Erskine Bowles would have been forgiven if he had missed the N.C. Technology Association's awards ceremony in Durham Wednesday night.

Earlier in the day, the UNC system president was in Washington for his "other" job, as co-head of President Barack Obama's deficit commission. The commission released its controversial plan on Wednesday, which included deep cuts and higher taxes.

But at the last minute, Bowles caught a commercial flight from Washington and arrived at the ceremony to accept his "public leadership" award.

"He knew there were scheduled meetings of the deficit committee this week and it was a little dicey," said NCTA president Brooks Raiford. "We had recorded a video acceptance in his office a few weeks ago, just in case."

A few days after throwing a bash at iContact's Durham headquarters for about 500 employees and guests, co-founder and CEO Ryan Allis needs your vote.

The N.C. Technology Association announced today that he's one of four finalists for the trade group's 2010 Tech Executive of the year. The other finalists include David Jones, co-founder and CEO of Charlotte's Peak 10; David Morken, co-founder and CEO of Cary's Bandwidth.com; and Mark Munday, president and CEO of Raleigh's Elster Solutions.

The winner will be chosen by popular vote and NCTA will accept votes through Oct. 15 online here.

It's not clear whether Allis was hoping iContact's big party on Friday, which included free barbecue, blue grass band, bouncy slide and more, might help him win a few extra votes.