Pittsburgh Tech Breaking News from Evive, BHiveLab, SAI and Beyond Spots & Dots

Beyond Spots & Dots Included in Inc.’s 5000 Fastest-Growing Companies List For Second Consecutive Year 

For the second consecutive year, Inc. Magazine has included Pittsburgh advertising agency, Beyond Spots & Dots, in its 2013 “Inc. 5000” list.

For 2013, Beyond Spots & Dots has been listed as the 2,840th fastest-growing private company in the nation. Beyond Spots & Dots was also ranked as the 288th fastest-growing private company in the Advertising & Marketing category.

The “Inc. 5000” list ranks the fastest-growing, privately held companies in the United States. The rankings are based on the percentage of revenue growth comparing 2009 to 2012. Notable companies included on this year’s exclusive list are Under Armour, Microsoft, and Zappos.

For more information on the 2013 “Inc. 5000” list or Inc. Magazine, visit www.inc.com/5000

SAI Receives Industry Award for Complicated Bridge Replacements and Connecting  Roadway Project

SAI Consulting Engineers, Inc. is the recipient of a prestigious industry award from The American Society of Highway Engineers Pittsburgh Section (ASHE) –the ASHE Outstanding Highway Engineering Award for the design of the S.R.0224-L02 and L05, State Street and Edinburg Bridge Replacements in Lawrence County, PA for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, District 11-0.  The award will be presented to SAI, the contractor, and the owner(s) at the society’s annual awards banquets on Saturday, October 5, 2013, to honor this outstanding achievement.

BHiveLab Launches Search for Young Innovators

 To celebrate and encourage young inventors, BHiveLab, the innovation incubator Pittsburgh-based ad agency Brunner formerly launched earlier this year, is working with the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s), CMU Robotics, and leading technology brands, such as Microsoft and Expedient, to sponsor the BHiveLab Hacker Challenge. The challenge was designed to give Pittsburgh-area high school students with a passion for technology a forum to share their ideas for new products, platforms, apps, and more for the chance to turn them into a reality.

“Digital firms and marketing innovation labs offer great opportunities today for young creative thinkers to apply their talent” said Brunner CEO Michael Brunner. “But, the advertising field isn’t necessarily the first place they consider when looking to start their careers. We want to raise awareness among youth interested in technology careers of the quickly emerging field of marketing technology and the exciting opportunities it has to offer. More important, we know there is a lot of incredible young talent out there. We want to shine a spotlight on it.”

John Roden, Brunner’s CIO, and the mastermind behind the Hacker Challenge, added “One of our challenges has been attracting talent, and as I am sure anyone can guess, recruiting the right talent is imperative to what we do in the lab. We’re not just looking for tech talent. More than anything, we’re looking for inventors and problem solvers. We want to raise their awareness that there are great career opportunities right here in our region.”

The BHiveLab Hacker Challenge is open to high school students ages 14 to18 who have innovative ideas for new technology they want to make a reality. Here is a snapshot of how the program will work:

• A judging panel comprising digital marketing and technology experts will select the 20 students they believe presented the best ideas.
• Those 20 students will receive an Arduino Starter Kit and coaching from BHiveLab and TechShop to help them get their ideas off the ground.
• After the initial coaching workshop, the finalists will have one month to bring their ideas to life to share with the judging panel.
• The three students demonstrating the best products in the end will be awarded scholarships.

Students can visit hackerchallenge.bhivelab.com for information on how they can register to participate.

Evive Station Expands Rapidly in Partnership with ImaginePittsburgh.com

Through a new partnership with CBRE and ImaginePittsburgh.com, local startup Evive Station will be bringing its first-of-it’s-kind reusable bottle cleaning & highly purified water filling stations to residents and workers of Downtown Pittsburgh. To celebrate this sustainable milestone, Evive Station will host a launch event at 9:30am on September 6^th, 2013 in the lobby of 11 Stanwix Street with the help of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development. All members of the press are invited.

Speakers at the event will include American Eagle Outfitters’ Marcie Eberhart and Bill Flanagan, host of Our Region’s Business on WPXI-TV. Attendees will learn about Evive Station and how to use the clean and fill water station on site.

Representatives from PNC Bank, The Bank of New York Mellon, Giant Eagle, the Energy Alliance of Greater Pittsburgh, Sustainable Pittsburgh, and the Green Building Alliance are expected to attend.

“We are thrilled to bring Evive Station to a new downtown location. Imagine Pittsburgh showcases the Pittsburgh region as an exceptional place to advance a career and build a life. Evive Station’s growth and core values supports this mission,” states Evive Station founder, Tom Petrini. “Placing a station in the main lobby of 11 Stanwix demonstrates that Pittsburgh is on it’s way to becoming an even ‘greener’ city.”

Evive Station is a growing company that offers sanitary, energy efficient reusable bottle cleaning and highly purified water stations to host locations and BPA-free reusable bottles at a price point of $14.99 to users. The company, based in the Southside, provides four core values to hosts and users alike: sustainability, cleanliness, financial savings, and health benefits in the form of easy access to clean drinking water and bottles. More information can be found on the company at www.evivestation.com.

For more bytes of the Pittsburgh region’s tech sector visit techburgher.com