What a brilliant few days. I have been fortunate enough to be shortlisted for the South Coast Tech and Innovation Awards for the Rising Star of the Year category and I have won the TechWomen100 individual award.

The South Coast awards were held in the Leonardo Royal in Southampton on Thursday 15th October, and I turned up for the drinks reception at about 6.15pm before the awards started at 7pm. I didn’t know anybody but Lauren, the lady that runs Women in Tech Hampshire, so Lauren introduced me to a few people and off I went. My table included LABL.IT, Lloyds Bank, and EntustIT which was interesting, totally different types of companies that I would usually deal with. Jason Bradbury announced the awards and had a brilliant skit that involved re-creating a rollercoaster that mimics Moores Law on Minecraft and then giving us a potted history of computing in the time it took him to build it. Absolutely hilarious and incredibly niche which I enjoyed.

Unfortunately, I didn’t win the category, but I did have a great evening – the company was brilliant, the food was great, and the laughs I got around my table were well worth the travel. I’m proud to have gotten to the shortlist nonetheless.

On Friday 16th October, I went to the TechWomen100 awards in Mansion House in London. I went with Emma Dawson, also an IBMer, and it was great to spend time with her. We turned up at 12pm and the reception had a large queue around the corner of the building. The drinks reception was great – a choir sung in the background, the Apps for Good charity were taking raffle tickets, and we were able to get some photos earlier before the ceremony. It was highly packed and busy though, with the beautiful chandeliers of the house.

The awards ceremony was in one of the main halls, with over 300 people in the audience. We had Julia Streets as the M.C., and then Vanessa Vallely as the founder of WeAreTechWomen which have organised the awards. We then had a few speeches before calling up the groups of women which was great to see. We had people giving the awards from all sorts of companies – PWC, KPMG, HSBC, Lloyds Bank, Accenture. It was great!

I feel totally overwhelmed with how excellent the entire experience was, to see all the inspirational women there and because you had no idea why they were there, it was great to see the Champion of the Year and the Editors Choice of the Year too which were more individual awards. There was just a lot of warmth and celebration coming from the end of Women in Tech week and a lot of discussion about how we’re not moving quickly enough on bringing diverse talent into IT. We have more work to do.

What a brilliant couple of days. I’m incredibly fortunate that it feels like a brilliant end to this chapter. I’m excited about what lies ahead! Onwards and upwards.