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Nominations are open for the 7NEWS Young Achiever Awards 2025!

Do you know a tech savvy young Victorian who deserves to have their idea shown to the world? Get nominating for the 2025 Luminary Tech Visionary Award!

Clarice Greening

27 November 2024

4 minute read

You know that sense of awe when you watch children fearlessly peering over a high balcony or reaching out to touch the tigers at the zoo? As we grow up, it’s easy to lose that sense of fearless wonder, and sometimes the comfort of the mundane feels safer than the pursuit of something that excites us.

That fearless wonder is what drives the Luminary Tech Visionary Award, which celebrates the next wave of young visionaries that are using technology to lead the way with their ground-breaking ideas. Sponsored by Luminary, the Tech Visionary Award is part of the annual Victorian Young Achiever Awards.

This award is such a great step towards accelerating a career in the industry, helping young people thrive. 

We see the future in digital a bit like building a house. Those just entering the industry bring fresh blueprints and ideas, and those with years of experience can provide the solid foundation and structural know-how. Together, they create work that is functional and innovative, and that is what this award is all about.

As a digital agency, Luminary strives to use digital technology to create experiences that make the human experience brighter. Through the Tech Visionary Award, Luminary will support young people who are inspiring or influencing others in the field of digital. They may have a fully functioning product or service, or it might just be a killer idea that’s just waiting for its moment to shine. The Luminary Tech Visionary Award will recognise young people demonstrating creative thinking and making a significant contribution and social impact through the use of digital.

The award is open to anyone 30 years of age and under as of 31 December 2024. 

How to enter

Award candidates can either nominate themselves by filling out the nomination form or they can be referred by someone else

All entries must:

  • provide an overview of the product or service and how it utilises digital technology
  • detail how the idea for the product or service came about
  • outline the social impact of the product or service
  • provide evidence of the progress that has been made so far (for initiatives at the concept stage, provide a detailed business plan)
  • outline any challenges that have been (or are currently being) faced along the way to realising the vision.

Deadline for submission

Nominations close on Wednesday 29 January.

The judging process

Judging will take place in March 2025. The judging panel will include representatives from award sponsors, community leaders and independent expert judges for each category. Four category finalists will initially be determined, and then one category winner will be selected as the Luminary Tech Visionary Award winner.

The winner of the Luminary Tech Visionary Award will also be in for the chance to be selected as the overall state winner, the Victorian Young Achiever of the Year.

Why enter?

Each winner will receive a free 30-minute strategy call with DMT Coaching (valued at $400), to build a step-by-step plan for reaching their next level of growth. All winners will also receive a 10 percent discount on the Empowered Mind Coaching Program, a 6-month journey of transformation supporting the monetisation and scaling of their passion. Winners will also take home a really impressive looking trophy.

And if that wasn't enough:

  • it's free and easy to enter 
  • a media release will be sent out for every nominee who enters, in turn increasing promotion for their entry
  • if the nominee becomes a semi-finalist or a finalist, the awards organisers will promote them on social media and media releases will be sent to relevant local papers
  • everyone who is entered in the awards receives a certificate of achievement.

Previous Tech Visionary winners 

Zoe Condliffe – Founder of She's a Crowd

Zoe was living in a van when she launched her startup She's A Crowd as a solo founder. Now she has a thriving social enterprise and inspires others as a speaker at events like SXSW.

She’s a Crowd is an always-on platform that uses using crowdsourcing technology and data analytics to provide insights to decision makers to make cities safer for women. 

The platform allows anyone, anywhere in the world, to share their experiences relating to gender-based violence. The stories are geotagged and timestamped and then aggregated for important insights that feed into the decision-making processes of governments, universities and NGOs. 

So far, She’s A Crowd has more than 120,000 stories in its database, which are being translated into data for public transport, health research and public safety initiatives.

Woman founder smiling infront of wall

Elise Sutherland – Founder of Stelect

What started as a uni project in Elise’s final year of her Biomedical Engineering Masters degree at Melbourne University, has now escalated to being featured in Forbes' 30 under 30 and changing the game in medical imaging. 

Stelect is a company that has developed the smallest high-resolution ultrasound medical imaging sensor in the world. This unique and patented technology has removed the guesswork out of many clinical procedures.

The Stelect technology is groundbreaking because it allows for imaging to occur in places in the human body where this has never been possible before. This includes imaging inside blood vessels within the brain, inside the coronary arteries, peripheral vasculature and endobronchial system (inside the oesophagus and lungs). 

Young woman and man on stage smiling with trophy

If you know someone who deserves their idea in tech to be heard, then go ahead and nominate them on the Young Achiever Awards website to win the Luminary Tech Visionary Award 2025!

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