2025 Emerging Tech Leader of the Year (Tampa Bay)
On November 7, 2025 I won the Tampa Bay Tech Emerging Technology Leader of the Year award. Tampa Bay Tech is a local group that for 25 years has been connecting businesses, hosting events and providing a sea of council driven events to benefit all the companies apart of it. Every year they put on an event towards the end of the year in a ton of categories to honor folks in a variety of fields.
So a few weeks back I received an email that I was nominated for a category and had 48 hours to turn around some information, photos and more. The first worry I had was writing a bio about myself and finding a good photo on the weekend I was on a mini vacation with Alyson in Anna Maria. Obviously not a true worry in the era of computers, but I sat down and sent out the requested email ~10 hours before it was due.
Once all the information was published on the following Monday I could see all the categories and finalists which were:
- Emerging Tech Company of the Year
Must be under 5 years of business. - Emerging Tech Leader of the Year
Must be under the age of 40 - Tech Project of the Year
Must have been launched from Sept 2024 to Sept 2025 - Tech Educator of the Year
- Tech Company of the Year
Must have over 5 years of business - Tech Leader of the Year
Must be a C-level executive - Community Dedication & Leadership Award
- People's Choice Award
Voted live during the event of all finalists across all categories
It was pretty cool to recognize a few companies and faces among the finalists that I've worked on through work. It felt pretty cool to see them being represented which indirectly felt as the work myself and coworkers did was indirectly honoring us as well. I looked at my category with two other folks and both were CEOs of companies and realized this would be some solid competition.
Though I felt I was probably the most technical of the bunch with an insane amount of GitHub contributions to open source projects, frequenter of meetups around Tampa and generally just a involved a bit more in the weeds than an executive level position I assumed.
Soon enough the day of the event arrived and myself and Alyson got to dress up and head on down for the award show. Work was gracious enough to buy an entire table, so we had one of the 40 tables to fit 10 co-workers / significant others. We arrived and got our photo taken and proceeded to grab a drink from one of the various bars around the venue.
We were in the heart of Armature Works and had a little outdoor area sectioned off for "private party". Tons of regular attendees to the area probably wondered why we were all dressed up, but I wonder the same anytime I see an event at the social space. The first thing I noticed is how loud the venue was as we were trapped in the entrance / outdoor area before the main hall opened up.
I'm an engineer at heart so stayed close to a table we claimed with others I knew and didn't really go about and socialize. There is a large difference between a technical meetup after work and a fancy cocktail attire award show that requires a different set of networking skills. However, the benefit of being 6ft 4in is people that know you simply see you and walk up to you.
Roughly an hour of socializing and eating appetizers went by with some good conversation. After that we got released into the main hall with 40 numbered tables all prepared with a salad ready for us. Our table was surprisingly just left of the main stage in the front row. I'm not sure how the numbering got table 18 and 19 in the front, but maybe it was a snake like organization and just naturally happened that way.
As folks were getting seated announcements were going on, but then the event started and it was moving fast. My category was 2nd so after the 1st category was announced and the winner spoke we were already onward to reading descriptions of myself and others. One moment I'm eating an asparagus and the next I'm hearing my name as the winner of the award.
It was insanely cool and a bit nerve inducing to hear my name announced because I didn't really prepare or expect to win as the event got nearer. I awkwardly walked onto the stage while the organizer was reading my bio - I should have stayed off stage until called up, but o well.
I don't remember exactly what I said in my acceptance speech and I know a recording exists in Alyson's hand, but I don't want to listen to my own voice again. I know I gave a shout out to Sourcetoad, Tampa Devs and Alyson because being an ultra nerd takes a solid amount of time in and out of work.
Once my short speech was done and photo taken everything else just went by too fast. I was too distracted by the tons of notifications between all the congrats showing up on my phone and watching the other categories winner be announced.
It just felt cool to win because most of the time on GitHub managing 10~ or so projects its a thankless job with tad bit of entitlement attached. You can launch free software that exceeds 10 million downloads, but only get $244 dollars in donations. You can do your best work, but the client doesn't think its enough. All of that to say it felt good to get some recognition.
It'll be back to work tomorrow morning, but it was a fun start to the weekend to win an award.