Pioneers

The role of women in technological innovation hasn’t always been well-documented or even acknowledged. The women in tech awards is all about celebrating women and we feel it is important to recognize some of the pioneering women throughout history, and in the present day, who have shaped (and re-shaped) their respective industries and turned modern business on its head. Below are just some of the pioneering women who we recognize today for their amazing achievements in technology, engineering, science and mathematics.

Grace Hopper

(December 9, 1906 – January 1, 1992) was an American computer scientist and United States Navy rear admiral. One of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computer, she was a pioneer of computer programming who invented one of the first compiler related tools. She popularized the idea of machine-independent programming languages, which led to the development of COBOL, an early high-level programming language still in use today.

Grace Hopper

Categories

2018 nominations opening soon!

IT BUSINESS LEADER AWARD

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The winner of the business leader award will hold a C-Level position (CTO, CIO, CDO etc) of an organisation with 500+ employees. They will be able to demonstrate exceptional leadership, a strong vision of the future, cohesion with company culture, outstanding management skills as well as growth and innovation within their organisation over the last 12 months. The candidates will be judged on the success of their achievements and how they have inspired, motivated and encouraged employees to achieve the goals and initiatives of their organisation to grow market share. Judges will look for characteristics like self-awareness, decisiveness, fairness, enthusiasm, integrity, knowledge, creativity and imagination as well as thought leadership and endurance.

TRAILBLAZER AWARD

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The trailblazer award is open to anyone in any organisation that can demonstrate how her success and technical aptitude has inspired and opened doors for other women to follow in her footsteps. The nominees will be judged on their leadership and business achievements that have influenced other women to thrive and flourish in technology. Judges will look for characteristics and examples of vision, drive, relentlessness, inspiration, self confidence, strategic thinking and problem solving.

SECURITY LEADER AWARD

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The winner of the security leader award will not only have the necessary technical expertise and leadership skills, but will also understand her company’s operations and can articulate security priorities from a business perspective. She will be able to demonstrate her excellence in implementing information security programmes as well as coordinating GDPR, privacy compliance, physical security, risk management, purchasing, internal audit & legal counsel, and be able to integrate these closely with her business and IT department. Judges will look closely at the nominees strategic vision, passion for coordination, and courage to drive culture.

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION AWARD

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The winner of the digital transformation award will be tech savvy, data driven and have the ability to inspire teams to engage in rapid experimentation that drives transformation and positive business outcomes. Nominees should have a leadership role within their organisation (which doesn’t have to be tech orientated). The nominees will be judged on how they can transfer ideas into action, build teams, keep people connected and engaged, and drive a culture of innovation, risk tolerance, and continuous improvement. Project alignment with business goals, how training and education were implemented, as well as ROI achieved will be strong considerations by the judges.

FINTECH LEADER AWARD

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The winner of the FinTech leader award will hold a director level position or higher and can be from a small, medium or enterprise level FinTech organization. She will be able to demonstrate how her “out of the box” thinking has led her orginisation into the future with IT, economic and business acumen over the last 12 months. The candidates will be judged on the success of their achievements and how they have inspired, motivated and encouraged employees to achieve the goals and initiatives of their organisation to keep competitive and propel them into the future. Judges will look for characteristics like self-awareness, decisiveness, knowledge, innovation as well as thought leadership.

GRACE HOPPER AWARD

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The Grace Hopper Award (named after the pioneering computer scientist) will pay tribute and recognise a female STEM professional whose exceptional achievements and outstanding contributions have made a lasting impact on technology, society, and their profession. This includes helping to promote and raise the awareness of STEM education and careers for women around the globe.

ENTREPRENEUR AWARD

Sponsorship available

The winner of the entrepreneur award will head a tech, digital or e-commerce startup and will have been in business for up to 3 years. She must be able to demonstrate exceptional innovation, growth and has the potential to scale up and remain sustainable. Judges will review the nominee’s vision, innovation, risk optimisation, strategic perspective, passion, market knowledge and her ability to navigate a dynamic business environment. This category is open to global entrepreneurs but must be able to attend the awards if they are shortlisted.

DISRUPTOR AWARD

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The winner of the disruptor award will be a leader from a company with 500+ employees and who is redefining their marketplace. She will be able to demonstrate how her exceptional innovation has led her teams and organisation to break traditional ideas and provide new products and/or technologies that are changing their business landscape and pushing their company ahead of the competition. This could be through coding, engineering, R&D or anything else that is disrupting the status quo. Judges will look for examples of strategic risk and investment, innovation, agility & adaptability, goals and achievements, positive impacts on organisation.

RISING STAR AWARD

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The Rising Star award will recognise the outstanding achievements of a recent entrant into the tech industry (under 35 years of age). Her contribution to her organisation will have had a significant impact on its business’ growth and development. Nominees will demonstrate their standout achievements, how they are driving innovation, their contribution to successful projects and their understanding of how successfully implemented technology drives ROI. Judges will look for characteristics and examples of strong communication, creativity & curiosity, strong organisation, adaptability, passion, and confidence.

DATA SCIENTIST AWARD

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The winner of the data scientist award will be from a small, medium or enterprise level company and will be able to balance technical nuances across domains of data, math/stats, machine learning and software as well as connecting them to business context and value. They must demonstrate how they have taken ownership of key workflow areas such as data acquisition, data quality, prioritising which aspects are most important, presentation of results and have a big picture vision that is followed by her team. Judges will look for characteristics and examples of curiosity, business understanding, passion, innovation, intuition and technical acumen.

SaaS LEADER AWARD

Sponsorship available

The winner of the SaaS leader award will hold a director level position or higher and can be from a small, medium or enterprise level SaaS organisation. She will be able to demonstrate how her skills such as communication, people management, business acumen, domain knowledge and dynamism has scaled her companies bottom line over the last 12 months. The candidates will be judged on the success of growing market share by inspiring and motivating their teams to achieve (or over achieve) on the goals set out before them. Judges will look for qualities such as thought leadership, decisiveness, fairness, enthusiasm, knowledge, problem solving and their commitment to excellence.

WOMEN IN TECH INITIATVIVE

Sponsorship available

Each year, the Women In Tech Initiative will recognise one not for profit organisation that has demonstrated exceptional initiative to promote women in tech. This could involve education, training, building communities or simply helping women to become more engaged and empowered within the tech industry. The recognised organisation will receive a monetary prize which will be generously donated by our sponsors in order to promote and continue their exceptional work of driving initiatives for women in tech.

To the Nominees

The nomination process for the Women In Tech Awards is completely FREE. We want to hear about as many achievements as possible in order to turn the spotlight on the incredible talent of women in the tech industry. The goal is to celebrate all of these groundbreaking achievements that are happening every day and we need your nominations in order to give recognition to the women who deserve it. By doing so we can inspire the next generation of female leaders and trailblazers in the technology industry.

All you have to do is fill out the below forms and attach an essay (no more than 1000 words) that demonstrates how you or the person you are nominating, deserves recognition. Try to follow the criteria in each description as much as possible and get to the point quickly as it’s the results you can demonstrate that will ultimately see your application shine. You can enter as many categories as you like as long as it makes sense to do so. We accept international nominations but their companies should do business in Ireland.

Our awesome judges will review each nomination carefully and will grade according to the suitability and alignment with the criteria laid out in the above categories. You will be contacted about a month before the awards to be told whether or not you have been shortlisted. All shortlisted nominees will obviously get an invite to the Women In Tech Awards.

Good luck to all the incredibly talented women out there. Go forth and nominate!

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