Apptio, LiquidPlanner, Ontela, Pet Holdings, Picnik, Wetpaint Among Finalists for WTIA Industry Achievement Awards

The first round of voting is done. This morning, the Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA) announced the finalists for its 14th annual Industry Achievement Awards. Among the finalists are several Seattle-area companies we’ve reported on extensively at Xconomy, and a few others you’ll be hearing more about soon.

Here are this year’s finalists, sorted by award category:

—Breakthrough startup of the year: Apptio, LiquidPlanner, and Ontela.

—Consumer product or service of the year: Pet Holdings (which runs I Can Has Cheezburger and other websites), Picnik, and Wetpaint.

—Commercial product or service of the year: Concur, Inrix, and Visible Technologies.

—Technology innovator of the year: Don Ledford of Vantos, Darrin Massena of Picnik, and Matthew Parks of Visto.

—Service provider of the year: AdReady, Azaleos, and Cobalt.

—Best use of technology in the government, nonprofit, or educational sector: eCityGov Alliance, Snohomish County Planning & Development Services, and South Sound Health Communication Network.

—Technology leader of tomorrow: Aaron Love, St. Therese School, eighth grade; Matthew McMillan, St. Therese School, seventh grade; Israel Zemeadim, Washington Middle School, eighth grade.

According to the WTIA, the goal of the awards is to recognize “innovation and excellence in creating new technologies, applications, and services.” At Xconomy, we’ll be watching the startup, product, and innovator races particularly closely. All of the winners will be decided by the local tech community through an online voting system that will open on February 23. The WTIA will provide more details as the date approaches.

And then the good stuff: the winners will be announced at a gala at the Paramount Theater in downtown Seattle on March 25. The event is doubling as a celebration of the WTIA’s 25th anniversary.

Author: Gregory T. Huang

Greg is a veteran journalist who has covered a wide range of science, technology, and business. As former editor in chief, he overaw daily news, features, and events across Xconomy's national network. Before joining Xconomy, he was a features editor at New Scientist magazine, where he edited and wrote articles on physics, technology, and neuroscience. Previously he was senior writer at Technology Review, where he reported on emerging technologies, R&D, and advances in computing, robotics, and applied physics. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Nature, and The Atlantic Monthly’s website. He was named a New York Times professional fellow in 2003. Greg is the co-author of Guanxi (Simon & Schuster, 2006), about Microsoft in China and the global competition for talent and technology. Before becoming a journalist, he did research at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. He has published 20 papers in scientific journals and conferences and spoken on innovation at Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other organizations. He has a Master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.