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Queensland businesswoman Yvette Adams has won the WiT Entrepreneurial Award at the prestigious Women in Technology (WiT) Awards held in Brisbane on 7 September 2012. Yvette’s company, The Creative Collective also took out the WiT Employer of Choice Award on the night.
The WIT Awards is an annual awards program developed by Women in Technology in association with industry to celebrate the outstanding talent of women in the technology industry.
The Creative Collective, a creative services and training agency based on the Sunshine Coast, was recognised as the Employer of Choice at the awards for their commitment to providing a flexible and equal opportunity working environment and for their strong use of technology.
Founder of The Creative Collective, Yvette Adams (pictured above), was recognised as an individual at the awards winning the Entrepreneurial Award. The win saw Yvette pick up a cash prize and 12 months of mentoring from 10 of the top executives in the industry including representatives from Google, GBST (who wrote the software which underpins the ASX stock exchange) and the Queensland Government.
In 2012, the Entrepreneurial Award was offered for the first time in memory of Sue Wickenden, a former member of the WIT committee and highly successful entrepreneur in her own right, who died tragically in a bobsledding accident on Mt Cootha last year. Sue Wickenden’s husband Brad and son were in attendance at the awards.
“It was an incredible night and I am truly honoured to have been recognised with the Employer of Choice award,” said Yvette Adams. “In 2007 the business was just me, but we are really proud to now employ 5 staff, 35 contractors – many of whom are women and who work around their children, and 2 franchisees. Of course we couldn’t do what we do without each and every one of them. The Entrepreneurial Award however is a truly special honour.”
A mother of two, Yvette Adams has worked as a freelance writer, speaker, author, PR/marketing consultant, editor and events manager.
Yvette was born on the cusp of Generation X & Y into a techie family which at any one time had several computers littered about the house. She started her first business at the age of 17 – a newspaper – which was bought out by an American entrepreneur after its first issue.
She then created her second business, an online tee-shirt business. Within one month of launching the t-shirt business in 2002, Yvette received a Government Grant and won a website award. In 2006 she sold the business to concentrate on her latest and most successful business venture to date, The Creative Collective.
“My business is at a point now where I need some highly experienced advisers to guide me on some big opportunities and decisions I am currently faced with, including the development of some pretty innovative social media training and online delivery formats, and to have access to these outstanding business minds, who between them have many years of experience, is just what I needed right now. I’ll be using this opportunity to its fullest potential,” said Yvette.
The Other 2012 Women in Technology Award Winners are:
- WiT Professional Award sponsored by HP – Phia Damsma
- Infotech Outstanding Achievement Award sponsored by Datacom – Maree Adshead
- WiT Rising Star Award Sponsored by QUT (IHBI) – Eve MacDonald-Madden with Highly Commended going to Mia Woodruff
- Biotech Research Award sponsored by UQ – Margaret Mayfield
- Infotech Research Award sponsored by UQ – Shazia Sadiq
- WiT Biotech Outstanding Achievement Award sponsored by WiT – Judith Clements with Highly Commended going to Christine Beveridge
- WiT PhD Career Start sponsored by Griffith University – Manaswini Sivaramakrishnan with Highly Commended going to Jana McCaskill