Entries for the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum’s (ANZLF) second Trans-Tasman Innovation and Growth Awards are open. The awards showcase success stories focused on innovation, collaboration and growth across Australian and New Zealand emerging businesses.
The Aussie tech industry generates $167bn per year and employs 861,000 Australians. The industry is the second largest job creator, just behind retail, and is on track to employ one million people by 2025 according to research by Accenture and released by the Tech Council.
ANZLF aims to bolster innovation in ANZ
The second year of the Trans-Tasman Innovation and Growth Awards is an opportunity to reinforce Australia and New Zealand’s places on the global stage as innovative hubs.
The ANZLF is calling for emerging businesses with innovative ideas that have been converted to business success to spotlight themselves in front the biggest names in the business.
ANZLF Innovation co-chair and Xero Chair David Thodey AO said, “an important part of the single economic market between Australia and New Zealand is the ability to recognise companies who are using technology in innovative and entrepreneurial ways.”
“I am looking forward to being inspired by the nominees and finalists again this year.”
ANZLF Innovation co-chair and CEO of Callaghan Innovation Vic Crone said, “The Trans-Tasman Innovation & Growth Awards is all about attracting the most successful innovation companies. It’s about highlighting those companies to inspire others and to build a network of organisations across the Tasman and bringing the two ecosystems closer together.”
Accenture, the awards’ founding partner, will continue its support, helping to fuel economic prosperity through innovation across Australia and New Zealand. The company will use its network to enable opportunities for local emerging businesses to continue to scale.
Accenture ANZ Managing Director — Strategy & Consulting Lead, Louise May said, “We are committed to supporting economic growth and prosperity in Australia and New Zealand.”
“Our support of the Trans-Tasman Innovation and Growth Awards as an initiative that identifies, supports and rewards innovation from both nations reflects our purpose to deliver on the promise of technology and human ingenuity to the benefit of our communities.”
ANZLF announces schedule for the awards
Submissions for entry close on 15 April 2022 with the top ten finalists to be announced in early June. Four winners will then be announced at the ANZLF Celebration Dinner on 7 July 2022, sharing in $100,000 of prize money. They will have the opportunity to connect with industry luminaries who have shaped innovation in Australia and New Zealand.
Previous winners of the award include SaaS business Whispli, bio-tech Kazia Therapeutics, agri-tech Robotics Plus and engineering company Tectonus. Whispli CEO and Co-founder Sylvain Mansotte said, “Unsurprisingly, COVID has been the biggest challenge for Whispli.”
“It took us weeks to determine how we could leverage our nimble team to leverage the disruption. We focused our energy on a new adjacent product that would address employee wellbeing and the need for firms to know if their teams were okay in this new normal.”
“Being a winner of the 2019 ANZLF Trans-Tasman Innovation and Growth Awards has been extremely beneficial to Whispli. It allowed us to reach out to our contacts at the ANZLF and Accenture to facilitate introductions to key decision-makers. Thanks to our capacity to innovate and adapt, our revenue has grown 50% year on year,” Sylvian continued.
ANZLF Co-chairs Pip Marlow and Greg Lowe welcomed the 2022 Trans-Tasman Innovation and Growth Awards launch. Ms Marlow said, “The Awards programme is an exciting feature of the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum programme, which will highlight the dramatic acceleration of innovation and other trends over the last couple of years.”
For more information on the awards, please see the website.
