Tech10 Awards Recognizes Rhode Island’s Technology All-Stars

Friday, February 18, 2011

Greg Berman, GoLocalProv Contributor

On Wednesday evening, Rhode Island’s leading technology practitioners and entrepreneurs gathered in RISD’s Chace Center to be honored for their extraordinary contributions to the field of technology. The event began with an informal cocktail reception where guests were given the chance to mingle with award winners and network with other members of the Rhode Island technology community.

After getting to know one another, the winners and their guests were ushered into an adjacent auditorium for the award ceremony. Comedian and local news personality Doreen Collins provided opening remarks, warming up the crowd with some techy humor that poked fun at, among other things, the physical attractiveness of the award recipients—apparently, “Geek Chic” is back in. After a monologue about whether or not computers behaved more like men or women, Collins handed the show off to Kathie Shields and Josh Fenton, director of Tech Collective and founder of GoLocalProv.com, respectively, and the event’s primary sponsors. Fenton emphasized the importance of recognizing these “behind-the-scenes achievers,” whom he believes will become the driving economic forces in an increasingly digital economy.

Winners received their awards one-by-one, with each presentation being accompanied by a brief video clip detailing the recipient’s accomplishments. Among those recognized were two recent Brown graduates, one of whom created a barcode-scanning smartphone app after his frustrating experiences buying textbooks as an undergrad. Cheryl Lawrence, one of only two women honored, has been working in the technology field for over 30 years, and says that she still occasionally gets frustrated when trying to communicate with her less tech-savvy friends.

Once all the awards had been given out, Fenton and Shields returned to the stage and encouraged all in attendance to return again next year. “This is the first year, but this is big, we can be part of the future,” said Fenton. “The innovators recognized by Tech10 are the most crucial future forces for economic growth in the state.” Nominations and applications for the 2012 Tech10 awards may be submitted starting on Oct 1, 2011.