Celebrate

POLICY | Tech champion of the year

Presented to an instrumental advocate for tech-related legislation at any government level from Kansas or Missouri.

Criteria:

• Active champion for tech policy that advances the region’s workforce development and/or access to industry

• Uses their platform, influence and network to raise awareness for tech-related issues

• Fully champions and believes the industry’s ability to grow depends on legislation that allows it to

Brian Baker | 2019 WINNER

Lead Government Strategist

Cerner

Brian Baker works for Cerner and has been an advocate technology advancement in Kansas. He currently is working with stake-holders for the advancement of computer-science as a core science unit for graduation. He joined with the Kansas Chamber of Commerce to make this a top IT education priority.

Bob Bennett

Chief Information Officer

KCMO

Bennett helped forge relationships among the city government, community, business, academic and technology stakeholders to integrate evolving technologies and improve citizen services. He implemented and refined KCMO's first digital roadmap to guide the organization towards a more strategic approach to digital inclusion, engagement and open government.

Travis Fitzwater

Member

MO House of Representatives

Rep. Fitzwater was a key leader and responsible for the passing of Missouri House Bill 3. This important piece of legislation reformed the computer science education landscape and allows every student in Missouri to count computer science courses towards their graduation requirements.

Industry | tech connector of the year (individual)

Presented to the individual whose drive, talent and ingenuity disrupts the tech industry and inspires their peers, leaders or community to continually innovate.

Criteria:

• Serves as a leader, or leader by example, by thinking outside the box to transform technology

• Moves the meter by creating (or enhancing) a unique tech-related product or service

• A through-and-through technology enthusiast and student of the industry

Greg Kratofil

Attorney & Shareholder

Polsinelli

Greg is Chair of Polsinelli's Technology Transactions & Data Privacy practice group, with a focus on technology and intellectual property transactions involving today's cutting-edge solutions and services.  Greg leads a group of attorneys that are recognized leaders in the FinTech, Health Care Technology & Innovation and Privacy & Cybersecurity industries. 

Davyeon Ross | 2019 WINNER

Co-Founder & COO

ShotTracker

Davyeon Ross is a Co-founder and COO of ShotTracker Inc. ShotTracker is a sensors-based technology that provides statistics and analytics in Practice and Games. ShotTracker investors include Magic Johnson, David Stern, GreyCroft, Elysian Park Ventures, Ward Ventures and others.

Matt Watson

Founder

Stackify

Before Stackify Matt was the founder and CTO of VinSolutions. He bootstrapped the entire way and sold to AutoTrader.com in May 2011 for $150 MM. He learned everything he could about everything while on the journey. He learned how to do a lot of things, and sometimes by learning how not do them. Those are the best lessons in life!

industry | outstanding contribution to tech (company)

Presented to the company or organization that developed, or partnered in developing, a product or service that significantly advances the tech industry in their respective field.

Criteria:

• Awarded to the company that goes above and beyond for their employees by influencing career development, embodying diversity and inclusion, contributing positively to the Kansas City region and retaining top tech talent.

• Presented to the company that developed, or partnered in developing, a new-to-market product or service that significantly advances the tech industry in their respective field.

Alphapointe

Alphapointe has been empowering people with vision loss to achieve their goals and aspirations since its founding in 1911. Alphapointe, the third largest employer of people who are blind in the U.S., with manufacturing operations in both the States of Missouri and New York, has nearly 400 employees, of which 230 are blind or visually impaired.

Fishtech Group | 2019 WINNER

Fishtech is a cybersecurity solutions provider for any computing platform. Started in 2015 by Gary Fish, Fishtech was built to address a gap in cybersecurity between traditional on-premise solutions and the cloud. Focused on advisory, technology, and operations, we are Cloud-era security experts.

Stackify

Stackify was founded with the goal to create an easy to use set of tools for developers to improve their applications. Now over 1000 organizations in nearly 50 countries rely on Stackify’s tools to provide critical application performance and code insights so they can deploy better applications.

workforce | tech educator of the year

Awarded to a dedicated computer science (or tech-oriented) educator that inspires, motivates and expertly trains the future tech workforce.

Criteria:

• Leverages technology to positively influence and advance student learning

• Connects the tech industry to the classroom

• Dedicated to integrating tech into various aspects of student education

Kevin Clevenger

Blue Springs School District

Kevin Clevenger is a dynamic Computer Science teacher in the Blue Springs R-IV School District since 2005. He is a Project Lead The Way Master Teacher. He currently teaches several different high school advanced computer courses.

Lisa Oyler

Summit Technology Academy

Lisa Oyler is an instructor at Summit Technology Academy teaching Cisco CCNA Security and Cyber Operations for 21 years. She holds CompTIA A+, iNet+, Network+, Security+ ce, and Cloud+ certifications, as well as Cisco CCNA and Security certified, and she is currently working on CyberOps.

Jill Riffer | 2019 WINNER

Blue Valley CAPS

Jill Riffer holds an B.S. in Physics and Mathematics, a M.Ed. in Secondary Education, and an M.A. in Geography. Starting her career with ArcGIS, she was ultimately drawn to education, first as a mathematics instructor, then as inaugural instructor at CAPS. Jill designed and teaches the Tech course.