive online enviornment (Rising Star Award nominee) 
• VPT - A global provider of power conversion solutions for the rapid development of critical power systems in avionics, military, and space applications (Innovation Award nominee)
• VT KnowledgeWorks - Encourages and enables creative entrepreneurship world-wide, through innovative curriculum, local business resource centers, and a global network of cooperating regions (Regional Leadership Award nominee)

About Us

Montgomery County, Virginia - home of Virginia Tech and the towns of Blacksburg and Christiansburg - is a progressive, technology-driven community with an abundance of outdoor amenities. The Montgomery County Economic Development Department actively supports the startup, retention and expansion of companies already in Montgomery County as well as the recruitment of new businesses to the community. To learn more, visit www.YesMontgomeryVA.org.