Industry group Digital Nova Scotia has announced the finalists for its Tech Forward Awards, honouring players in the province’s information technology community.

The event will be held Nov. 17 at the Halifax Marriot Harbourfront at 5:30 p.m. Attendance will cost $80 per person or $720 for a table for Digital Nova Scotia members, or $95 and $855 for non-members. More information and a registration form can be found here.

Included with the Tech Forward Awards are the Digital Diversity Awards, which were previously a seperate event established in 2016.

Let’s take a look at the nominees, which include several startups:

TALENT CHAMPION AWARD (Company)

For best practices in recruitment and human resources

Outshine (Halifax) — digital marketing

ImmediaC (Halifax) — software development

REDspace (Halifax) — software development

TECH FOR GOOD AWARD (Company)

For pro-social or environmentally friendly business practices

Drinkable (Halifax) — wellwater-testing startup

NPower Canada (Halifax) — digital and professional skills training

Adaptiiv Medical Technologies (Halifax) — cancer treatment startup

THINKING FORWARD AWARD (Individual)

For mentorship and support of young people in the tech industry

Muqtader Akram Mohammed — Senior IT infrastructure manager at Cognizant

Jonathan Feindel — Director of consulting at CGI Group

Israat Haque Asso — associate professor in the faculty of computer science at Dalhousie University

PROVINCIAL SPOTLIGHT AWARD (Company)

For a fast-growing company located outside Halifax.

word-craft (Yarmouth) — social media marketing

360LAB (New Glasgow) — virtual reality video production

Boostflow Media (Yarmouth) — web design

BEST OF TECH 2022 AWARD (Company)

For having “done something incredible this year"

Rafflebox Technologies (Halifax) — fundraising software startup

CloudKettle (Halifax) — IT service company specializing in Salesforce

REDspace (Bedford) — software development

ROLE MODEL AWARD (Individual)

For someone who is part of an underrepresented community and advocates for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Prag Ravichandran Kamalaveni — Salesforce specialist and instructor

Veronica Merryfield — CTO of Drinkable

Raghav V. Sampangi  — senior computer science instructor at Dalhousie University and a Cultural Competence in Computing fellow at Duke University

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION CHAMPION AWARD (Company)

For promoting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Strategy Up  (Halifax) — tech consulting

Immigrant Services Association of Nova Scotia digital navigation team (Halifax) — immigrant settlement services nonprofit

Differo (Halifax) — inclusion-focused marketing agency

ONE TO WATCH AWARD (Individual)

For someone from an underrepresented community who is an emerging talent in tech

Connor Sampson

Saratu Yakubu

Kshiti Ghelan