What’s New for the 2026 WID National Awards
What’s New for the 2026 WID National Awards
20 Categories, And More Ways to Nominate
The Women in Digital National Awards are back for 2026, and this year we’ve made some big changes to how we recognise excellence across Australia’s digital and technology industry.
We’ve listened to our community, looked at how the industry is evolving, and rebuilt our category lineup to better reflect the work being done right now. The result? 20 categories that are sharper, more inclusive, and designed to ensure no standout contribution goes unrecognised.
Here’s what’s changed and why.
Recognising That Great Work is a Team Sport
One of the clearest messages from our community has been this: the best digital work doesn’t happen in isolation. Behind every breakthrough product, every seamless customer experience, every secure system, there’s often a team making it happen.
That’s why in 2026, seven categories now accept both individual and team nominations. If you’ve built something brilliant together, we want to hear about it.
Product Excellence, Public Sector Excellence, and Software Engineering Excellence have all expanded from individual-only to welcome team nominations alongside individual entries. And our four brand new categories (more on those below) are built with team nominations in mind from day one.
Four New Categories
We’ve introduced four new categories to fill gaps our community has been telling us about. These are areas where exceptional work was happening, but didn’t have a natural home in our previous lineup of award categories.
Business Support Excellence (Individual or Team) recognises the people and teams powering digital organisations from behind the scenes. Operations, people and culture, finance, legal, project management: the roles that keep everything running so the technology can do its thing.
Cloud & Infrastructure Excellence (Individual or Team) is for the architects and engineers building and managing the platforms on which everything else runs on. Cloud, infrastructure, DevOps, platform engineering: this work deserves its own spotlight.
IT Excellence (Individual or Team) celebrates the professionals and teams delivering IT services, systems, and support that keep organisations moving. From enterprise architecture to service delivery, this category honours the backbone of every digital organisation.
Global Impact Excellence (Organisation or Team) is our most exciting new addition. Australia’s digital industry is increasingly operating at a global scale, and we wanted a category that recognises the organisations and teams driving meaningful impact beyond our borders.
Smarter Categories Through Consolidation
You will notice six categories from last year’s lineup are missing from the list, but nothing has been lost. Instead, we’ve combined and expanded to create categories that better reflect how these roles have evolved.
Digital Experience Excellence brings together what were previously separate CX Leader and UX Leader categories, with broadened criteria that reflect how deeply these disciplines have merged in practice. If you’re shaping how people interact with digital products and services, this is your category.
Growth Leader evolves from Digital Marketer of the Year with a wider lens. It now encompasses the full spectrum of growth-focused leadership, from digital marketing and brand strategy to commercial growth and revenue. Founders driving growth in their organisations will also find a home here.
Founder of the Year and Industry Excellence have been moved as standalone categories, but here’s why that’s actually good news: you were already showing up everywhere. Founders have consistently been among the strongest nominees across our program, from AI Leader to Champion of Change and more. Adding Global Impact Excellence to the mix this year only opens up more pathways. Rather than limiting founders to a single category, we want to encourage you to nominate for the categories that best reflect the work you’re doing right now. Building an AI product? That’s AI Leader. Scaling internationally? That’s Global Impact. Driving change in the industry? Champion of Change is calling. The work founders are doing deserves to be celebrated, and now there are more ways than ever to do exactly that.
Expanded Criteria Where It Matters
Several returning categories have been updated to be more inclusive and to better reflect the breadth of impact happening in our community.
Champion of Change now has broadened criteria, recognising a wider range of advocacy and action driving meaningful change in the digital industry.
Indigenous Leader of the Year has been deliberately expanded. We’ve removed the single financial year restriction to better honour sustained and cumulative contributions, and we’ve broadened what leadership looks like in this space to welcome community-based roles alongside formal technology positions.
Rising Star has shifted from recognising those in their first five years of career to those under 25 years of age. This change ensures the category stays true to its intent: celebrating young people who are at the beginning of their digital careers, rather than experienced professionals making a career pivot into tech.
New Platform, Fresh Start
One more thing to know before you nominate: we’ve migrated to a brand new awards platform for 2026. The good news is that all existing nomination information has been carried across, so nothing from previous years has been lost. The only thing you’ll need to do is create a new login when you visit the portal. It takes less than a minute, and then you’re ready to go.
The Full 2026 Category Lineup
- AI Leader of the Year – Individual
- Allyship in Action – Individual
- Business Support Excellence – Individual or Team
- Champion of Change – Individual
- Cloud & Infrastructure Excellence – Individual or Team
- Cyber Leader of the Year – Individual
- Data Leader of the Year – Individual
- Digital Experience Excellence – Individual or Team
- Digital Transformation Leader of the Year – Individual
- Employer of the Year – Organisation
- Executive Leader of the Year – Individual
- Global Impact Excellence – Organisation or Team
- Growth Leader of the Year – Individual
- Indigenous Leader of the Year – Individual
- IT Excellence – Individual or Team
- Product Excellence of the Year – Individual or Team
- Public Sector Excellence – Individual or Team
- Rising Star of the Year (Under 25) – Individual
- Software Engineering Excellence – Individual or Team
- Technical Leader of the Year – Individual
A Word From Our Founder
Every year, the WID National Awards hold up a mirror to where our industry is heading. This year’s changes reflect what we’re seeing and hearing from the community: that impact is collaborative, that excellence shows up in roles we haven’t always celebrated, and that Australia’s digital talent is making waves well beyond our borders. Whether you’re leading a team, building infrastructure, driving growth, or just getting started in your career, there is a category for you. We can’t wait to see who you nominate.” — Holly Hunt, Founder, Women in Digital
Nominations Are Now Open
The 2026 WID National Awards nominations open 27 May 2026. Don’t wait.
Key Dates
- Nominations Open: 27 May 2026
- Nominations Close: 19 July 2026
- Finalists Announced: 2 September 2026
- Winners Announced: 6 November 2026
You can nominate yourself, a colleague, a team member, or someone whose work deserves to be seen. Because you can’t be what you can’t see.
Nominate now at awards.womenindigital.org