PollStream selected as a winner of the Backbone/KPMG Pick 20 award for companies that are driving innovation and changing the way we use the Internet

Toronto July 24th, 2009 PollStream is pleased to announce its inclusion in the 2009 Backbone/KPMG Pick 20 winners list.

Created by Backbone and KPMG, the PICK 20 is the only national ranking of its kind. Pick 20 defines Web 2.0 as the use of online social platforms to link individuals to each other and, increasingly, to connect companies to partners and clients. The real point, though, is that Web 2.0 happens when the talk goes from a monologue to a dialogue, when everyone gets a say and when those voices can actually change opinions, company policy, government decisions and so on.

To assemble the final Pick 20 ranking, the 2009 judges scored the nominees against five criteria: ROI, competitive advantage, ongoing value, execution and innovation.

The Judges - 2009

Krista Napier
A senior analyst at IDC Canada, Napier has deep insight into some of the most interesting emerging Canadian-headquartered ICT companies, and closely follows their growth. Napier advises these companies on their positioning and profiles emerging companies for investors, ICT companies and government organizations.

Michael Geist 
Geist is a law professor at the University of Ottawa where he holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law. Geist serves on the Privacy Commissioner of Canada’s Expert Advisory Board, on the Canadian Digital Information Strategy’s Review Panel and on the Information Program Sub-Board of the Open Society Institute.

John Myers
Myers is the vice-president and general manager of Open Text. Prior to working with Open Text, he was general manager of Nortel’s worldwide messaging business unit.

Michael O’Connor Clarke
A vice-president at Thornley Fallis Communications, O’Connor Clarke has more than 20 years of experience in technology marketing and communications. He has been a blogger since 2001, has designed and participated in numerous successful social media initiatives and consults on the strategic integration of social media.

Kate Trgovac
A social media and digital marketing expert, Trgovac is president of LintBucket Media, a boutique marketing agency headquartered in Vancouver which focuses on social media, community building and digital content creation. Kate writes about the intersection of marketing and technology on her marketing blog.

Bradley Shende
The CEO of Media2o Productions and a popular keynote speaker, Bradley produced six award-winning seasons of Dave Chalk Connected and is the host of Connected Life on Sympatico/MSN and BackboneTV. He is also a regular panelist on CKNW radio and appears every Friday on Global’s Morning News.

Mike McDerment
McDerment, co-founder and CEO of FreshBooks, built the service for his design firm in 2003. Since launching in May 2004, FreshBooks has touched more than 800,000 lives and he and his team are dedicated to serving people who love their work and want to focus on it, instead of on paperwork.

PollStream summary: Interactive-engagement and community-building solutions (as reported in the Pick 20 report)

PollStream offers an interesting niche and solution to collaborative business communications (Shende) and is a very solid entry with a clear vision of target market and strategy” (Geist). According to Napier, “one of PollStream’s strengths is the attention it pays to customer project implementations to ensure its solutions deliver ROI in the long run.”

Full Pick 20 Report
For more information, or to read the full Pick 20 report, please go to Backbone Magazine