Sandy Sweet receives ITAP Lifetime Achievement Award

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Daniel Lazaratos, president of ITAP, left, presents Sandy Sweet with the Lifetime Achievement Award at ITAP's 2012 IT Gala Awards Dinner.

Charlottetown, PE - Sandy Sweet, Executive Director of the Justice Knowledge Network, received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Innovation and Technology Association of Prince Edward Island (ITAP) at the 2012 IT Gala Awards Dinner recently.

An address celebrating Mr. Sweet's contributions to P.E.I.'s IT sector and beyond was given by Derek MacEwen, Managing Partner of VisionQuest Inc.

"Sandy has been the key to bringing together the right people, at the right time to effect real and meaningful advancements in the use of e-learning," said Mr. MacEwen. "He has tirelessly advocated for technology-enhanced solutions and has played a leading role in mobilizing a transition to online training models in several industry sectors," MacEwen said.

Over the past 17 years, Mr. Sweet has been involved several major initiatives that focused on IT solutions to enhance business services and programs. However, it has been his work with Holland College's Justice Knowledge Network (JKN) and the Canadian Police Knowledge Network (CPKN) that has garnered national and international recognition. Focusing on providing accessible, effective e-learning for frontline personnel, these organizations pioneered the online delivery of training in Canada's law enforcement community.

"Sandy has been the driving force behind bringing JKN from a research and development project to a commercially successful reality," said Michael O'Grady, vice president of Innovation, Enterprise and Strategic Development at Holland College. "That credibility is now fueling the expansion of online learning platforms to other sectors including health, private security, and maritime security."

Addressing an audience of nearly 200 of PEI's IT industry leaders, Mr. Sweet talked about the enormous diversity and success of the Island's IT community.

"PEI has an incredible wealth of talent and capacity for driving innovation," stated Mr. Sweet. "That talent is creating working solutions for real life problems, at home and around the globe. When JKN was created a decade ago, we were ahead of our time, but the lessons learned in the interim have been critical to understanding our audience and for creating the products and services that best meet their needs. I'm very proud of the team we have and work we do."

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For more information about this release, please contact:

Christine Jackson
Manager, Integrated Communications
Canadian Police Knowledge Network
Tel: (902) 629-4278