More than 1,500 people voted online in the first ever Delaware Innovation Awards, as part of our inaugural Delaware Innovation Week Presented by 1313 Innovation.
We announced the winners inside the atrium lobby of the Hercules Building in Wilmington before our closing Innovation Celebration. The winners were given an award made by maker collective Barrel of Makers, which 3D printed the awards and featured a variable color light. The #DIW15 closing party was a cocktail party meets networking affair with a local tech exhibit on the side — there were robots and video games and more to play with, like Newark 3D printing shop Sovereign Air.
![Here are the Delaware Innovation Awards, 3D printed by Barrel of Makers.](https://technical.ly/delaware/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2015/11/diw15-awards.jpg)
Here are the Delaware Innovation Awards, 3D printed by Barrel of Makers.
Nearly 200 came through the evening, including a mix of those focused on Wilmington economic development — though Kent and Sussex counties were represented too.
Alongside Delaware business leaders like Ben duPont of yet2ventures, 1313 Innovation founder Paul McConnell and Delaware private equity expat Charlie Horn were the younger Wilmington city creative class set, like Nick Matarese of the Barn, Zach Phillips of the Kitchen and Katie O’Hara, an interior designer with a specialty in startups and tech incubators. There were policymakers, like Wilmington Councilman Darius Brown, and economic development specialists like Mike Bowman of Delaware Technology Park, Will Minster of Downtown Visions and Frank DeSantis of the New Castle County Chamber of Commerce — in addition to tech community stalwarts like Tech Forum orgnizers George Rotsch and Jen Kmiec. There were staffers from the big financial companies of the region, like JP Morgan Chase and Chatham Financial, as well as those from homegrown companies like SevOne and Trellist, alongside smaller and growing startups.
https://twitter.com/Dinnovationweek/status/667834358263185409/video/1
Here are the winners:
Tech Community Organizer of the Year
Scientist of the Year
- Francisco Hernandez,Wilmington Charter High School and BioGENEius award winner
Technologist of the Year
- Tariq Hook, lead instructor at new coding program ZipCode Wilmington
Best Web/Mobile Product of the Year
- ConnectHub, the sales coaching tool from InSiteHub
Design/Dev Firm of the Year
- The Archer Group, the Wilmington-based creative agency
Community Group of the Year
- Delaware Libraries, the state division that has expanded 3D printing and STEM literacy to many of its libraries.
Colocation or Incubator Space of the Year
- 1313 Innovation, the incubator operated by McConnell Johnson Real Estate.
Social Media Campaign of the Year
- #HugACop, the campaign by Newark Police Officers James Spadola and Aaron Olicker to increase community engagement. Watch it below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lCwXPLqoSo
Tech Business of the Year
- SevOne, fresh off news that their growing Delaware team will stay, though their headquarters are moving to Boston.
Tech Startup of the Year
- Carvertise, the sharing economy and advertising company that puts ads on your car founded by Mac Nagaswami and Greg Star.
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