Nominate female game-changers in the ICT industry by 18 March.

The Wired4Women Tech Forum has partnered with ITWeb Brainstorm to launch an ambitious new awards programme that aims to identify and recognise women who are making a difference in the South African tech sector.

There are 11 award categories, focusing on female excellence across a wide range of roles - from top execs to outstanding students, and everyone in between.

The Wired4Women Tech Forum is an association of IT leaders that was founded three years ago to redress gender imbalance in the sector by offering networking opportunities, mentorship, and training.

Nomonde White-Ndlovu, chair of Wired4Women and CIO of Bidvest Bank, stresses the importance of role models, noting that ‘you can’t be what you can’t see’. “We want our daughters to grow up in a world where they can be whoever they want to be, They need the role models to aspire to and these awards aim to showcase these role models,” she says.

Award categories and selection criteria

The inaugural Wired4Women Awards feature 11 categories:

• Leader of the Year (CIO, CTO, CISO)

• Tech Entrepreneur
• Top Tech Innovator
• Tech for Good
• IT Business Development Executive
• Rising Star in Security
• Rising Star in Cloud
• Rising Star in Emerging Technologies
• Top Tech Student
• Mentor of the Year
• Trailblazer

The judging panel, including Wired4Women board members, ITWeb editors and other senior industry representatives, will determine the winners. The announcement of the winners will take place at a gala event in Sandton on 22 May.

Review the awards criteria and submit your nominations by COB on 18 March.