The #TechDiversity committee is very pleased to announce the winners of the inaugural #TechDiversity Awards 2016. A total of 12 projects/initiatives have been recognised as #TechDiversity Leaders across the four categories of advertising, government, education and business. The submissions were assessed according to expressions of behaviour, initiatives, commitment and courage — key touchstones to embrace inclusion and drive diversity.
The winners (listed below) will be presented with their #TechDiversity Leader awards at a small ceremony on 25 July. Their achievements will then be recognised and celebrated among our community at the #TechDiversity Gala Dinner on Thursday 4 August at the Melbourne Town Hall – at which the overall #TechDiversity Champion will be announced. (Get tickets here!)
Congratulations to all the winners! (All nominations can be accessed and reviewed on our website at the #TechDiversity Awards Gallery.)
ADVERTISING
Modernising the Traditional Jobs Board – Diverse City Careers
Gemma Lloyd and Valeria Ignatieva
Diverse City Careers has turned advertising and recruitment on its head by evaluating clients based on how well they support women in the workplace. Research points to businesses being more profitable when there is a healthy balance of women and men in leadership; Diverse City Careers is on a mission to disrupt the job advertising market by elevating companies taking this seriously.
GOVERNMENT
Melbourne Knowledge Week – City of Melbourne
Bianca Charleston
Melbourne Knowledge Week (MKW) is an annual multidisciplinary and cross-sectoral festival delivered to showcase the knowledge sector’s diversity and innovation. A focus on diversity, inclusiveness and accessibility (across age, culture and gender) ensured a balanced program and media representation, with 56% female attendance from 10,000 attendees.
Women in ICT and Diversity – Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning
Kerrie Murphy and Claire Foo
As the only female CIO across all Victorian government departments, Claire Foo is crusading for strong representation of women at management levels – not only within information services divisions, but more broadly across DELWP and all state government departments. A role model for all within the department, Claire actively lives the values of inclusion and gender equity.
Women in CenITex – CenITex
Julia Ellis, Helen Dodd, Kate Penman and Elizabeth Bromham
Women in CenITex is a forum which provides networking and development opportunities to support the careers of women in CenITex. It creates a positive network for women across the business to learn, share, and support each other; to increase confidence in themselves and their ability to be heard; as well as to create opportunities to increase collaboration across CenITex, moving the organisation towards being best practice for gender diversity.
EDUCATION
Melbourne RoboCats – Swinburne University and the King David School
Dr Therese Keane, Milorad Cerovac and Claire Stanner
Melbourne RoboCats is an all-girls robotics team competing in the international FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC). Targeted at increasing secondary school girls’ participation in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM), this initiative provided an opportunity for school girls without prior programming or robotics knowledge to work alongside industry and university mentors. The team is self-funded to ensure that it is accessible to all girls, without any socio-economic barriers.
RailsGirls Australia
Robert Postill and committee
Founded to combat the growing unease about the shrinking number of women remaining in and entering the IT industry, RailsGirls is a free, biannual, two-day event open to any female who would like to learn to code. It represents a commitment to positive change for women in IT, and includes educational workshops, industry engagement, mentoring opportunities, recruiting pipelines and publicity.
Team FIT UniMelb – University of Melbourne, Department of Computing and Information Systems
Associate Professor Andrew Turpin and Associate Professor Karin Verspoor
Team FIT (‘Females into IT’) aims to increase female enrolment in computing and information Technology courses. The objective is to increase the pipeline of women studying IT at tertiary level, in turn leading to narrowing the gender gap in IT workplaces. It comprises a two-pronged approach:
- raising the public profile of the gender gap in IT, through contributions to the public discourse around women in technology, and providing consultation to government on strategies to increase female participation in IT; and
- outreach activities directed at high school girls and first year female undergraduates that provide opportunities for young women to give IT a go in a non-threatening environment.
Code Like a Girl
Ally Watson
Code Like a Girl is an organisation focused on increasing the number of females in technology, and provides girls with the tools, knowledge and support to enter and flourish in the world of coding. It has created and now runs a series of tech-focused events and workshops around Melbourne, bringing together tech talents and girls who are passionate about coding and technology to learn, connect and celebrate each other’s achievements.
BUSINESS
Diversity: We Live It – The Yield Technology Solutions
Ros Harvey
The Yield is an AgTech companying using Internet of Things (IoT) technology to help growers improve business practices. With inclusion and diversity built into the fabric of the organisation, The Yield’s target is for at least 50% of staff and consultants to be women. Diversity in all its forms – age, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation and disability – is also highly valued. Spanning all members of the organisation – across the Board, leadership team, staff, consultants, collaborators and customers – the ‘Diversity. We Live It’ initiative covers five key areas: (1) Leadership (2) Family Friendly Work Environment (3) Recruitment, (4) Creating a Diverse Talent Pipe Line and (5) Creating The Right Culture.
ThoughtWorks Australia
Emma Gardner
Software design company Thoughtworks is taking deliberate steps to bring gender diversity into direct business focus, and has a mission to be leaders in addressing and changing the industry. In order to improve gender diversity, ThoughtWorks implemented various initiatives, including a focus on gender equality in recruitment, detailed gender remuneration analysis, internal policies and communities, and Women in Leadership Development Programs.
NAB Women in Technology Program – National Australia Bank
Dayle Stevens and Nicole Devine
NAB’s Women in Technology Program (WIT) is aimed at creating sustainable change for diversity and inclusion in the IT industry and demystify what it means to work in technology for women. WIT is supporting and encouraging women to build confidence and resilience, inspiring them to chase their passions and dreams, and to take the leap into technology roles. WIT also helps women gain support networks and meaningful career experiences. At the same time, WIT asks women to ‘pay it forward’ and make a difference for others too. WIT has made an impact on the entire NAB organisation by encouraging and supporting men and women at all levels grow and to support a more inclusive workplace.
Tech Community Engagement WA – Australian Computer Society, Microsoft, FTI, Raynesgoldie Consulting, OTOTGo and CoderDojo
Michelle Sandford, Ming Johanson, Dr Kate Raynes-Goldie, Karen Wellington, Katrina Chapman and Anle-Marne Wheeler-Pretorius
A team of women from the Australian Computer Society and the WA tech community leveraged their combined power, skills and spare time to engage with the broader tech community and work towards the shared goal of encouraging more young people and women into the tech industry. They focused on building community and addressing different avenues of outreach through schools, universities, TAFEs, industry events, hackathons, games jams etc.
