BC Tech Unveils 2018 Technology Impact Awards Finalists

The BC Tech Association has unveiled their finalists for the 2018 Technology Impact Awards (TIAs), highlighting some of the best startups and enterprises in the province. The announcement celebrates 25 years of the TIAs selecting some of the most innovative organizations to come out of the Vancouver, Burnaby, Victoria and the rest of B.C.

“British Columbians are innovators and problem solvers by nature,” said Jill Tipping, BC Tech president and CEO. Pioneers, we have survived and thrived and built modern day BC by embracing new ideas and harnessing new technology. This innovation is the spirit of BC’s tech sector, and is what drives the accomplishments and passions we will honour at the TIAs this year. We are also celebrating an incredible quarter century of our sector doing good for people, for our province, and for the world.”

Techfest May 2018

The awards have been a cornerstone of B.C.’s tech industry over the last quarter-century and have followed the scene as it has grown into the leader it is today. The TIAs are the longest-running tech awards program in the province and one of the longest in the country.

There are eight categories along with two new offerings this year. One is the Bill Tam scholarship, which will go to a B.C. post-secondary student in a tech field who best exemplifies the BC Tech values: Be of Service, Succeed Together, and Pay it Forward. The second new category is the Spirit of BC Tech, a crowdsourced award where the winner is chosen through community voting. It goes to the individual, company, newsmaker, campaign, or collaboration that exemplifies the spirit of the B.C. tech community.

The nominees span a huge amount of industries including AI, medtech, SaaS, fintech and more, really showing the diversity of the B.C. tech scene.

The full categories and nominees are below.

Company of the Year

  • ACL
  • Fortinet
  • Ritchie Bros.
  • Traction on Demand

Growth Company of the Year

  • Article
  • Buyatab Online Inc.
  • Thinkific
  • Wiivv

Startup of the Year

  • Cloudhead Games
  • Hack Capital
  • Klue
  • LlamaZOO Interactive Inc.

Person of the Year

  • Jill Earthy, Co-Founder, The RAISE Collective
  • Raghwa Gopal, CEO, Accelerate Okanagan
  • Judi Hess, CEO, Copperleaf
  • Gerri Sinclair, Managing Director, Kensington Capital Partners
  • Ray Walia, Co-Founder, Launch Academy

Tech Culture of the Year

  • Absolute
  • Clio
  • East Side Games
  • iQmetrix
  • Unbounce

Community Engagement

  • CHIMP
  • iQmetrix
  • Left
  • Traction on Demand

Excellence in Technology Adoption

  • Clevest
  • Elastic Path
  • Finger Food Studios
  • Teck Resources Limited

Excellence in Technology Innovation

  • Finn.ai
  • Mojio
  • Precision OS Tech
  • Sanctuary AI

Several of the nominees will be hiring at Techfest Vancouver on May 16, including Culture of the Year finalist Clio, Company of the Year finalist ACL, and Excellence in Tech Innovation finalist Mojio.

The winners will be announced on Friday, June 1 at the Technology Impact Awards Gala.