Qwhery, Author at Qwhery

Qwhery Wins Open Data Award for Impact from Canadian Open Data Society

BURLINGTON, ON, CANADA – (September 13th, 2021) – Qwhery is happy to announce that we were named the recipient of the Open Data for Impact Award by the Canadian Open Data Society, a national nonprofit organization that represents open data supporters promoting and supporting open data initiatives across Canada.

Canadian Open Data Awards

The Canadian Open Data Awards were created by the hosts of the Canadian Open Data Summit in 2016 to acknowledge and celebrate excellence in open data across Canada. Due to COVID-19, it had been 2 and a half years since the last call for nominations.

The 2021 Canadian Open Data Society awarded eight prizes, with the five main categories being honour achievements in accessibility, innovation, democracy, impact, and data quality.

Impact Award

Qwhery Inc. was awarded the Open […]

By Qwhery|2022-06-21T19:26:44-05:00September 13th, 2021|Award, Press Release|0 Comments

Qwhery Participates in the Entrepreneurship World Cup as a Canadian National Finalist

BURLINGTON, ON, CANADA – (August 17th, 2021) – Qwhery had the pleasure of participating in the Entrepreneurship World Cup as a Canadian National Finalist. The World Cup is an annual event in which a handful of startups are given the chance to present their business model pitches to a panel of judges.

Entrepreneurship World Cup

The Entrepreneurship World Cup takes place annually, and since its launch in 2019, it has supported more than 300,000 entrepreneurs in 200 countries. Numerous national competitions take place over several months, ending with the top 25 startups pitching on a global stage for a share of $1 million USD.

For the EWC 2021, CEO Matt Pietryszyn, on behalf of Qwhery Inc, presented Qwhery’s business model as a Canadian National Finalist, alongside 8 other startups for a chance to go to the World Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

While Qwhery […]

By Qwhery|2022-06-21T19:26:50-05:00August 17th, 2021|Press Release|0 Comments

Marketplace Milton, A “One-Stop Shop for Voice-Enabled Business Searching”

BURLINGTON, ON, CANADA – (June, 2021) – Qwhery launched Marketplace Milton as a convenient way to access local business information in the Halton Region and the Region of Peel.

A Community Collaboration Project

Voice assistants and voice-activated searches are becoming a first choice for information seeking among young adults and tech savvy individuals. In turn, Main street businesses are facing difficulties in moving beyond traditional search engine optimization (SEO) towards gaining a presence in voice-enabled searches. This further begged the question as to how local businesses could increase their likelihood of appearing in voice-activated search results, despite being alongside national chains and franchises.

The Milton Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Milton BIA (Business Improvement Area), Haltech client, and Qwhery Inc., with support from Digital Main Street’s Future Proof program, developed a Community Collaboration project that would prove helpful for the local businesses and consumers. This […]

By Qwhery|2022-06-21T19:26:57-05:00June 21st, 2021|Press Release, Qwhery Cloud|0 Comments

2020 – A Year in Review

Happy Holidays!

We hope you’re having a relaxing holiday and getting rested up for an exciting new year. 2020 was interesting to navigate, and we thought it would be fun to take a look back at some of the successes. From becoming an emerging partner with Esri Inc., to turning 1 year old and launching Q11 on both Alexa and the Google Assistant, we hope you enjoy our year in review, and we’re looking forward to what’s to come.

Matt Pietryszyn
CEO / Co-founder

By Qwhery|2021-04-12T22:16:01-05:00January 28th, 2021|Press Release, Q11, Qwhery Cloud|0 Comments

Qwhery Participates in IT World Canada Event: Technicity

BURLINGTON, ON CANADA – (Dec 9, 2020) – Qwhery participates in IT World Canada Event: Technicity, a yearly event that hosts conversations between industry leaders in the tech sector, and local government officials.

Matt Pietryszyn, CEO and Co-founder of Qwhery spoke with Mayor Sandy Brown of Orangeville, Ontario, Cyrus Tehrani – Chief Digital Officer of Hamilton, Michelle Holland – former Toronto City Councillor and current Director at PwC Canada, and Jeff Libis – VP, Sales at LED Roadway Lighting Ltd. The conversation on how citizen engagement is changing was moderated by Craig Mackereth – Senior Vice President – Global Support, Rimini Street.

By Qwhery|2020-12-30T11:32:19-05:00December 10th, 2020|Press Release|0 Comments

Collin County Texas Achieves Record-Breaking Turnout with Location-Based Outreach Tools

BURLINGTON, ON CANADA – (November 30, 2020) – The 2020 Presidential Election season has been like no other, with numerous counties across the US seeing higher turnout than in 2016. Among them was Collin County, Texas, where local government worked to establish accessible voting information systems ahead of Election Day, guiding voters in rain, shine, or pandemic alike.

