Melbourne CEO of HRTech startup PredictiveHire Barbara Hymen, and co-founder of urban-data startup Neighbourlytics, Lucinda Hartley have been chosen as finalists to compete in the federal government's Australian Women in Tech Pitch next month.
Australian Women in Tech Pitch is an initiative by the federal government to support Australian female entrepreneurs, particularly in the tech sector, to catapult their innovations onto the world stage.
Lucinda and Barbara will each deliver a three-minute pitch in front of a panel of high-profile judges comprised of global industry leaders from Australia, North America and the Asia-Pacific. They will vie to take out what can only be described as a suite of top-notch prizes, which include:
- a Design Thinking Session, Mentoring and Tech Prototype session with IBM Garage Engagement valued at $30,000
- an Alibaba Cloud voucher valued at US$50,000
- automatic entry into an Australian Landing Pad of choice
- complimentary ticket to the world's largest technology event for women, Hopper Down Under – a celebration of diversity in technology in the Asia-Pacific created by women technologists for women technologists.
All finalists will receive mentoring from Main Sequence Ventures and a complimentary ticket to the biggest international women in technology conference.
The event is a joint initiative between Austrade, AusIndustry and the CSIRO's Data61 and includes support from corporate sponsors IBM and Alibaba Group.
About Barbara Hymen and PredictiveHire
Life before PredictiveHire saw Barbara Hymen gain 10 years' experience at the Boston Consulting Group. Since then, she has held leadership roles in a range of sectors, including the arts, professional services and tech.
Most recently she was on the Executive team at the largest digital company in Australia – the REA Group.
Now she's bringing her energy and insight to PredictiveHire to reinvent how organisations and leaders make the most important decisions in business; who to hire and who to promote.
"We use AI technology to give you more confidence that you are hiring the best! Our predictive technology brings objective and valid intelligence to help your organisations make better decisions, and it removes the bias. Our technology is a clever combination of behavioural science and performance data and, just like Netflix or Amazon, provides you with an accurate shortlist to pick from - which candidate, film or size battery will fit that torch."
About Lucinda Hartley and Neighbourlytics
Co-founder of Neighbourlytics, Lucinda Hartley is an urban designer and serial entrepreneur. She's been leading the conversation on urban innovation globally for more than a decade, holding positions with the United Nations, the World Bank and as the consecutive CEOs of award-winning placemaking consultancy CoDesign Studio.
Launched in 2017, Neighbourlytics is one of Australia's fastest growing urban-tech companies. Hartley and her team have created data for more than 500 neighbourhoods in more than 10 countries, as well as being deployed by city-makers to influence major urban development projects from parks to shopping centres.
Neighbourlytics is a social analytics platform for neighbourhoods, pioneering the use of social data in cities. Their proprietary technology delivers on-demand data and revolutionary insights into what makes neighbourhoods unique.
Victoria's digital technology capabilities
Digital technology and innovation are a driving force for economic growth, productivity and competitiveness in Victoria. Regarded as Australia's technology hub, Melbourne is home to more than half of Australia's top 20 technology companies. Research and development capabilities led by world-leading research and innovation in digital usage and applications has given Melbourne a strong competitive edge in key aspects of digital technology.
Global studies published by Deloitte, The Economist Intelligence Unit and AT Kearney establish Melbourne as Australia's leading tech city.
An innovative and tech-ready city
Melbourne is the only Australian city and one of five in the Asia Pacific region to be included in Savill's global study, Tech Cities 2017.
Evaluated across a wide range of criteria such as business and tech environments, talent pool and property costs, Melbourne scored particularly highly for city buzz and wellness. At a lifestyle level 'Savill's Flat White Index', a measure of the ability to get a good coffee in a socially vibey café, puts Melbourne third in the world (and is one of the factors that makes Melbourne one of the most liveable cities in the world).
In the 2017 Smart Cities Index, Melbourne is ranked 10th of the 97 cities surveyed. Of note is the top 10 positioning Melbourne occupies for 4G LTE Internet speed (1st); Smartphone penetration (5th equal) and Urban Planning (4th equal).
