FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Technology Councils of North America Announces Winners for Annual Innovation Awards

Sewickley, Penn., August 24, 2023 — The Technology Councils of North America (TECNA), which represents approximately 63 technology associations across the U.S. and Canada, announced the winners of its fifth-annual TECNA Innovation Awards. The awards program recognizes and celebrates the exceptional creativity and groundbreaking contributions that individuals and teams bring to their organizations.

The 2023 awards were presented during a reception in Seattle, Washington, by Doug Robertson, CEO from Venn Innovation in Moncton, New Brunswick and Mia Peterson, Executive Director from New Mexico Technology Council in Albuquerque, along with Caroline Edwards, Commissioner for the Americas from Government of Victoria, Australia, and Brittany Osazuwa, Workforce Partnerships Director from CompTIA.

“This year’s TECNA Innovation Awards show that regional tech councils and tech hubs play a crucial role for collaboration, advocacy, education and innovation in the tech sector,” said Jennifer Young, TECNA CEO. “These awards not only validate the efforts of the work TECNA’s members do all year, but also inspire others to think beyond conventional norms and embrace a culture of continuous improvement. Tech jobs are in every community, so we all benefit when TECNA members and their member companies are thriving and active parts of these communities.”

The 2023 Innovation Awards winners included:

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion - recognizing team members who have developed innovative initiatives in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

Winner – WEtech Alliance 

WEtech Alliance developed the i.d.e.a. Fund (Inclusion, Diversity, Environment, Acceleration) to support and position local economies in southern Ontario for long term growth. It provides high-potential businesses with seed funding and business advisory supports to develop new green products, services, processes, and technologies. Six Ontario Regional Innovation Centers (RICs) including WEtech combined efforts to accelerate the growth of up to 240 businesses. The Fund also holds an inclusive recovery, targeting 50% of the companies supported to be led by women and at least 30% by members of other racialized and under-represented groups.

Marketing & Communications - recognizing team members who developed innovative marketing, communications or social media strategies strengthening the brand and community engagement of the tech council.

Winner – Quebec Technology Association

The Techno du Quebec Showcase is a groundbreaking program designed to revolutionize the way industries connect, innovate, and thrive in the dynamic technological landscape. AQT launched a dynamic marketing campaign that leveraged the power of video and social media, collaboration requests and partnership opportunities with organizations in each sector, podcasts, articles, email marketing, and Google AdWords campaign. The campaign was meticulously crafted to inspire businesses from diverse sectors to seek comprehensive solutions within Quebec and gives members a unique opportunity to expand their customer base, showcase their innovative products and services to a wide audience, and attract potential collaborators and clients.

Public Policy Advocacy - recognizing team members who have led creative efforts on behalf of their tech council in the area of public policy advocacy. 

Winner –Greater Nashville Technology Council (NTC) 

Starting in 2018, the NTC helped to organize a statewide coalition to introduce and pass legislation to ensure that computer science education was available to every high school student in the state of Tennessee. Thanks to this group’s advocacy, in 2022, with the support of Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, the Tennessee State General Assembly passed a bill that directed the Tennessee Boad of Education to require a computer science class for high school graduation as well as additional investments in meaningful computer science education.

Talent Pipeline and Workforce Development - recognizing team members who have developed innovative workforce or talent pipeline initiatives.

Winner – Tech Council of Delaware

In 2022, the Tech Council of Delaware led the project team in creating a seven-week paid summer internship program, “Yes, We Tech!,” which provides high school juniors and seniors with digital literacy and durable skills development through classroom training and on-the-job, work-based learning.

Major Impact on Tech Community - recognizing team members who have made a substantial impact on the tech community or on the community at large individually or on behalf of their tech council.

Winner – TechSTL

In April 2023, TechSTL hosted the inaugural STL TechWeek across St. Louis. Over the course of the 5-day program, TechSTL hosted 30 of the 45 events at 2 different venues across 15-county bi-state area. TechWeek was met with a groundswell of enthusiasm from the community with over 5,000 registrations, 27,000 unique visits to the TechSTL website, and 142,000 views on social media channels. It also raised $7,200 for the TechSTL STEM Scholarship Fund.

Member & Client Services – recognizing team members who implemented innovative work or projects that creatively recruited or retained council members and/or clients beyond normal daily operations and events to recruit or retain member clients.

Winner – Arizona Technology Council 

            The Arizona Tech Council has been lessening the burden of administrative tasks by offering an association health plans (AHP) to many organizations, especially startups who lack the budget and resources to compete with the technology giants of the world. The Council fought for legislation enabling its AHP, which offers members comprehensive health insurance while providing relief from COBRA administration, bill paying, compliance filings, and managing participant eligibility and benefit enrollment. Moreover, the Council established partnerships with The University of Arizona Global Campus (UAGC) to offer Council members and their immediate families 30% tuition savings on all online bachelor and graduate programs.

About TECNA   
The Technology Councils of North America (TECNA) represents approximately 63 IT and Technology trade organizations that, in turn, represent more than 22,000 technology-related companies in North America. TECNA serves its members and the industry through its strong peer-to-peer network and its regional initiatives to raise the visibility and viability of the technology industry. This is accomplished by empowering regional technology organizations and serving as their collective voice in growing the North American technology economy. More information on TECNA can be found at: www.tecna.org or @techcouncils on Twitter.
 

Contact:

Alina Hardy

Communications Director

ahardy@tecna.org

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