Ottawa, ON — February 27, 2006 — OCRI, Ottawa's lead technology and economic development agency, released its list of finalists for the 2006 OCRI Awards today.

The OCRI Awards began in 1995 and are synonymous with business excellence in Ottawa, recognizing the achievements of the region's business, research and academic community. This year, the awards program has evolved into one that reflects the changing landscape of Ottawa's business community and will see more than 500 of Ottawa's leaders in business, education, and government, including a large contingent from the local technology industry, in attendance.

OCRI's Awards Program includes the following categories: Technology Company of the Year, Next Generation Executive of the Year, Technology Partnership, Most Promising Start-Up, Product of the Year, Service of the Year, Best News Story, Best Financial Deal, and the OCRI Futures Awards (includes Student Researcher of the Year, Student Entrepreneur of the Year, and High School IT Entrepreneur of the Year).

The eleventh annual OCRI Awards shine a spotlight on the companies, professionals and students that help set the standard and serve as role models in their communities,?said Jeffrey Dale, President and CEO of OCRI. “This year we felt we needed a new and improved ceremony to reflect the energy being generated in our tech sector. Incorporating feedback from previous years, we will be revealing a reenergized format at this April's ceremony.?

The 2006 OCRI Awards finalists, as determined by the Society of Collaborative Opportunities and Advancement of Professionals (SCOAP) who screened the nominations, are:

Company of the Year:	SMART Technologies International Datacasting Corporation Lumenera Corporation
Next Generation Executive of the Year:	Mark Scott, N-Able Technologies Brian Hurley, Liquid Computing Bernard Herscovich, BelAir Networks
Technology Partnership of the Year:	National Research Council and the Canadian Photonics Fabrication Centre CARE Connect Mitel and Microsoft
Most Promising Start-Up:	Third Brigade Liquid Computing Emerging Memory Technologies
Product of the Year:	NEPTEC Nortel BCM50 Neterion XFrame 2
Service of the Year:	Macadamian Software Engineering International Datacasting Corporation Global IQX
Best News Story of the Year (presented by High Road Communications):	Colin Tretheway ?CTV Andrew Mayeda - Ottawa Citizen (A finalist for his 2nd consecutive year) Peter Hum - Ottawa Citizen
Best Financial Deal:	BelAir Networks Zelos Therapeutics Liquid Computing
OCRI Futures Awards (presented by Keshet Technologies Inc.):
Student Researcher of the Year:	Sudip Misra ?Carleton University Dharmendra Saraswat - Carleton University Helen Tang - Carleton University
Student Entrepreneur of the Year:	Henry Tang - Carleton University Saeid Nourian - University of Ottawa Aurelien Leftick - Sumalytics Inc
High School IT Entrepreneur of the Year:	Finalists to be determined

The 2006 OCRI Awards winners will be announced at a gala dinner on April 19th, at the Westin Ottawa.

About OCRI:
OCRI (Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation), the city's economic development corporation, is leading the way for Ottawa. OCRI is the rallying point to bring business, education and research together to create the winning economic conditions that allow Ottawa's technology companies to thrive locally and compete globally. At OCRI we promote sustainable economic development to maintain our high quality of life. For more information on OCRI visit our website at www.ocri.ca and for more information on the Ottawa Region please visit www.ottawaregion.com.

For information contact:
Alecia O'Brien
Manager, Marketing and Communications
OCRI
Tel: (613) 828-6274 x.256
Cell: (613) 884-1979

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