Now in its fifth year, the Asia edition of the Women in IT Awards have recognised and celebrated women, allies, and organisations across Asia for their outstanding contribution to the tech industry.

The 2023 awards ceremony aims to showcase the impact of successful transformations, innovations, and growth of the past two years, as businesses looked to navigate a global pandemic.

We continue to see high levels of dedication, transformation and innovation from individuals and organisations alike across the region, with female talent gaining ground to gradually close the gender gap present across the sector.

An April 2022 Deloitte Insight article reported that women in tech leadership are making the fastest advances towards achieving gender diversity.

The categories, and how to nominate

Judges for the awards are on the lookout for individuals, organisations and initiatives that have gone above and beyond when it comes to innovation and representation, and that have demonstrated a huge impact on businesses, employees, and the wider industry.

By nominating, you can shine a spotlight on outstanding industry talent and role models, as well as the employers that are implementing diversity initiatives that continue to spearhead real change in the tech sector.

22 categories are being featured at the ceremony, namely:

• Advocate of the Year: Supporting the cause of getting more women and diverse groups of people into the tech industry.
• Ally of the Year (man, non-binary, gender non-conforming): Leading improvement of diversity levels within IT, the organisation and/or the wider community.
• Chief Information/Technology Officer of the Year: Demonstrating positive impact on the company’s top line and driven new customer value through the innovative use of technology.
• Data Leader of the Year: Demonstrating successful deployment or organisation-wide usage of data technologies.
• DEI Tech Platform of the Year: A key tech solution which supports HR and DEI departments in their efforts to identify, track and measure diversity, equity and inclusion metrics.
• DEI Initiative of the Year: A project or initiative that has evidently improved recruitment, onboarding, development and/or progression, networks and inclusion of underrepresented talent.
• Digital Transformation Leader of the Year : Demonstrating leadership of an IT/digital transformation or business change programme driven by tech.
• Diversity Lead of the Year: Demonstrating success in addressing inequalities and improving outcomes, ensuring a culture where all employees can thrive.
• Employer of the Year (organisation/company): Demonstrating great effort to attract and retain more diverse tech talent.
• Entrepreneur of the Year: Demonstrating excellent growth through a growth mindset, inclusive and inspirational leadership, and/or standout achievements.
• IT Team of the Year: Delivering real value – with tangible business results – to an organisation. 
• Lifetime Achievement Award: For achievements over a long period of time which have made an important contribution to the general standing of the tech industry.
• Mental Health Initiative of the Year: Achieving demonstrable success in improving the health and wellbeing of all employees.
• Newcomer of the Year: Demonstrating rapid progression in their role having entered the tech space for the first time within the last two years.
• Next Generation Leader of the Year: For female talent under the age of 30, or who turns 30 in 2023, who have progressed rapidly though their career, and demonstrated business value and innovation through the use of tech.
• Outstanding Diversity Network of the Year: Striving to ensure the views of its community are heard and acted on to change the status quo.
• Returner of the Year: For female talent who left employment and returned to the tech industry after a significant time away (minimum of two years).
• Security Leader of the Year: Delivering outstanding work, implemented innovative approaches to security and contributed to the impact of policies, procedures and projects within the business.
• Social Impact Project of the Year: Demonstrating a high level of social responsibility, charity work or green and sustainable initiatives that are driven or implemented using pioneering digital techniques.
• Social Mobility Project of the Year: For an outstanding contribution to addressing social-economic inequalities.
• Tech Start-up of the Year (led by a woman): Creating innovative processes and ways of working to drive a coherent and sustainable working strategy.
• Woman of the Year: For a role model who has demonstrated a high degree of excellence, innovation and leadership in the last five years, and shone a light on the great things women in tech can achieve.

To put forward a candidate for any of the above categories, please find the appropriate portal, here.

Related:

Why diversity and inclusion matter for technology — The fact is that diversity and inclusion in your tech team fuel productivity, creativity, and innovation. And it may be that technology itself holds the key for reaching out to a more inclusive workforce.

Why you need more women on your data science team — Companies that embrace diversity and especially women, embedding their data science team will outperform competitors, says research.