Philly, let’s celebrate: You picked these 5 winners for your 2023 Technical.ly Awards

The annual Technical.ly Awards recognizes people who go above and beyond in their local tech communities. This year’s process started back in October when Technical.ly opened the nominations form. Based on those recommendations and our own reporting over the past year, we curated a list of 25 nominees.

Voting for those nominees was open to the public for almost two weeks and closed Nov. 30. And you all really turned out: We received over 8,000 votes across all five of Technical.ly’s markets.

Based on those results, these are our 2023 awards winners. We’re excited to see what all of our nominees do in 2024!

Plus, while you’re here: Check out Technical.ly’s 2024 editorial calendar, featuring 12 themes we’ll dedicate extra reporting to in the new year, and consider nominating a person or company for one of our RealLISTs. (RealLIST Startups returns at the top of the year!)

Drum roll, please:

Invention of the Year — HeyKiddo App

HeyKiddo’s app provides tools to assist parents and caregivers with supporting children’s development, wellness and mental health. The app is not meant to replace mental health professionals, but rather support at-home mental health care, and flag any issues that may warrant professional intervention.

Tech Community Leader of the Year — Danae Mobley

Mobley is the COO of youth coding program Coded by Kids and the executive director of 1Philadelphia, a coalition of stakeholders focused on tech equity in Philadelphia. At November’s Innovation Weekend, Mobley announced 1Philadelphia’s commitment to raising $20 million for tech equity initiatives by 2026.

CTO of the Year — Zachary Womack

Womack is the CTO of global financial services company SEI. He was involved in the launch of the Center of AI Excellence at SEI this year, a learning group for employees interested in learning more about using artificial intelligence. He told Technical.ly he sees AI as a constantly changing field, and he and SEI want to create excitement and education around it. Womack has held various roles at SEI over the last 20 years.

Tech Company of the Year — Carbon Reform

This green tech company developed a modular carbon capture device that removes carbon buildup from the air. The company, which started in Delaware, expanded to Center City this summer. Carbon Reform’s execs raised a $3 million seed round in fall 2022, and last month won the BuiltWorlds Venture East 2023 Demo Day competition in Miami.

Culture Builder of the Year — Jessie Cunningham

Cunningham is the assistant director of IT apprenticeships at the School District of Philadelphia. Cunningham was an apprentice through the Urban Technology Project at the beginning of her career and she brings that perspective to support current apprentices. Cunningham’s nominator said she is “a backbone of support and has a wealth of knowledge in areas of technology.” Another nominator said she is passionate about UTP’s impact on current and future apprentices.

Sarah Huffman is a 2022-2024 corps member for Report for America, an initiative of The Groundtruth Project that pairs young journalists with local newsrooms. This position is supported by the Lenfest Institute for Journalism.