GeekWire co-founders Todd Bishop, left, and John Cook open the 2024 GeekWire Awards at Showbox SoDo in Seattle on Thursday. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota)After giving a nod to tech’s bygone era of gadgets and gimmicks, we celebrated the new entrepreneurs shaping the future of innovation in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest on Thursday night at the GeekWire Awards.The annual event, now in its 15th year, brought a sold-out crowd to Showbox SoDo in Seattle, where more than 60 finalists across a dozen categories competed for awards ranging from Startup of the Year to Next Tech Titan to Workplace of the Year, and more.Much like it has been for the past year, artificial intelligence was a recurring buzzword running through the evening, as evidenced by the number of finalists and winners seizing on the technology.“It’s an exciting moment and a transformational time in all our lifetimes because of the way generative AI has taken the industry by storm,” said Deal of the Year winner Madhan Subhas, co-founder of Seattle-area startup Rhythms.Rob McPherson sings his song about bygone tech onstage at the GeekWire Awards in Seattle on Thursday. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota)But long before AI, the innovation of yesteryear was just as celebrated and equally instrumental in getting us where we are today. The “Land Before Tech” theme of the night had a prehistoric feel with dinosaurs and table centerpieces made of outdated VHS tapes, Polaroid cameras and more. It was all punctuated by a performance by Robert “The Drunken Tenor” McPherson. With lyrics set to Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” performing in front of a rapid-fire video montage, McPherson touched on seemingly every gadget or gizmo that ever seemed cutting edge to the majority of the people in the room.We threw it in a fire

Rhythms, an AI-powered enterprise productivity startup founded by industry veteran and serial entrepreneur Vetri Vellore, today announced $26 million