HOW ARE THE AWARDS JUDGED?

Process:

Whilst this is not an industry association initiative, industry networks were the primary source for locating the inaugural winners. The key networks utilised were:

• AWISE — Australian Women in IT and Science Entity — the national umbrella group that links all the active women in IT groups across Australia (membership approx 2,200)
• WIT — Women in Technology — the premier Queensland based women in technology association (membership approx 600)
• The networking contacts and membership base was used to identify 6 women who met the criteria
• Once identified the nominees were asked to complete a profile on their business success and how they met the criteria

For subsequent awards, nominations are sought from individuals and industry.

Criteria:

• The business must at a minimum be 50% owned by the woman nominated.
• The women nominated must be the entrepreneurs behind the business (not hired staff) — they are to be the producers responsible for innovation, creation and transformation
• The business must have a revenue per annum of at least $1 million dollars, or to have raised more than $1 million in investment funds
• The business is to be classified as technology based eg: software development, web enterprises, databases, project management.

Judging and Announcement:

In the inaugural year a multi dimensional judging panel was not appointed — instead experience from people in judging other awards — eg: Asia Pacific ICT Awards, Secrets of Australian Innovation Awards, WIT Awards and Project Management Awards was used to review nominee profiles and map to the criteria.