After an incredible debut last year, it is a great pleasure to launch the InnovationAus Awards for Excellence 2022, a six-month program that aims to highlight and celebrate the incredible talent and amazing products and services being produced by the Australian innovation ecosystem.
These awards reflect the InnovationAus editorial reporting. We have strived to cover a broad horizontal layer of technology and innovation across the many different sectors and silos that make up this ecosystem.
We want to connect the different parts of the system. The awards will again celebrate 13 categories that cover the broadest expanse of Australian achievement. There is so much to be proud of in this country – to paraphrase a former Prime Minister of recent history, there has never been a more exciting time to be alive.*
The InnovationAus Awards for Excellence are a six-month program of articles, podcasts and video aimed at highlighting the outstanding community of people and businesses that are building innovative new products and services and taking them to the world.
The program will culminate with a 500-person gala dinner at The Cutaway, a spectacular new venue at the Barangaroo Reserve.
“These awards have been a revelation. Bringing together such an inspiring and energy-infused group of outstanding entrepreneurs and innovators really is a highlight for us at InnovationAus,” Corrie McLeod, the publisher and chief executive of InnovationAus.com, said.
“These people and their achievements need to be celebrated. The number and calibre of incredible people and companies that came through the award program last year was something that all Australians should be proud of.”
InnovationAus Awards for Excellence 2022 Categories:
- CreativeTech
- Cybersecurity
- Defence and Defence-related Sovereign Capability
- Digital Health and HealthTech
- Energy & Renewables
- Food and AgriTech
- Industry 4.0
- Manufacturing Innovation
- Software Innovation
- Space, Earth Observation and Geospatial
- People’s Choice Award
- Translation Hero Award
- Australian Hero Award
The 2022 InnovationAus Awards for Excellence have been made possible with the support of our foundation sponsors: NSW Government, Verizon, Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre (DHCRC), Innovative Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre (IMCRC), METS Ignited, and Mimecast.
Our partners so far for 2022 include the Australian Society for Computers and the Law, ANDHealth, CyRise, Robotics Australia Group, Spacecubed, and the UTS Startup Hub.
For all the innovators and entrepreneurs out there, this is a call to arms! We encourage you to put yourself forward (or to nominate someone else or another company that you believe is deserving of public recognition for outstanding work).
Don’t be shy. Australians can be guilty of underplaying their greatness. Don’t do this. We want you to nominate so that your peers will have the opportunity to roll you in glitter, out on stage and shine a spotlight on you.
*The recent Prime Minister I was referring to was of course Malcolm Turnbull, and is taken from his remarks at his first appearance in front of media just moments after the Liberal party room had elected him leader, replacing Tony Abbott – but before he had been sworn in as PM.
This was in 2015, just a few months after InnovationAus.com was launched.
The extended comment was this:
“The Australia of the future has to be a nation that is agile, that is innovative, that is creative,” Mr Turnbull said.
“We cannot be defensive, we cannot future proof ourselves. We have to recognise that the disruption that we see driven by technology, the volatility and change is our friend, is our friend if we are agile and smart enough to take advantage of it.”
“There has never been a more exciting time to be alive than today and there has never been a more exciting time to be an Australian.
“We will ensure that all Australians understand that their Government recognises the opportunities of the future and is putting in place the policies and the plans to enable them to take advantage of it.”
I am reminded of this quote as we head into another federal election. These words were a breath of fresh air at the time, and really produced a surge of energy across the tech and innovation ecosystem.
You can find more information about the awards including entry forms and tickets to attend the gala dinner here.
Do you know more? Contact James Riley via Email.