The BlackBerry Women and Technology Awards took place in 2005, 2006 and 2008, and were created to recognise the immense importance of encouraging more young women into technology careers, and promote the vast array of opportunities that are available to women in the IT profession in the UK.
womenintechnology.co.uk are strong supporters of the awards, and we have included below the winners of the awards and some pictures from the events.
BlackBerry Women and Technology Awards 2008
The third annual BlackBerry Women and Technology Awards ceremony was held at the Marriot Grosvenor Square on May 6th and saw seven gongs handed out.
Maggie Berry, Director of womenintechnology proudly announced the winner for the Best Use of Technology by Under 30 Year Old Woman, and said “Young women are the future of the industry and we want as many of them as possible to bring their talents into the IT profession… I hope that the nominees and indeed the winner of this category will step up to provide that role model status”.
Among the success stories of the evening was Lizbeth Goodman from SMARTlab, a digital media institute at the University of East London who was the winner of the Blackberry Outstanding Woman in Technology 2008.
Meanwhile, also in the lime light were Jayne Opperman of Lloyds TSB who won the award for best use of technology by a woman within the corporate sector, as well as Kate Bishop of Dell who was identified as the best female mentor.
Commenting on the event, Charmaine Eggberry, Vice-President and Managing Director in Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Research In Motion, said: "Once again I am astounded by the high level of talent we have witnessed in this year's entrants. Each year our winners go on to become fantastic role models and champions of our industry."
BlackBerry Women and Technology Awards 2006
The second BlackBerry awards saw new categories being added into the mix, such as Best Female Entrepreneur and Most Promising Woman in Technology Under 25 - an award that womenintechnology.co.uk were proud to be sponsoring. The ceremony was hosted by Kate Silverton, a key member of the BBC Breakfast News Team.
Shirin Dehghan, CEO of Arieso won the big prize of the night, taking home the award for Outstanding Woman in Technology 2006. Sherin said since said “winning the BlackBerry Woman and Technology Award last year has been a real boost to me personally and has helped accelerate the success of my company”.
Other winners on the night included:
- Mandy Chessell, Software Researcher, IBM: Best Woman in Technology – Corporate Sector
- Beti Williams, Director, IT Wales - Best Woman in Technology – Public Sector / Academia
- Shirin Dehghan, CEO, Arieso: Best Women in Technology – SME
- Tania Howarth, CIO, EMEA, Coca-Cola: Best Women in Technology – Pan European
- Caramel Quin, Writer, Freelance Journalist – Best Female Technology Writer
- Karen Petrie, Research Fellow, University of St.Andrews – Most Promising Woman in Technology Under 25
- Ann-Marie Slavin, Managing Director, OPT2VOTE Ltd. – Best Use of Technology by a Female Entrepreneur
- Goldman Sachs – Best Company for Advancing Women in Technology
BlackBerry Women and Technology Awards 2005
Presented by Daisy McAndrew, Chief Political Correspondent for ITN, the first BlackBerry Women and Technology awards were a great success, recognising many inspirational women in IT. Meg Munn, Deputy Minister for Women and Equality said of the stories she heard at the awards “They’ve been truly inspiring and I will take away with me a real impression of the work that’s been done”.
The winner of BlackBerry Outstanding Woman in Technology 2005 was Jackie Edwards, Lecturer for the women’s access course at De Montfort University.
Other winners on the night included:
- Annette Vernon, Department of Constitutional affairs: Best Woman in the Public Sector
- Vicky Reeves, Managing Director and Founder of Chameleon Net: Best Woman in Technology in a Business with Less than 250 Staff
- Jackie Edwards, Lecturer for the women’s access course at De Montfort University: Best Women in Academia
- Jo Best, Silicon.com: Best Woman Technology Writer
- Accenture: Best Company for Advancing Women in Technology
