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The 2024 GeekWire Awards brought Seattle’s tech community to Showbox SoDo on May 9 for a “Land Before Tech” celebration of startups, performances and unexpected appearances. GeekWire published its photo recap the following morning, capturing everything from dinosaur decorations to Pictory’s Startup of the Year win.
Inside the “Land Before Tech” celebration
GeekWire’s annual Pacific Northwest startup and technology awards took place Thursday, May 9, 2024, at Showbox SoDo in Seattle. Presented by Astound Business Solutions, the event mixed networking, food and drink, interviews, a photo booth and the awards program.
The evening’s “Land Before Tech” theme brought together prehistoric and retro-tech imagery. GeekWire’s recap shows blow-up dinosaurs and robot trophies; the companion event story describes table centerpieces made with obsolete technology, including VHS tapes and Polaroid cameras. The decorations made the theme a playful nod to both an earlier era of technology and a prehistoric one.
Music and surprise appearances
A song about technology’s past
Robert “The Drunken Tenor” McPherson performed an original song about older technology, reaching back to dial-up internet and 8-track tapes. Ryan Devlin and Kim West of Seattle band Smokey Brights helped get the party started.
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Lara Croft delivers an envelope
Phia, dressed as video-game adventurer Lara Croft, appeared in an awards-show bit to deliver a missing award-winner envelope to GeekWire chairman Jonathan Sposato.
Ross Taylor talks cricket in Seattle
New Zealand cricket legend Ross Taylor joined GeekWire’s Kurt Schlosser and John Cook for a conversation about cricket’s growing presence in the Seattle area.
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The award winners
Pictory co-founders Vishal Chalana and Abid Mohammed accepted Startup of the Year. GeekWire’s 2024 results story says more than 60 finalists competed across 12 categories. It reports that hundreds of nominations were reviewed by judges before the Pacific Northwest tech community chose the winners with more than 20,000 votes.
| Award | 2024 winner |
|---|---|
| Startup of the Year | Pictory |
| Public Policy Champion for Innovation | Sen. Joe Nguyen |
| Sustainable Innovation | Electric Era |
| Deal of the Year | Rhythms |
| Innovation | Allen Institute for AI |
| Health Innovation | CalmWave |
| UX Design | Copper |
| Next Tech Titan | Zuper |
| Workplace of the Year | Likewise |
| Startup CEO of the Year | Rathna Sharad |
| CEO of the Year | Ozan Unlu |
GeekWire also named Coding for Cancer, Housing Connector and TrueMedia.org as Geeks Give Back honorees. Rhythms co-founder Madhan Subhas described the moment this way: “It’s an exciting moment and a transformational time in all our lifetimes because of the way generative AI has taken the industry by storm.”
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What the photo recap captures
The captions take readers through the event’s different scenes, including the VIP pre-party, GeekWire Podcast interviews, a toast by Astound Business Solutions executive Patrick Knorr, the performances, presenters and the photo booth. The photographs are credited mainly to Kevin Lisota, with some credited to Kurt Schlosser. Not every image identifies the people pictured, so unnamed guests should not be inferred from the photographs alone.
GeekWire’s recap also points to additional event pictures and photo-booth GIFs. Its accompanying link and password were published for the 2024 event; access may no longer be available. The full award roster appears in GeekWire’s 2024 results story.
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Event acknowledgments
Astound Business Solutions was the presenting sponsor. GeekWire’s recap also acknowledges gold-level and category sponsors Wilson Sonsini, JLL, Blink UX, BECU, Baird, First Tech, Baker Tilly, WTIA, Silicon Valley Bank and T-Mobile; silver-level sponsors Prime Team Partners, Meridian Capital, Submittable and Cosmogence; and supporting sponsors Choose Washington, ALLtech, Showbox SoDo and Roanoke.
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