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Last night was the 8th installment of the Shenandoah Valley Technology Council’s awards gala. The nominees were announced a few weeks ago and the winners were announced last night. There was an interesting mix of young tech entrepreneurs and larger area businesses of all kinds that have been in the valley for years. If you have the opportunity take a look at the bios of the nominees.

You can read about winners of the event on the DNR and some of the impressive projects they have been working on, but I wanted to share an unreported story. One of the more interesting moments of the evening was after Chris Beard received the award for Innovative Technology Application there was a break in the ceremony for a special award.

Scott Davidson, a junior at James Madison, is the owner of Craving Cookies. He was recognized with a unique award for his innovative idea to offer the online purchase and delivery of cookies and milk to dorm rooms and homes near his business. While Scott did not win the award for Innovative Technology Application they wanted to recognize Scott for his creative use of technology for business. His system allows not only the late night cravings of students to be satisfied, but an opportunity for a parent in New York to purchase a cookie online for their child at JMU. At such a young age it is impressive to see that he’s been able to establish an innovative business idea while completing his work as a student.

The award was a framed pager in recognition of one of the urban legends of the Technology Council that a farmer trained cows using pagers. The story goes that each cow was given a pager hung around their necks and when it went off they had been trained to come into the barn. This was useful for vet visits, feeding or other needs. If the whole herd was needed for anything a call to all of them simultaneously could be made. The SVTC believed Scott deserved some form of an award for his creative way to use technology as the legendary farmer had done. Thankfully for some of the older folks, Scott did know what a pager was.