Innovation Tri-Valley leaders gathered to honor pace-setting companies at its annual #GameChangers Awards this month at the Roundhouse Bishop Ranch in San Ramon.

The leadership group honored a company from each of the five Tri-Valley communities and recognized Southwest Airlines with its Visionary Award based on its activities at Oakland International Airport. It’s the busiest airline by far flying out of Oakland, which is its busiest airport in California.

Southwest chief operating officer Andrew Watterson received the award from Alex Mehran Jr., the CEO of Bishop Ranch owner Sunset Development Co. It was a double-dip trip for Watterson, who has family in the Bay Area and was able to connect for lunch before the evening ceremony May 8.

He said Southwest arrived in 1989 in Oakland as a teenager and has since grown into an adult.

The company has 3,000 employees at the Oakland Airport and operates 190 flights to 29 destinations on peak days. The company celebrated its 36th year in Oakland on May 15. In his remarks, the COO noted that Southwest is changing with market demand and come next year passengers will be able to reserve their seat in advance instead of digitally reserving a spot in the airport queue.

He also said they were exploring partnerships with other airlines (Southwest has never joined the alliances that most airlines affiliate with). Those would allow smoother connections for international flights — currently the airline only operates its own international flights to Mexico and the Caribbean.

He said to stay tuned, more adjustments are coming.

Pleasanton honored Cowbell, the rapidly growing cyber insurance firm operating in the U.S. and the United Kingdom. Using AI on its underwriting platform, the Cowbell system can process an application from submission to issuance in five minutes. It also offers subscription-based customer management systems. It was founded in 2019.

Livermore selected the historic GILLIG company, which has been building transportation vehicles since its founding in 1890 in San Francisco. It operated in Hayward right off the San Mateo bridge approach on Highway 92 for decades, making the familiar yellow school buses.

CEO Derek Maunus told the crowd that the company needed to expand, but was landlocked. He could have saved money by moving out-of-state, but that meant turning his back on the employees.

Plotting employee residences showed Livermore was the center, so GILLIG bought land and built its solar-powered plant off Isabel Avenue. The company now focuses entirely on heavy transit buses, electric, hybrid, clean diesel and natural gas. It employs 1,100 people.

Danville honored LWX, which builds global supply chains for wine and spirits retailers. It sources wine and spirits from around the world and distributes to retailers in all 50 states, helping put unique products on their shelves.

LWX deals directly with the retailer and can handle everything from sourcing the wine, to importing it and delivering it. CEO Darryl Brooker said the company had outgrown its Danville space and looked at just one other building in downtown Danville before deciding this was where they wanted to be.

Dublin recognized the Dublin Technology Center Workspaces, a custom-designed co-working space that CEO Veena Kaul based on her own experience in the technology industry. Spaces range from single-desk offices to conference rooms designed for meetings or trainings to multistation spaces. Kaul made a point of complementing the city staff and elected officials for their help in making the facility a reality.

Discover San Ramon (the hotel-based tourism group in the city that doesn’t participate in Visit Tri-Valley) selected Dialpad. It utilizes AI communications to simplify and improve how businesses communicate with their customers. Its enterprise customers include Randstad, RE/MAX, Nasdaq, Express Scripts, T-Mobile, Johns Hopkins, Motorola Solutions, Tractor Supply and Netflix. Its expanding customer base tops 50,000 in 70 countries across the world.

The Innovation Tri-Valley Leadership Group works in the area’s burgeoning $49 billion economy to provide regional collaboration and solutions to improve and enhance the business climate and quality of life.