NEOSA Tech Week brought 1,600 attendees to events around Cleveland last week, tripling its numbers since it first started three years ago. “It’s really inspiring to see the region recognizing the value and importance of the IT industry in Cleveland,” says NEOSA director Brad Nellis.

From the NASA International Space Apps Challenge, which had 34 local participants in a worldwide event of 9,000, to the much-anticipated Best of Tech Awards, to educational events and job fairs, Tech Week highlighted both the emerging technology companies and the more established and growing businesses in the region.

“We saw a lot of new companies we hadn’t seen before and that was kind of cool,” says Nellis. In particular he cites iOTOS as a standout winner in the new Best of Tech category Most Promising Startup. “These guys showed a high degree of promise. iOTOS holds the opportunity to be something big coming out of Northeast Ohio.”

UrbanCode, which announced Monday that it has been acquired by IBM, won Best Software Product. “UrbanCode really stands out in the market,” says Nellis. “It was cool that we give them an award on Thursday, and on Monday they announce they’ve been acquired. We’ve been following them for a couple of years and they’re a company that’s growing like wildfire. They’ll probably double in size again this year.”

Hyland Software won Tech Company of the Year, Vox Mobile won Best IT Services Company, and DecisionDesk won Best Emerging Company. Nellis points out that all of the finalists are impressive companies as well, having emerged out of 60 nominations in five categories. Six CIO of the Year were named in various categories by Crain’s Cleveland Business.

Source: Brad Nellis
Writer: Karin Connelly