Handicapping the 2009 ITA CityLIGHTS Awards

The ITA’s CityLIGHTS awards are Thursday night, so in the spirit of entertainment awards, let’s try and handicap the contest.  (Note: this year, ITA members are allowed to vote on all the awards except the CityLIGHTS award.  It remains to be seen if this creates a different pattern of winners from years past.)

CityLIGHTS Award: Given to an individual that has made a significant impact on the Illinois technology community.

• Jerry R. Mitchell, Midwest Entrepreneurs’ Forum
• Linda Darragh, Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship
• Anna Belyaev, Type A Learning Agency
• Shelly Stern, Microsoft Corporation

I don’t see how you could vote for anyone but Jerry Mitchell for this one.  ‘Nuff said.

On the other hand, depending on whether you feel Microsoft’s community outreach and free software programs are charity or indoctrination and marketing in guise of charity (you hear both opinions on this), you might make a case for Shelly Stern.  And the ITA is a Network Partner for Microsoft’s BizSpark program, so count Stern as a dark horse candidate for this award that doesn’t have a membership-voting component.

CEO of the Year Award: Given to the CEO who has driven his company to new heights in the past year.

• Douglas R. Waggoner, Echo Global Logistics
• Bill Conroy, Initiate Systems
• Scott Etzler, InterCall
• Gregg Kaplan, Redbox
• George Burciaga, smarTECHS.net

You might argue how much of a tech company Redbox is.  You can’t, however, argue that they didn’t get huge in very short timeframe.  Gregg Kaplan is the clear winner.

Spotlight Award: Given to the CIO/CTO for leadership and outstanding contributions in the application of information technology.

• Deepak Singh, Adeptia Inc.
• Eric Dirst, DeVry Inc.
• Rich Holada, SPSS Inc.
• Michael Fineberg, SurePayroll
• Laurie E. Lasseter, WMS Gaming

This one is a little harder to handicap and with community voting, Holada and Fineberg might have an advantage with name recognition for SPSS and SurePayroll.  That said, Laurie Lasseter’s been in charge of some interesting things at WMS Gaming, which you might not have heard.  That’s gaming as in casinos and slot machines.  WMS has a “community gaming” category where the machines are networked and players compete against each other for bonuses.  Networked computing?  Sure.  But they’re getting gaming industry awards and since we have a new casino coming to Des Plaines (sorry, Rosemont), I’m leaning this way.

Lighthouse Award: Given to the company that best represents the region’s growing stature as home to world-class information technology companies.

• ArrowStream, Inc.
• BigMachines
• SmartSignal
• Trustwave
• West Monroe Partners

You can make a serious argument that 37 Signals or EveryBlock best represent Chicago’s increasingly DIY-centric community, and those two companies are huge in their areas.  This is aimed at a slightly more corporate audience.  SmartSignal is probably the big dog of the bunch, but don’t discount Trustwave, who’s CEO (Robert McCullen) was co-winner of CEO of the Year at last year’s CityLIGHTS.

Rising Star Award: Given to the company that has emerged from its start-up phase to distinguish itself in the technology marketplace.

• Aleri Inc.
• Geckotech
• InXpo, Inc.
• MediaBank
• Open Kernal Labs

This could be a tight one.  Aleri, to quote their own website, has been a “Privately Held Company Since 1985,” so I’m throwing it out of consideration, personally.  Media Bank recently got a big win, claiming Draftfcb’s business.  Open Kernal’s getting noticed for the mobile market.  I’m thinking Open Kernal by a nose.

Newcomer Award: Given to the company that has the strongest potential to emerge from its start-up phase and distinguish itself in the technology marketplace.

• crowdSPRING
• CTH Technologies, Inc.
• LifeSnapz, Inc.
• Options City
• Telemedicine Solutions, LLC

First off, “CTH Technologies, founded by Clifford Haines in 1997,” (history tab on that page) gets thrown out for having the gall to masquerade as a 12-year-old start-up.  If you go by name recognition, crowdSpring is the hands down winner here.  However, they’re embroiled in controversy on the ethics of working on-spec and for what many (including myself) consider a punk-league ambush of Threadless at SXSW.  Options City has been lining up it’s vendor agreements in the last 6 months and is probably the secondary contender, though LifeSnapz does have name recognition for the open voting.

Are any of these predictions accurate?  Well, that’s why they vote.  We find out on Thursday.