2024 Year in Review

It’s official (as of December 23)…we’ve been providing digital services to clients for a quarter century! In 2024 we added new clients in the states of Nevada and New York to make 23 states served during our 25 years in business. Our team now has 51 total members (full-time and contract) with employees in 17 states.

Visit our team spotlights to learn more about our management and project teams, and check below to find out which team members and industry experts made it to the top 12 blogs of 2024.

We are grateful to our employees, clients, and partners for a wonderful year!

2024 highlights

Here’s an overview of some of our accomplishments detailed in this post. Compare with last year’s 2023 Year in Review.

• 1 design award
• 3 top blog winners
• 5 People’s Choice awards
• 6 events attended
• 7 completed projects
• 9 projects in process
• 10 new projects
• 23 states served (added Nevada and New York in 2024)
• 51 employees in 17 states

Design awards

The following client website was recognized by a national design award this year.

1. W3 Award Center for the New Energy Economy (CNEE) AEL Tracker app earned a silver award in the Environmental & Sustainability Website category.

Top employee blogs

Every December we reward the employees who authored the top three most popular blogs (based on Google Analytics). Scroll to bottom to find the 8 top blogs of 2024.

1. June 2024 AI News: Our AI Lab’s roundup of the latest articles and news relating to artificial intelligence and online services in the public sector Adam Kempler
2. 5 Drush Commands for Drupal Search API and Solr: Overcoming limitations updating Solr schema and clearing malformed indexes Jason Safro
3. Fine Tuning Our Technology Radar: How a tech radar keeps our software development technologies updated Kevin Ferguson

People’s Choice winners

Our People’s Choice awards are presented at the company holiday party every December to the employees who received the most votes from team members in each category.

1. Most Valuable Player Joseph Descalzota, Developer “Joseph is the ultimate star developer, humble, efficient, and always considerate of everyone.”
2. Grace Under Pressure Max Levi, Business Analyst “Max is amazing with clients. He is great at explaining technical concepts in plain language and having “hard conversations” about scope expectations and changes.”
3. Top Innovator Adam Kempler, Developer “Adam consistently drives innovation at Portland Webworks through his proactive use of Al technologies and his forward-thinking approach exemplifies our commitment to growth and innovation. His creation of demos, proof-of-concepts, and working examples showcases practical applications of cutting-edge features, inspiring the team and opening new opportunities with clients.”
4. Mentor Star Mike Weliczko, Developer Mike cares about the development of the team, especially if there is someone confused or unsure of how something works. Mike takes the initiative to set up meetings going over complicated processes or just to go over a strategy of an upcoming story.”
5. Most Versatile Tracy Totman, User Experience Designer “Tracy seamlessly takes on any project with such dedication and care. She is amazing at understanding the client’s needs and putting them into a great experience. We are so thankful she returned to us. Our teams and clients are better with her expertise.” Ryan Olsen, Developer “Ryan approaches new challenges with enthusiasm and positivity. He jumps in where he’s needed and readily picks up any new skills required of him.”

Events attended

We sponsored and attended the following professional events around the country and world this year.

1. Agile Maine Day Agile Maine Day Takeaways – blog recap
2. DrupalCon Singapore Drupalcon (opens in a new tab) – website
3. Drupal GovCon, Maryland Drupal GovCon 2024 Recap – blog recap
4. ISM + APHSA Education Conference & Expo, Colorado Perspectives on ISM 2024 – blog recap
5. New England Drupal Camp (NED Camp), Rhode Island NED Camp (opens in a new tab) – website
6. Maine JS Meetups (at the PWW office) Maine JS (opens in a new tab) – website

Projects completed

1. Colorado Department of Natural Resources: COfish
2. Colorado Judicial Branch
3. Idaho Department of Health and Welfare: Various projects
4. Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks
5. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife

Projects in progress

1. Idaho Department of Health and Welfare: Various projects
2. Illinois Student Assistance Commission
3. Maine Department of Education’s MOOSE: Semantic search
4. Maine Department of Labor: Virtual Job Center
5. Maine Department of Labor: Work Source Maine
6. Maryland Auto Insurance
7. Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services
8. Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office
9. United States Department of Energy: Fermilab

