23 yr old Indian finalist in Technology Playmaker Awards '19

Booking.com, one of the world’s largest e-commerce companies and a digital technology leader, announced the finalists for the second edition of the Booking.com Technology Playmaker Awards. Introduced in September 2017, the awards are dedicated to recognizing and celebrating inspiring women working across the world who are disrupting and transforming businesses, industries, communities and society using technology.

Anubha Maneshwar, a 23 year old founder of GirlScript Foundation Pvt Ltd, is a finalist in the category of ‘role model’ that recognises an inspirational woman in the field of technology, who is driving change through that role, and who is encouraging the next generation of female technology leaders. Anubha’s efforts are focused on helping beginners in technology. She is a former speaker at PyCon US and mentored at Mozilla Open Leaders Program.

The full list and information about the shortlisted finalists can be found here

This year’s finalists come from 21 countries, including India, US, UK, France, Germany, Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands, Finland, Lithuania, Ukraine, Canada, South Africa, China, Mexico, Nigeria, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Ghana, highlighting that women in nearly every corner of the world are using technology in novel and impactful ways. Building on the response to the 2018 awards which were open to nominations from across Europe, this year’s awards were open to women in tech worldwide at all levels in any technology or IT-related field.

The seven categories for the 2019 Booking.com Technology Playmaker Awards were designed to recognize the impact and contributions of women in tech in areas ranging from entrepreneurship, innovation, community impact and leadership, among others. The six individual winners and one corporate winner selected will be announced at a gala dinner in London, UK, on March 13^th along with the overall Technology Playmaker of the Year 2019. The finalists and other event attendees – including women and supporters in tech organizations, start-up founders and female tech professionals – will hear from Eileen Burbidge, MBE, venture capitalist and founding partner of Passion Capital, as well as Hadeel Ayoub, last year’s Technology Playmaker of the Year winner and founder and CEO of BrightSign, a wearable technology start-up developing enabling innovations dedicated to facilitating communication for individuals with non-verbal disabilities.

“Following our inaugural awards, we have this year received double the number of nominations from highly inspiring and accomplished women in tech across twice the number of countries, resulting in the high calibre of finalists,” said Gillian Tans, CEO of Booking.com. “The shortlist highlights the impressive breadth of achievements and contributions that women across varying stages of their tech careers are making every day. From young entrepreneurs who developed a unique device which, coupled with smart data processing, allows women to test for cervical cancer at home, to a digital leader who has designed a platform that detects a person’s location following an earthquake, we’ve been absolutely astonished by the incredible contributions to society, community and business being made by women in tech globally.”

“Recent Booking.com research, which we undertook to better understand the continuing gender diversity challenge in tech, tells us that 43% of women in tech around the world want to see and have access to more role models and mentors in the sector. Recognizing and celebrating the successes of the women who are transforming the tech industry is important to Booking.com as it helps champion their stories and encourage more women to enter the field and push the boundaries of what they can achieve. If we are to truly move the needle towards a more diverse and gender-balanced future, we need to encourage women on their journey within technology so they can continue to innovate and inspire future generations,” Tans concluded.

The winners will be selected by an esteemed judging panel of executives spanning global tech companies and successful startups including Skyscanner, Happn, Booking.com, WeTransfer, Amazon Web Services, Wormhole and All Turtles, as well as representatives from academia, the European Parliament and a leading global business media title. Each category winner will receive a monetary prize of €5,000. The overall Technology Playmaker of the Year, who will be selected from among the individual category winners, will receive an additional €10,000 prize.

Recent research from Booking.com sheds light into the key barriers for women to enter in the tech sector. 42% of women in tech in India feel their voices and contributions are under-appreciated in the workplace. This sentiment is felt the strongest among women in India, the figure is double the global average. Non-flexible benefit packages (38%) is another chief hurdle faced by women in the industry today. These are the gender diversity challenges that Booking.com seeks to unearth and help address through this awards program and other related initiatives.