Last week, I attended the “BCBusiness Innovators of the Year” event at the West Building of the Vancouver Convention center. I decided to attend, because I was curious what BCBusiness Magazine considered “innovative”. Who would standout among chosen 20 most Innovative companies in BC?

The magazine’s Senior Marketing & Special Events Manager was kind enough to give me a press pass and full access to interview both the Magazine’s Executive editor and several of the winners. The 20 companies were kept a top secret until the ‘unveiling’, which led to some buildup and stress and I realized I’d have to determine on-the-fly who I’d interview.

Arriving at the event was a part of the mystery as I’d never attended any of the previous five years of “Innovators of the Year” events. In my haste I’d missed the fine print, which noted it was a “cocktail reception”, so I was initially underwhelmed when seeing the event was being held at a smallish reception room. Perhaps it was entering the West Building and it’s 220,500 square feet (20,490 m²) of convention space (1) or reading the event title “BCBusiness Innovators of the Year”, I assumed the event would be in a ballroom with thousands dressed in tuxedoes and gowns. Regardless, entering the reception room, you could see it was filled and noisy with chatter. I thought for a moment that I was the only one there that didn’t know everyone.

Forty five minutes before the 20 companies were announced, I sat down with David Jordan, Executive Editor of BCBusiness magazine. David wouldn’t budge on revealing the winners, but he did reveal the process of choosing the finalists every year. He told me that companies were allowed to nominate themselves on the BCBusiness magazine site, which had resulted in 60 company submissions. A panel of 6 Industry experts met once at the beginning of the year to discuss the selections and recommend a few of their own. The shortlist is presented to the BCBusiness Editorial team who makes the final selections. Admittedly I was surprised that only 60 companies had submitted to the magazine, so if you’re Innovative company sees value in being part of the event, then start submitting to BCBusiness. I’d suggest that the social media and press would benefit your company.

David Jordan said there was no specific theme, but there were common characteristics among the 20 winners, including having a good idea that can be scaled and replicated.

Peter Legge, Chairman and CEO of Canada Wide Media Limited, owner of BCBusiness magazine, hosted the event with style and charm. In He spoke of the expression “one idea can change the world” in his his introductory speech, adding “but that idea must be also lead to action before real impactful change can take place. And it’s those rare organizations that can bring together a brilliant idea with the courage and the business savvy to act upon it, and those are the people that we wish to recognize tonight.”

I sat down with three of the company CEOs to find out more about why they were innovative in their field. All three companies are very different and work in very different industries, but all three are run by passionate and committed owners. The passion for innovation and growing their businesses seemed to be commonality with all 20 of the winning companies.

Number #3 on the top 20 list is SemiosBIO Technologies Inc. I spoke with Michael Gilbert, CEO of SemiosBIO. His company has come up a system of Pest management that targets a specific pest while not using Pesticides and thus having lower impact on the environment. The company uses a technology called “machine to machine”, so the crop is connected live to the farmers through a database, giving them up-to-date data on weather, pest pressure, and other field details. The farmer can reduce the pesticide usage or even use bio-pesticides. SemiosBIO focusses on high value crops, such as grapes, apples, walnuts, almonds, which are sprayed more due to their high value. The company is in it’s third year, started in BC, and expanding into the US, Europe, and South America. SemiosBIO has 22 employees, $6 million in capital investment including $2.8-million from the federal government.

Number six on the list is Remtech Systems, a division of Williams & Williams group of companies. I sat down with Justin Williams, CEO of Remtech to talk about what it means to be an “innovative” company. Justin described Remtech as a 3rd generation family company that focusses on safety and productivity in plant environments. They apply industrial robotics or custom automated solutions to their clients. Justin was excited by the passion of their Engineers and staff to enable clients to be globally competitive and revolutionize the system of operations.  He said that increasing efficiencies within a business is a major focus for businesses these days. Remtech systems is under two years old and is focussed on BC, Alberta, Yukon, and the Pacific Northwest US.

Number 20 on the list is EightSix Network Inc. I spoke with Andrew and Justin McAleenan about their startup company that provides qualified employees to the hospitality job sites is that EightSix don’t use resumes. They have a created a hospitality specific industry profile that job seekers use to sell themselves to potential hospitality employers. Andrew and Justin are enabling job seekers to create a social media profile and express themselves better and employers get to learn about job seekers in a much faster way before the interview. Job seekers are able to add links to their social media pages or information such as on twitter, facebook, youtube, and more. EightSix Network business plan was to focus on the lower mainland to develop their products and services. In the beginning they started by targeting a small targeted group of clients for a year, getting direct feedback to create products and services that is tailored to what the Hospitality industry needs. They’ve created about 50,000 job seekers profiles and have worked with top BC hospitality brands such as Cactus Club, Joey, Milestones, Earls, and others. They plan building the company organically by expanding to the rest of Canada, and Ontario will be a big of their growth in the next year. Andrew and Justin are excited about their future because they believe no one in the industry across is offering a product like EightSix networks.

The event also showcased BCBusiness magazine’s transformation into a 24 / 7 news organization with both print and web properties. David Jordon said that they weren’t just trying to get into digital media, but to build a business plan around being a digital publishing company. I asked if BCBusiness was targeting different users online and in print and he said that users go back and forth between both media. One difference is that stories have a longer life being on both print and web as social media often decides to create additional buzz about any given story.

The twenty finalists are creating a wide of innovations: green batteries, biodegradable plastics, prefab buildings, microlofts, eco-friendly mining infrastructure, mobile commerce, urban farms, rent-a-winery. Read the full list of companies below with links to more detailed profiles on BC Business magazine.

Jonathan Hanley is an entrepreneur, web guy, writer and photographer--- into all things social media and communications. He has worked with international green groups and sustainable businesses for more than 25 years. Bringing people together by building and growing social communities for 14 years.

Jonathan has blogged 28 posts here.