Some of our team members in front of the Opera House

The moments that shaped our year

From winning the Australian web industry’s most prestigious award, to being named on the Best Workplaces List in Australia, Indonesia and Asia, it’s been a pretty big year for us. Here are some of our highlights.

Tami Iseli

04 December 2023

4 minute read

As always, our year has been characterised by a kaleidoscope of activity, both in and outside of the office. But if we had to pick an overriding theme, it would have to be ‘connection’. 2023 saw many of our Australian team members taking advantage of the opportunity to work out of our Bali office, and vice versa. We also hosted a range of in-person events, and saw a gradual rise in the number of people making their way back into offices to collaborate the old-fashioned way. A particular highlight was our presence at the inaugural Australian South by Southwest…

Taking SXSW Sydney by storm

Luminary's SXSW team in front of the Harbour Bridge

In mid October, 33 of our team members descended on Sydney from different corners of the globe to hear from a star-studded line-up of industry experts and visionaries at South by Southwest (SXSW). A veritable Mecca for tech innovators and creatives around the world, this was the first time in its 37-year history that SXSW had been held outside of its home of Austin, Texas. Over five days, our team rubbed shoulders with tech royalty including Slack Co-Founder Cal Henderson and renowned Futurist Amy Webb. The team attended a range of sessions, covering everything from AI (of course) to non-obvious thinking. Back on home soil, each Luminary attendee shared their experiences with the rest of the team through either a lightning talk or an article on our blog

Winning Best Site at the Web Awards 

Unicef winning Australian Web Award

Back in May, we shared the honour of winning the overall site of the year award in the Australian Web Awards with our client, UNICEF Australia. The McFarlane Prize for Excellence goes to the entry that performed the best across all five judging disciplines – accessibility, content, design, development and user experience. The UNICEF Australia website, built on headless CMS platform Kontent.ai, was the product of a partnership between UNICEF and Luminary that began in 2020.  

We also managed to pull off yet another record-breaking year in terms of awards won, with a total of 41 gongs as at the beginning of December

Being named a Best Workplace – x3!

Luminary's Bali team at the beach

Luminary was named on not one but three Best Workplaces™ lists in 2023, making the cut for Australia, Indonesia and Asia. Our winning streak kicked off with the Best Workplaces in Australia list, coming in at No.28 for Small Workplaces, followed by the Indonesia list where we ranked No.10 for Small to Medium Workplaces, and then the Asia list where we were ranked No.20 for Small to Medium Workplaces. Luminary has now been certified as a Great Place to Work for eight consecutive years in Australia and three in Indonesia.

Raising over $13,000 for Fred Hollows

Our Fred's Big Run team with Hardhat in front of the Janet Lady Clarke rotunda at the Tan for our kick-off event

In our fourth year of taking on Fred’s Big Run to raise money for the Fred Hollows Foundation, we went head-to-head with competitor digital agencies Devotion and Hardhat. Collectively, the three agencies raised $17,420, restoring sight to almost 700 people. The inaugural ‘FBR Agency Challenge’ even attracted the attention of media industry publication Mumbrella. This year’s tally brought our total raised funds over the four years to $35,330, with sight restored to up to 1413 people!

Elevating our tech partnerships

Headless CMS event panel

Following on from receiving Optimizely’s APAC Solution Partner of the Year Award late last year, in 2023 we became the first ever Umbraco Platinum Partner in Australia. At the same time, we were instrumental in the establishment of an Umbraco hosting region in Australia. In March, we hosted a panel event on headless v traditional CMSs, featuring representatives from Contentstack, Kontent.ai, Optimizely, Sitecore and Umbraco. We also sponsored and presented at several of our tech partners’ events, including Optimizely’s Digital Summit, Kontent Horizons and Kentico Connection.

Launching ‘Future Luminaries’ 

Future Luminaries is an internship program based out of our Bali office that offers participants an opportunity to acquire essential skills and knowledge for a career in digital. The program emphasises interpersonal and collaboration skills, an understanding of agency life, effective communication, and collaboration. Over 12 weeks, the successful candidates – Haqi and Artha – delved into Agile methodologies, project management techniques, and the fundamentals of web development, with support from Luminary's Indonesian and Australian teams. For us, this program presented an amazing opportunity to give back to the tech community in Indonesia, and provide space for our team members to share their expertise through mentorship.

Future Luminaries, Haqi and Artha

Onboarding a raft of new clients

We added a host of new clients to our stable during 2023, including: ANZCA (Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists), Beyond Blue, Fluent Commerce, GroundProbe, Guild Insurance, Incitec Pivot, Magistrate’s Court of Victoria, Money3, Nintendo Australia, Online Education Services, QIC Real Estate, SILK Laser Clinics, St Vincent de Paul, Victorian Inspectorate and Zinfra. We extend a huge thanks to all our clients – new and old – for choosing to be part of the Luminary family.

Grid of Luminary's 2023 new client logos

Expanding our team 

In 2023 we welcomed 14 new team members, with the arrival of Client Manager Liza Gerreyn; Producers Jaka Sardjono, Dani Ryder, Dani Logan, Bridget Pringle and Kaitlyn Ladd; Front End Developers Nadia Mayangputri, Wie Bagus and Wahyu Sasmitro; Web Developers Erian Suwandi, Eki Fauzi, Rahman Fithratur and Yogie Sanjaya; QA Analysts Ardhana Praharsana and Iqbal Tawakkal; and Copywriter Jess Goode. Our new recruits have hit the ground running and we're an anticipating an exciting year ahead with them on board in 2024! 

Picture of Luminary new-starters

Launching our new agency showreel

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