2022 Award Recipients

VICTORIA, BC – The 2022 Victoria Tech Community Awards, held last night at Carson Hall at the Victoria Conference Centre, honoured the creativity and achievements of the people and businesses in the technology sector who have made Victoria the fastest-growing technology region in British Columbia. At the energy-packed gala, 16 recipients were chosen from among the 59 finalists to receive an iconic astronaut trophy created by local artist Russell Papp.

With over 600 guests, the event was an enthusiastic and fun community comeback after a three year hiatus due to the pandemic. The event featured an 80’s theme complete with an elaborate retro arcade style stage design and many of the guests getting into the spirit in full 80’s garb.

The night kicked off with a creative challenge, a perennial feature of the event, which had tables compete in making their own 80’s centerpieces out of supplied craft materials and whatever else they brought with them. Gameboys, rubik’s cubes, pong games, MTV retro TV’s and other remarkably innovative items were built in just 10 minutes. In the end, Workday was selected as the winner earning them $1000 in gift cards and a bonus prize of $10,000 worth of services from sponsor Tamba.

The ChoirsYYJ were also on hand with choir leader Marc Jenkins leading 50 choirs members AND the entire audience in singing “Take-On-Me” by A-HA with support from the events regular live band the Astrobots featuring Tood Hooge, Dave Dahlberg, Bil Underwood and Paul Karin-Gronow.

Kim Persley and Benji Duke from “Quiz This” brought an 80s game show vibe as the MC’s for the night where they kept the audience laughing and engaged while the band vibrantly played 80’s classic covers with lyrics adapted to reflect technology and the awards categories. The night finished off with an Atomic Vaudeville’s throwback performance and the much anticipated “Orca Toss Chaos” featuring the audience dancing and throwing hundreds of inflatable orcas at the end of the gala.

Throughout the evening, the audience was encouraged to make donations to the VIATEC Foundation Fund. Thanks to the generosity of the attendees and large donations from the Lake Family All One Fund and anonymous donors, $150,000 was raised.

The proceeds will provide enough funding for two full years of operation at the Victoria Community Food Hub’s Kitchen Connect Food Connections program; an initiative to support some of the most vulnerable people in our community to develop skills, social connections and opportunities to thrive. The project marries the ability to develop the infrastructure for light vegetable processing at Kitchen Connect, with a peer mentorship and training program that helps to provide work experience and employability skills to newcomers, refugee and other underserved populations. The program develops and implements specialized training and the incubator program that serves the needs and builds on the assets of IPBOC participants. An added benefit of the initiative is that it provides an additional revenue stream for local farmers by supporting the purchase and processing of local food. The food that is processed then goes out to local charities and schools.

“Not being able to bring our tech community together to celebrate like this during the pandemic has been difficult. Seeing all the smiling faces, laughter, camaraderie and excitement again felt amazing. Great people and companies were recognized and watching their generosity make an amazing initiative like Kitchen Connect’s Food Connections program possible for two years makes us very proud of the great people in our sector. What a night!”

Dan Gunn, CEO VIATEC

RECIPIENTS:

Anchor Company of the Year (30+):

(Sponsored by: Farris, Vaughan, Wills & Murphy LLP)