Custom Manufacturing & Engineering™
awarded small to midsize company of the year
Tampa , Florida , November 16, 2004. (as featured in the St. Petersburg Times)
Suzanne Boland of RFB Communications Group in Tampa was named technology leader of the year at the Tampa Bay Technology Forum's first Industry Achievement Awards dinner Monday.
The dinner honored Boland, president of the public relations firm and a founding member of the forum, and five companies at the Hyatt Regency Tampa. About 350 attended.
"This is the biggest crowd we've had yet for a TBTF event," said Michelle Bauer, the group's executive director. "We hope we can build a nice program out of it."
The forum (www.tbtf.org) is a 4-year-old group created to help local tech companies network, as well as to promote the area to attract more industry. It started out as the Tampa Bay Internet Forum, later changing its name to reflect the diversity of the industry it represented.
More than 50 nominations were made by members, but an eight-judge panel selected the winners. And, unlike other tech awards, it was based on innovation, not revenue growth, Bauer says. Community involvement also was a key component.
"This is a young, emerging technology market, compared to other established markets," Bauer said. "We really felt that those companies that did their part to promote and highlight the activities that are happening here in this industry, that that was a significant criterion as well."
The other winners were:
- Paradyne of Largo for innovation of the year. It makes equipment for digital subscriber line services.
- Persystent Technology Corp. of Tampa for early stage company of the year.
It makes repair and security software for computers.
- Custom Manufacturing & Engineering™ (CME™) of St. Petersburg
for small to mid size company of the year. It manufactures monitoring
and control systems.
- Syniverse Technologies of Tampa for large company of the year. It provides
services to wireless telecommunications companies.
- Kforce of Tampa for professional service firm of the year. It's a professional
staffing company.
original article - http://www.sptimes.com/2004/11/16/news_pf/Business/Tech_forum_dinner_rew.shtml
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