Ultimately, Collin County voters turned out in record-shattering numbers. During the early voting period alone, residents cast a total of 421,920 ballots, exceeding the 356,688 votes cast during the entirety of the 2016 Presidential Election. 36,689 additional votes were cast on Election Day itself, amounting to an impressive overall turnout rate of 76%. Collin County also had one of the highest early voting participation rates in Texas among first-time primary or general election voters, indicating a high degree of new voter engagement.

Data Visualization: Reach of […]

By Qwhery|2020-11-30T13:07:10-05:00November 30th, 2020|Press Release|0 Comments

Collin County Texas Helping Citizens Vote Efficiently and Safely

BURLINGTON, ON CANADA – (October 27, 2020) – Collin County, Texas is experiencing a very high voter turn out this election and there are still 3 days left of Early Voting and Election Day 2020 ahead of us. Now they’ve made finding a place to cast your vote in Collin County even easier.

Just use Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa and get pointed in the right direction in no time.

For Google Assistant, just say: “Hey Google, Talk to: where to vote in Collin County”
For Alexa, just say: “Alexa, ask Q One One where to vote in Collin County”

Use your smart speaker or mobile device to ask your virtual assistant where your nearest voting center is and what the current wait time is there. Avoiding large crowds and knowing where the nearest locations are helps you vote more efficiently and safely, avoiding crowds if possible.

The Google Assistant Action and Amazon Alexa Skills connect directly to the County’s Geographic […]

By Qwhery|2020-10-27T20:34:02-05:00October 27th, 2020|Press Release, Q11|0 Comments

Qwhery Inc Selected for Hi5 Pitch Competition

BURLINGTON, ON CANADA – (October 21, 2020) – Qwhery Inc has been selected as a finalist to compete in Haltech’s annual pitch competition, Hi5.

For the past seven years, Haltech, a regional tech startup accelerator, has hosted their pitch competition, Hi5, where five clients are chosen after an in-depth application process to pitch their business to a panel of distinguished judges.

This year, the competition will be held virtually on November 26th, from 3:oopm to 5:00pm ET. Save the date by registering for your free tickets Here.

Congratulations to the other finalists, vying for the top prize, Cubby, My Well Self, SPOT App and XProEM.

About Qwhery Inc

Qwhery Inc, is a leader in implementing voice technology and geographic information systems. Their flagship product, Q11, connects smart home devices and voice assistants to local government open data portals. The Qwhery cloud helps Cities connect the services that they provide […]

By Qwhery|2020-10-21T09:52:45-05:00October 21st, 2020|Press Release|0 Comments

Qwhery Inc turns One Year Old!

One more spin around the sun and Qwhery is celebrating its first birthday. 2020 hasn’t turned out how we expected it to and just like many, we’ve had to think differently about our products and what’s important.

We started Qwhery with a focus on voice technology, connecting your smart speakers and voice assistants to your Towns, Cities and Regions and the services and information that they provide. When we were faced with the pandemic, we decided to try and do something for everyone by bringing COVID-19 related case data to you via SMS text messaging, Facebook Messenger, Alexa and Google Assistant. Today, you can register for free COVID-19 alerts for any Health Region in Canada or County in the United States. We’ve enabled our Alexa Skill, Q11 to also provide anyone with the same information. Google Assistant is on the way.

The pandemic doesn’t […]

By Qwhery|2020-09-13T14:07:01-05:00September 12th, 2020|Press Release|0 Comments

Engaging Communities at the Intersection of Voice Technology and Location Intelligence

When it comes to municipal services, citizens either benefit from them or bear the brunt of their effects, and in turn, ultimately determine the extent of policy success. As a result, community engagement by local government has incredible potential to help craft effective city initiatives—so how can municipalities leverage technology for greater community engagement and constructive dialogue with residents?

What is Community Engagement?

Community engagement is a multi-step process which begins with decision-making itself. Traditionally, government decisions are made from executive third-party perspectives which can fail to embody community sentiments. When people are given channels of direct

communication with their cities, they’re empowered to bring truly important issues to light from positions of personal experience. The more accessible these channels, the more diverse these voices can be, ensuring the service of as many community groups as possible.

Still, effective community engagement doesn’t stop with the centralization of initiatives in […]

By Qwhery|2020-05-14T10:42:22-05:00May 13th, 2020|Q11, Qwhery Cloud|0 Comments