250+ welcomed, 11 honored at RI Innovation Awards and Tech Laureates Night 2008

Sept. 23, 2008 - PRLog -- Providence, RI – Over 250 industry, education and government leaders were welcomed to The Rhode Island Innovation Awards and Tech Laureates Night 2008. Hosted in partnership between Tech Collective, Providence Business News (PBN) and the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation (RIEDC), eleven individuals and companies were honored as the cutting-edge and forward thinking of their fields.
To the audience, Governor Carcieri, Kathie Shields, executive director for the  Tech Collective, Tim Hebert, chairman of the Tech Collective, Saul Kaplin, executive director for RIEDC and Mark Murphy, editor for PBN, each stressed the importance of creativity, innovation, taking advantage of the 21st century economy, funding workforce development and getting youth involved in science, technology, engineering and mathematics pathways.
“Each of you in this room is moving not only our state, but our nation, forward…” Governor Carcieri said during his opening remarks. “The kind of innovations in this room is the future of our state.”
Shields echoed the Governor as she recognized the leading technology innovations and continued on to honor the designers and creators behind the products. “The way we see it at Tech Collective,” Shields said, “the technology comes from knowledge. The knowledge comes from talent. And the talent comes from people. And tonight is about people – those of you here tonight taking risks, pushing forward and building a better life for all of us. Thank you and congratulations.”
Award recipients ranged from ER Card, the sister-in-law duo who created a flash-drive-based device storing a carrier’s entire medical history; to Hasbro, Inc. for its outstanding partnership and support of the Tech Collective in its various community building and workforce development initiatives throughout the year.
“It was a great honor for us to be recognized tonight,” Pat Crowshaw of TechComm Partners, said modestly. “Truly, we were not expecting it.”
Pat and his wife, Trudy Mandiville, CEO of TechComm Partners, received the Tech Laureates Night award for the Advancement of Youth in Technology. Pat and Trudy have long been champions of youth and youth technology initiatives, including co-chairing the Academy of Information Technology at the Woonsocket Career and Tech Center (WCATC), sponsoring youth events in different capacities and being avid mentors. Particularly in alignment with the FIRST Robotics Challenge, Pat has worked with WCATC students for the past three years.
More information on Tech Collective’s Tech Laureates Night winners can be viewed at www.tech-collective.org. For the RIEDC and PBN Innovation Award Recipients, please visit www.pbn.com.

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About Tech Collective:
Tech Collective is the technology industry association of Rhode Island. Focusing on Community Building and Workforce Development, we are driving technology growth, innovation and prosperity by uniting industry, government and education. Tech Collective builds and strengthens community by creating partnerships and offering thought-provoking forums as well as organizing state-wide participation in events like BIO2007, GRRL Tech and Technology Laureate’s Night. In promoting and developing a highly-skilled Rhode Island workforce, Tech Collective also drives technology-based education and training programs for students in grades K -16 as well as for incumbent and transitioning workers. For more information about Tech Collective initiatives and events, visit www.tech-collective.org.