Stevie Award Finalists Announced; Aussie and Kiwi Businesses Dominate

Fourteen Australian and one New Zealand small business women were named finalists in a swag of categories in the 14th annual Stevie® Awards for Women in Business, and will ultimately be a Gold, Silver, or Bronze Stevie Award winner in the program.

The women will head to New York in November to attend the award and immerse themselves in workshops to help their businesses grow.

The Stevie Awards for Women in Business honour women executives, entrepreneurs, employees and the companies they run – worldwide. The Stevie Awards have been hailed as the world’s premier business awards.

Annette Densham, co-founder of Award Winning Accelerator, said over 25 categories were entered. “At the start of the year, I teamed up with Lauren Clemett to host a series of lunches to inspire people to enter awards to acknowledge their growth, successes and to take the time to stop and savour all they have achieved over the past 12 months,” she said.

“So many of us in small business just keep swimming, day in, day out, working on our businesses and not really stopping to pat ourselves on the back. We are great at doing but not so great at celebrating.

“Lauren and I want to show our fellow travellers in business that awards, the right awards, can be incredibly valuable to a business’s reputation and to attracting the right clients.”

As part of the program, Annette and Lauren are taking the women to New York in November to attend the awards ceremony.

“Far too often, people in small business hide behind the doing, especially women. We don’t want to attract too much attention for fear of being pulled down, judged or of having too much success. We just get on with it. That doesn’t cut it in small business. You have to get good at marketing yourself. Our trip to New York is combining business, pleasure and learning in an Award Winning Adventure to learn how to do that,” Annette said.

“We are stepping away from our day to day and as a group, going to support each other by learning how to better tell our stories and accept our successes.

“I am really chuffed to say, through the training we provided in the lead up to the awards, we are all finalists.”

Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award winners will be announced during a gala event at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York on Friday, November 17. Nominated women executives and entrepreneurs from the USA and several other countries are expected to attend. The event will be broadcast on Livestream.

More than 1,500 entries were submitted this year for consideration in more than 90 categories, including Executive of the Year, Entrepreneur of the Year, Company of the Year, Startup of the Year, Women Helping Women, and Women Run Workplace of the Year.

The finalists are:

Randa Halberih, Dealing With Autism (NSW)

Kelly Kingston, NUU – Youth. The Real World (QLD)

Lauren Clemett, Ultimate Business Propellor (QLD)

Maree Moreland, Kelso Consulting (QLD)

Deb Smith, Create A Wealthy Life (VIC)

Kathy Ashton, Flourish Nutritional Medicine (VIC)

Liana Allison, Liana Allison (QLD)

Belinda Dolan, Clariti Group (QLD)

Kimberly Sumner, SheProsperity (NZ)

Annette Densham, Publicity Genie (QLD)

Ana Rajaeian Tonkin, Clariti Group (QLD)

Kerry Dutton, Think180degrees (QLD)

Cathryn Warburton, Acacia Law (QLD)

Julie Johnson, Sundogz (QLD)

Finalists were chosen by more than 170 professionals worldwide serving on five specialised judging committees. Jurors’ average scores will also determine the Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award placements from among the finalists, which will be revealed at the November 17 event in New York.

ENDS

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