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 or technology related service (e.g. training, recruitment or consulting).

Judging and Announcement:

In the inaugural year a multi dimensional judging panel was not appointed, instead experience from people in judging other awards (e.g. 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.

The 2008 Award judging panel consisted of IT and life sciences industry representatives.