Halifax startup hub Volta’s fourth annual Ecosystem Impact Awards are coming on Thursday, honouring changemakers from the region's innovation ecosystem.
Scheduled to be held from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at Volta’s Barrington Street workspace, the event is free.
“Volta’s Startup Ecosystem Impact Awards proudly recognizes change-makers, founders and supporters who are rapidly transforming the startup ecosystem in Atlantic Canada,” says Volta on its website.
“Volta is thrilled to be hosting the fourth annual Ecosystem Impact Awards in September 2022.”
Anyone interested in attending can register here.
Here’s a look at this year’s nominees:
Catalyst Award
The Catalyst Award recognizes an organization that has fostered cohesion and growth within the startup community. The nominees are Nova Scotia Health’s recently created Innovation Hub, which aims to apply startup technology and methodology to improving Nova Scotia’s ailing healthcare system, and Propel ICT, a virtual startup incubator that many founders say they find useful because it removes travel-related barriers to access for founders.
Community Leader Award
The Community Leader Award honours a company or founder directly contributing to the growth of the startup ecosystem by dedicating some of their time to helping other members of the community, such as via mentorship or acting as a peer-to-peer resource. The nominees are Dhirendra Shukla, chair of the University of New Brunswick’s J. Herbert Smith Centre and president of Gray Wolf Analytics, and Jen LePlante, executive director of Dalhousie University’s DeepSense hub for bluetech artificial intelligence.
Disruptor Award
The Disruptor Award recognizes a startup that has demonstrated strong business growth or technological advancement over the past year. The nominees are Halifax-based Milk Moovement, which sells supply chain management software for the dairy industry, St. John's-based CoLab Software, which has developed a digital collaboration platform for engineers, and Calgary- and Halifax-based Rafflebox, which helps organizations manage online raffles.
Positive Impact Award
There are two versions of the Positive Impact Award — one for a company and one for an individual. Both honour a person or organization having a positive social or environmental impact. The corporate nominees are fish packaging specialist Impactful Health R&D, personal chef service Easy Platter and medical education company Granville Biomedical. The individual nominees are Akram Al-otumi, a tech innovation lecturer at Dalhousie and a project director at impact investing platform Social Venture Connexion, and Bronwyn Bridges, the CEO of medtech company PragmaClin Research.
