In a recent blog post, my colleague Kayla Krause wrote about the myth of the summer slowdown. And she’s right. When the days are warm and long, the expectation is that we’ll suddenly find the time to cram more activity into 24 hours than was possible when the ground was covered in a blanket of snow. What inevitably happens is that our datebooks get oversubscribed as we try to fit fun and family around our “business commitments.”
I bracketed those words with ironic quotation marks because, while the phrasing makes it sound like a drudgery, the fact is that many of those commitments can be enjoyable—especially those that take place in the summer, and especially summer in Boston.
You see, there’s a great energy emanating from both banks of the Charles River here, starting with Boston’s Innovation District and Downtown Crossing and Cambridge’s Kendall Square and radiating throughout Massachusetts and New England. The opportunity to be among the innovators who are helping to make that happen is enjoyable and energizing. Plus I occasionally cross paths with old friends and former colleagues (looking at you, Chris Rogers), which is always a bonus. Just last night I had such a commitment when the MassTLC convened at Microsoft’s NERD Center in Cambridge to announce the slate of finalists for the association’s annual awards. Image may be NSFW.
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As a business commitment, CHEN PR is a long-time member of MassTLC and a sponsor of its 17th Annual Leadership Awards Program. So, there was an “obligation” (there are those ironic quotation marks again) to attend the event, but no one had to twist my arm. I gladly soldiered out into the heat and humidity, braved the threat of thunderstorms, and rode the Red Line across the river into Kendall Square. It gave me the opportunity to mix and mingle with people that MassTLC President and CEO Top Hopcroft accurately described as “an example of the executive leadership, business acumen and technological innovation fueling Massachusetts’ economy and an example of the breadth and depth of talent in our region.”
Food, beverage, conversation, camaraderie, and the excitement of a room full of people celebrating their success and that of their peers. How could that be considered a chore?
And it’s not over. The winners will be announced at a gala on September 11 at the Westin Waterfront in the Innovation District – a fitting locale indeed. You can bet I, along with my peers from CHEN PR, will be in the thick of the action again. And happily so.
Here’s the full list of finalists:
CEO of the Year: David Aldrich of Skyworks Solutions, Inc., Tom Erickson of Acquia, Stephen Kaufer of TripAdvisor, Niraj Shah of Wayfair, and Michael Simon of LogMeIn.
CTO of the Year: Joe Bondi of RunKeeper, Dries Buytaert of Acquia, Patrick Harding of Ping Identity, Daniel Theobald of Vecna, and Ron Zalkind of CloudLock.
Emerging Executive of the Year: Matthew Bellows of Yesware, Tim Bertrand of Acquia, Naomi Fried of Boston Children’s Hospital, Emily Reichert of Greentown Labs, and Mike Volpe of HubSpot.
Private Company of the Year: Dyn, Fiksu, HubSpot, NetProspex, and Veracode.
Public Company of the Year: athenahealth, Demandware, EnerNOC, LogMeIn, and Pegasystems.
Start-up to Watch: clypd, CO Everywhere, Jebbit, RailPod Inc., and Ras Labs, LLC.
Innovative Technology of the Year – Big Data: EnerNOC for Energy Intelligence Software (EIS), HP Vertica for HP Vertica Flex Zone, Pixability, Inc for Data software., Prelert, Inc. for Anomaly detection software, and WordStream for AdWords Performance Grader PLUS.
Innovative Technology of the Year – Cloud: Backupify for Enterprise-grade platform, Carbonite for Carbonite Server, Content Raven for Cloud-based content distribution platform, Continuum Managed IT Services for Continuum Cloud Console, and Scribe Software.
Innovative Technology of the Year – Education Technology: EdTrips for EdTrips, eduCanon, Inc. for Online learning platform, JogNog for JogNog, Kaymbu Inc. for Kaymbu, and Listen Edition for Custom lesson plans.
Innovative Technology of the Year – Healthcare and Life Sciences: Catabasis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. for CAT-2003, MC10 for Biostamp sensing systems, PHT Corporation for LogPad System, Seres Health for SER-109, and TrialNetworks for Clinical Trial Optimization System.
Innovative Technology of the Year – Internet of Things: Axeda for Axeda Private Cloud, LogMeIn for Xively Cloud Services platform, MachineShop for MachineShop Services Exchange, PTC for ThingWorx platform, and SystemOne for GxAlert.
Innovative Technology of the Year – Mobile Applications: Mustbin for Mustbin, Openbay for Openbay’s mobile app, Paydiant for Transaction processing platform, Ping4 Inc. for ping4alerts!, and SavingStar, Inc. for SavingStar mobile app.
Innovative Technology of the Year – Mobile Technology: Affirmed Networks for Affirmed Mobile Content CloudTM solution, Globoforce for Globoforce mobile, Modo Labs for Kurogo Mobile Campus, Scratch Wireless for Scratch, and SessionM for mPLACES.
Innovative Technology of the Year – Robotics: CyPhy Works, Inc. for PARC, Harvest Automation, Inc. for HV-100, iRobot Corporation for iRobot Ava 500, and Ras Labs, LLC for Synthetic.
Innovative Technology of the Year – Sales & Marketing: Acquia for Acquia Lift, InsightSquared for InsightSquared 3.0, Jebbit for Jebbit platform, Paytronix Systems, Inc. for Proprietary guest engagement platform, and Qstream for Qstream.
Innovative Technology of the Year – Security: Aurus Inc. for whizPay, CloudLock for CloudLock, Co3 Systems for Co3 Platform, Courion Corporation for Access Insight, and Intralinks and Intralinks VIA.