Star Techs´08 Awards showcase technology excellenceIt´s not just what you´ve got; it´s what you do with it. You couldn´t find better proof of that old saw than looking at the winners of the first annual Mississauga Technology Awards. Held in partnership with the Mississauga Business Times, the Mississauga Technology Association (MTA), Sheridan College, the Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC), the City of Mississauga, and the Government of Ontario, the goal was to recognize the big and small companies and individuals that used innovative technology to create a better world. The inaugural lunchtime event on June 16th at the Living Arts Centre, drew a full house of 255 people to the RBC Theatre. The response was enthused. A video greeting and congratulations from Premier Dalton McGuinty kicked off the event, which was followed by a keynote address from an obviously delighted Mayor Hazel McCallion.  A full house was in attendance at the Living Arts Centre In between, the hour-long show was highlighted by videos of the three finalists in each award division explaining what and how they put their technological innovations to good use. A "big´ business winner (250+ employees) and "small" business winner (less than 250 employees) were chosen, and two "honourable mentions" were named in each category. In all, over 60 nominations were received and put under the scrutiny of an impressive list of judges from business, academia, and the media. Rob Turner, president of Sheridan College, which is hoping to build a campus in Mississauga, presented two Sheridan scholarships one to Zayna Shahzad, who is finishing high school at Streetsville Secondary and has already started her own web design business, and Girish Bothe, a newcomer from India, who will be taking the fast-track program at Sheridan to help get his credentials recognized in the Canadian labour market. Both winners reside in Mississauga. Paraphrasing Arthur C. Clarke, Rick Drennan, managing editor of Business Times, and emcee. co-chair of he event said, "technology is magic." Those companies which came up with the tech wizardry and put it to work in unique ways bore witness to how true a statement that was. Fielding Chemical Technologies Inc. (located on Mavis Road) took the prize in the small business category with a new technology that separates water from solvents.  Ellen McGregor of Fielding accepts an award while Harindar Takhar looks on Ellen McGregor, chair and CEO of the solvent recovery company founded by her father Jack McGregor 55 years ago, says it makes environmental and economic sense to reclaim solvents that have become hazardous waste through manufacturing process. McGregor said it took 12 years and millions of dollars to develop the new evaporation technique that extracts water from chemicals and credited her brother Ian as the "technical brilliance" who had "the tenacity to convince our board, our family, to stick to it and perfect this technology. He deserves the kudos." She credited also Fielding employees who "worked tirelessly on a project that did not contribute to profit in a profit-distributing company." "That was a big thing to ask," she said, adding: "Innovation hasn´t been a luxury at our company, it´s been a necessity." It´s part of the àgreen dream´ bequeathed to her family and the company by her father. McGregor says that we´ll run out of oil some day and since all chemicals start with oil, saving oil by recovering and recycling used chemicals makes huge sense. She admits that her company is often misunderstood it is most definitely a part of the environmental business sector, but that hasn´t slowed down the Fielding determination to be a leader in its field. The company was the first in its field in the world to be registered as ISO 14001, and has been named an Environmental Leadership company by the provincial government. The honourable mentions for the small business category were also impressive. Baylis Medical Company specializes in the engineering and manufacturing of minimally invasive treatments to treat newborn hearts, and chronic back pain that doesn´t respond to more common therapies or chiropractic. While Instrumed Surgical which began 18 years ago selling lasers for surgery out of a basement, has created and markets smoke evacuation products that remove surgical smoke from operating sites to protect patients from bacterial infection or chemical contamination. Lynne Mack, one of the judges for the awards (and a columnist with the Business Times) said Fielding Chemicals is "the best kept secret in Mississauga we should know about them, we should boast about them. This company shows the calibre of the amazing nominees we saw. As an entrepreneur in Mississauga, I´m very proud of our business and tech community." Mack also lauded St. Lawrence Cement Inc., which won in the big business category with a new technology that manufactures Portland and slag cement using a common process. The new facility in Mississauga that was installed and started manufacturing last year uses a new process that allows the company to produce an additional 500,000 tons a year of cement for the local market without using additional fossil fuels.  