It’s one of our favorite times of the year. The GeekWire Awards are upon us.
This annual tradition — now in its 11th year — brings together the Pacific Northwest tech community to celebrate the top entrepreneurs, innovators and community leaders. Today, we are kicking things off with an online ballot where you — our dedicated readers — can cast your vote across 11 categories. Go here to vote, or make your picks in the embed below.
Community votes will be factored in with votes from our more than 30 judges (see here), and then on May 2 we will announce the winners live on stage in front of more than 800 geeks at Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle. Community voting ends April 19.
Make sure to grab your tickets here, as the GeekWire Awards sell out every year. Early-bird prices end Friday, so don’t wait to join us at this fun and fast-moving cocktail-style awards’ party in one of Seattle’s coolest venues.
Choosing the five finalists in each category was not easy, and there were some intense deliberations among our judges. But, after much discussion, we are proud of the finalists and the amazing things they are trying to accomplish — everything from the treatment of Alzheimer’s to the powering of undersea robots.
This year, we are also mixing things up a bit.
We’ve added two new categories: Health Innovation of the Year and AI Innovation of the Year. We’ve also split the CEO of the Year category into two parts, recognizing the Big Tech CEOs of the Year — for leaders guiding companies with more than 200 employees — and Startup CEO of the Year — for those entrepreneurs who are inspiring a fast-growing startup.
One of the most anticipated and hotly-contested events of the year, The GeekWire Awards celebrates the best-of-the-best in the Pacific Northwest tech community. Past winners have included Tableau, Zulily, PopCap Games, Smartsheet, Arivale, Rover, OfferUp, Brown Paper Tickets, Black Dot, venture capitalist Julie Sandler, AI2’s Oren Etzioni, The Riveter’s Amy Nelson, TAF, University of Washington computer scientist Ed Lazowska and many more.
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A big thanks to our amazing sponsors, including long-time title sponsor Wave Business.
Also, thanks to our gold sponsors: Baird, BCRA, Walker Sands Communications, EY, RealSelf, JLL and WSGR. And thanks to silver sponsor Moz and supporting sponsors: Bader Martin, Flyhomes and First Tech Federal Credit Union.
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