Modern feel to best business nominees
Finalists for the 2018 Kelowna Business Excellence Awards include cannabis connection
The lineup of finalists for Kelowna Business Excellence Awards is a very 2018 collection.
For the first time, a company connected to the legal marijuana industry is on the list.
Vitalis Extraction Technology designs, builds and sells equipment that uses high-pressure carbon dioxide to turn cannabis into essential oils used in a myriad of pot products.
It’s one of three finalists in the technology innovator of the year category.
“We’re just the manufacturer, not the processor,” joked Vitalis chief technology officer James Seabrook when this newspaper interviewed him in January for a Top Forty Under 40 profile.
“Our job is to bring a viable product to market quickly and always keep innovating.”
Vitalis has sold machines to legal cannabis processors in Canada, the U.S., Colombia and Serbia.
More traditional businesses make up the rest of the list, from financial planners, real estate developers and an auto body shop to a clothing company, lighting wholesaler and theatre companies.
Awards organizer, the Kelowna Chamber of Commerce, changed it up this year and announced the finalists at a luncheon instead of with just a news release.
That lunch, billed as the semi-finalist matinee, was held Thursday at the Delta Grand hotel where more than a hundred nominees were honoured and the 33 finalists in 11 categories were revealed.
“It was a fantastic afternoon with more than a hundred nominees being recognized for the significant positive impact they have on our community,” said chamber president Carmen Sparg.
“We are pleased to stage these awards each year as a way to recognize the outstanding talent we have in the Kelowna area, while also hopefully inspiring others along he way.”
The 11 category winners will be divulged at the 31st annual Kelowna Business Excellence Awards evening gala Oct. 24, again at the Delta Grand hotel.
Tickets are on sale until Oct. 17 for $135 at KelownaChamber.org.