LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. - Last night, the ITFlorida Board of Directors announced the 2009 recipients of the annual Awards Program. The announcements were made at the Seventh Annual Awards Gala and Tech Forum, held at Disney's Yacht Club Resort.
Taking part in the event were Lt. Governor Jeff Kottkamp; House Speaker Designate Dean Cannon; State Representatives Marlene O'Toole and Kelli Stargel; Earnie Franklin, Chair of ITFlorida and President of Incepture; Roger Berry, Chief Information Officer of Disney Parks and Resorts; Andy Schwalb, Chief Technology Officer of Disney Parks and Resorts; and representatives of numerous small businesses and IT-enabled corporations throughout Florida.
Participants by phone in the ITFlorida board meeting earlier that day included Congressman Ron Klein and State CIO David Taylor.
Lt. Governor Jeff Kottkamp's remarks during his keynote address in the afternoon session emphasized intersections in Florida's Information Technology, Space, and BioTech industries; and capitalizing on opportunities to stimulate Florida's high tech economy.
House Speaker Designate Dean Cannon delivered the keynote speech at the evening dinner of the Awards Gala. Cannon's comments were based on a theme of economic development, job creation, and strategies to ensure Florida's future prosperity.
"This year's slate of nominees was the best that I have seen since being a part of ITFlorida," said Earnie Franklin, Chair of ITFlorida. "And the opportunity to discuss high tech job development with state leaders, especially during this critical time in our economy, made this year's conference more important than ever."
The winners in the 2009 ITFlorida Awards Program are highlighted in bold text:
Excellence in IT Leadership-Northwest
- **AppRiver - Gulf Breeze
- Bookit.com - Panama City Beach
- Epoch Software - Gulf Breeze
- iSirona, David Dyell - Panama City
Excellence in IT Leadership-Northeast
- Baptist Health - Jacksonville
- Edward Waters College, Bernard Chapple - Jacksonville
- **JEA, Wanyonyi J. Kendrick - Jacksonville
- Legal Art Works - Jacksonville
Excellence in IT Leadership-Central
- DiCom Software - Orlando
- Radixx Solutions International - Orlando
- SkillStorm - Orlando
- **Wave Software - Orlando
Excellence in IT Leadership-Tampa Bay
- Gevity, Vito Melfi - Bradenton
- Infinity Business System, Terry Hedden - Tampa
- ITS Florida, Sandra Beck - Saint Petersburg
- **Mark Abbott, Senior Vice President, Strategy & Technology Alignment, Raymond James - Saint Petersburg
Excellence in IT Leadership-Southwest
- **ASG Software Solutions - Naples
- Dan Miller, Neighborhood America / Startup Florida - Sarasota
- Medical Education Technologies Inc., Michael Bernstein - Sarasota
- Surround Technologies, Lee Paul - Estero
Excellence in IT Leadership-Southeast
- **InternetCoast - Boca Raton
- Our Kids of Miami-Dade/Monroe: OK Connect - Miami
- PHYSICIANS4U, Inc - Miami
- South County Mental Health Center, Inc., Stephen Hogan - West Palm Beach
Excellence in Bridging the Digital Divide
- Angels Helping Hands Foundation - Orlando
- Florida A&M University - Tallahassee
- **John S. and James L. Knight Foundation - Miami
- The Institute for School Innovation: Project CHILD - Tallahassee
Excellence in Business Recruitment and Retention
- **Collier County: Project Innovation - Naples
- Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission - Orlando
- Technological Research Development Authority - Melbourne
- The Small Business Development Center at UNF - Jacksonville
Excellence in Sustainability through Information Technology
- **AirIT - Orlando
- Florida Public Health Institute - Lake Worth
- University of Miami College of Engineering - Coral Gables
- Water Optimizer - Tampa
Excellence in Web 2.0
- 3Cinteractive - Boca Raton
- Find and Convert - Palm Harbor
- Medisyn Systems, Inc., Dr. Evan Earl Dussia - Tallahassee
- **Neighborhood America - Naples
Government Technology Leadership-Private
- **A Child is Missing Alert - Fort Lauderdale
- ePrescribe Florida
- Interstate Transport, Barbara Ell - Saint Petersburg
- Persystent Software, Mary Maloney - Tampa
Government Technology Leadership-Public
- **Florida Agency for Health Care Administration - Tallahassee
- Florida Department of Transportation - Tallahassee
- Florida House of Representatives - Tallahassee
- Miami-Dade County Government Information Center - Miami
High Growth Company of the Year
- eMason - Clearwater
- Launch Pad Online - Odessa
- Motion Point - Coconut Creek
- **SGIS - Fort Lauderdale
Innovation and Entrepreneurialism Award
- Audigence Inc. - Melbourne
- Cables Media - Fort Lauderdale
- **WiPower Inc. - Gainesville
- XSell - Jacksonville
Small Business of the Year
- Accelogic - Weston
- Asevotech - Tampa
- Blue Dasher Technologies - Miami
- **CareCloud - Miami
IT Leader of the Year
- Tony DiBenedetto, President and CEO, Tribridge - Tampa
- **Garry Jones, President, Full Sail - Winter Park
- Scott Riley, CEO, Financial Information Technologies (Fintech) - Tampa
About ITFlorida
ITFlorida is an umbrella, not-for-profit, membership organization that represents Florida's diverse information technology communities on a statewide basis. ITFlorida was formed in October 2001 after the sunset of the Information Service Technology Development Task Force, which focused on developing state policies to enable Florida to compete in the information age. ITFlorida built on the momentum of the Task Force and fills the need for a single statewide advocacy organization to represent Florida's IT-related technology sectors.