Stephen Harkness of Fielding accepts an award while Hazel McCallion looks on The company has been a fixture in Mississauga for 52 years, producing cement for the local and U.S. market. In a video Lloyd Davidson, project manager of the ´Increased Grinding Capacity Project,´ explained that three years ago the company recognized it needed to increase production, but do it without consuming additional fossil fuel resources and limit its greenhouse gas emissions. A daunting challenge, but one the company solved. The new facility is a vertical mill that is the first of its kind in North America. It uses the waste heat from the Portland cement manufacturing process as the heat required for the new process - eliminating the use of about three million cubic metres of natural gas per year. Additionally, because they use waste slag from the steel industry, they don´t have to burn limestone, which again reduces emissions from the process. Stephen Harkness, general manager of the Mississauga plant said that cement might seem like a àFlintstones´ material, but hearing how much technology is involved brings the Jetsons to mind a 60s animation series that boasted a futuristic world of high-tech living. "Even the magnitude of the plant is stunning," he said. "I´m still amazed by the technology, automation, and computers we use to make our products." Continued with more pictures, here. |
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The final word from our judgesNominees´ submissions were great says our team of 2008 Tech judgesThe judges chosen to help pick the winners of the Mississauga Technology Awards came from business, academia, and the media. They supplied some comments of what they thought of first-ever event. Terri Ellis - Marketing Specialist, BDO Dunwoody, Mississauga The large number of quality companies that were nominated for this award has been fantastic. As a co-judge (working with Robert Bradbury of BDO) it was quite an enlightening experience to review each of the companies that were nominated and visit their websites. Although reviewing each of the companies was a substantial task, it was a very enjoyable process of learning about each of them. It was interesting to learn and understand what organizations are implementing on the technology front in order to bring about new products, innovations and/or global change. This award is a wonderful initiative that celebrates and recognizes the efforts that local companies are making to bring innovation and betterment to the global marketplace. Barbara Chappell - Deputy Registrar, Ontario Association of Certified Engineering Technicians & Technologists It was a wonderful opportunity to be part of the Mississauga Technology Awards as a judge. Since OACETT is the organization that represents certified engineering technicians and technologists in Ontario, we are very pleased to have been involved in such an award program that recognizes deserving companies that foster innovation and that use or create technology in new, exciting ways. As I reviewed and went through the company submissions, I felt very proud as a 30+ year resident of Mississauga to know that we have these truly innovative businesses in our city. We had many excellent submissions in both the large and small company categories representing a broad range of both industries and services. Wayne Wood - Technology Sales Manager, Oracle Corporation Canada Overall the submissions were excellent and represented a broad range of candidates, industries and sizes the process was fair and I think surprised many of the judges who were not aware of the significant companies providing outstanding contributions to innovation yet are not commonly known outside their industry. Neil Robb - Dean of Applied Computing & Engineering Sciences, Sheridan College I was impressed by the diversity, depth of technical expertise and broad range of the entries from the companies in Mississauga. The judging process was enjoyable but extremely difficult because of the excellence of the submissions. For next years competition we need to tighten up on what is submitted, the criteria to be used to judge and a site visit for the finalists would be desirable. Dr. Bikram Lamba - Managing Director, Tormacon Ltd It was a great experience and I welcome the participation of diverse disciplines. I feel that as first time effort, it was very well organized. Thanks to all for a very professional approach and to you for a transparent and objective assessment. Robert Bradbury - Managing Partner, BDO Dunwoody, Mississauga I was very impressed at the number of companies that did respond. I think we do need to impress upon them that we have limited knowledge of their business so their us of words and response is very important.
Picking best of the bestThe judges for the ´08 awards included:
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