New contracts

1. Idaho IT Services & Support: Idaho Department of Health and Welfare
2. Illinois Student Assistance Commission
3. Maine Department of Labor: Work Source Maine
4. Maryland Auto Insurance: Preferred Programming Vendor
5. Missouri Department of Commerce and Insurance
6. Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services
7. Missouri Department of Social Services
8. Nevada Department of Education
9. New Hampshire Judicial
10. New York Courts

Top 8 blog articles of 2024

The following are the top 8 blog articles of 2024 from the GovWebworks and Portland Webworks blogs (based on Google Analytics page views):

1. Agile Coach for AI Enablement

Tips from Heidi Araya on transforming your work and career with emerging technologies After hearing Heidi Araya’s keynote at Agile Maine Day, we wanted to learn more about how she transitioned her expertise to agile AI enablement. Continue reading: Agile Coach for AI Enablement… Heidi Araya**July 1, 2024

2. June 2024 AI News

Our AI Lab’s roundup of the latest articles and news relating to artificial intelligence and online services in the public sectorThe following articles touch on important topics relating to public sector online services: Multimodal assistants, AI tutors, AI coding and debugging, Social media compared to AI, European Union AI Act. Continue reading: June 2024 AI News… Adam Kempler**June 4, 2024

3. Generative AI for the Public Sector

What I learned at Gen AI Live + Labs about generative AI toolsThe timing was good to attend a conference on generative AI tools for the public sector. Encouraged by my coworker Adam Kempler, founder of the GovWebworks AI Lab, I wanted to see if Google’s large language model (LLM) and natural language processing (NLP) tools could benefit our company and clients. Continue reading: Generative AI for the Public Sector… Melissa Coleman**March 18, 2024

4. 5 Drush Commands for Drupal Search API and Solr

Overcoming limitations updating Solr schema and clearing malformed indexesWe wanted to share five Drush commands to make your life easier. These commands help you manage the internal functioning of Solr when hosting on Pantheon. Here’s how we use them to update the Solr Schema and clear malformed indexes. Continue reading: 5 Drush Commands for Drupal Search API and Solr… Jason Safro**September 26, 2024

5. Public Sector Insider Insights Tips

Download tips from top minds on how to succeed in gov techOur public sector Insider Insights tips bring together perspectives from authors, consultants, coaches, our team members, and other leading experts on topics relating to online digital innovation and agile practices for for gov tech. Continue reading: Public Sector Insider Insights Tips… GWW Staff**February 12, 2024

6. Creating Adaptive Space

Top scholar Mary Uhl-Bien on using Complexity Leadership Theory to adapt to changeWe spoke with Mary Uhl-Bien about how leaders can use the science behind Complexity Leadership Theory to help their organizations not only connect and adapt to the complexity of today’s challenges, but thrive and prosper. Continue reading: Creating Adaptive Space… Mary Uhi-Bien**January 30, 2024

7. Fine Tuning Our Technology Radar

How a tech radar keeps our software development technologies updatedHere at GovWebworks we spend a lot of time thinking about and analyzing where and when to apply different tech. We take a solution-oriented approach to fit the technology to the needs of our clients rather than forcing client needs into a default technology selection. Continue reading: Fine Tuning Our Technology Radar… Kevin Ferguson**May 6, 2024

8. Modeling Intentional Communication

Marsha Acker on leading change through constructive conversationsMarsha Acker has built her business, TeamCatapult, on the art of intentional communication. We asked Marsha for some strategies to help our teams and clients stay on track. Continue reading: Modeling Intentional Communication… Marsha Acker**July 30, 2024

Learn more

• GovWebworks Team Spotlights: Meet our Creative, Quality Assurance, Drupal, Software Development, and Project Management teams
• View Job Openings: Find your home with us

Connect with us

• GWW Twitter (opens in a new tab)
• PWW Facebook (opens in a new tab)
• PWW LinkedIn (opens in a new tab)