Booking.com Announces Finalists for its Inaugural Technology Playmaker Awards
Finalists include women from more than 10 European countries with remarkable achievements in sectors as diverse as education, sustainability and healthcare
AMSTERDAM, NL – 5 February 2018 - Today Booking.com, one of the world’s largest e-commerce companies and a digital technology leader, announced the finalists for the inaugural Booking.com Technology Playmaker Awards. The awards aim to celebrate and recognise women on the European tech scene who have disrupted and are transforming businesses, industries, and communities through the use of technology.
Finalists come from more than 10 European countries, including Austria, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Romania, Spain and the UK.
The awards include nine categories which are intended to recognise women’s technology contributions in multiple areas including entrepreneurship, innovation, community impact, sustainability and leadership among others. The nine winners will be announced along with a tenth award for the overall Technology Playmaker of the Year 2018, at a special gala dinner in London on March 8th to coincide with International Women’s Day. Randi Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO of Zuckerberg Media, will deliver the keynote speech during the event.
Winners will be selected by a panel of senior executives spanning a range of global tech companies and successful start-ups including Booking.com, Skyscanner, Just Eat, Happn, WeTransfer and SwiftKey as well as representatives from the academic world, 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 will also receive a €10,000 grand prix prize.
Booking.com CEO Gillian Tans said, “The Technology Playmaker Awards celebrate diversity and gender equality and aim to empower and encourage more women to enter and succeed in the technology industry, regardless of their background. We recently conducted research to better understand gender bias in the tech sector and nearly 90% of the female respondents told us that seeing more women in leadership roles would inspire them to advance their career in tech. We hope, therefore, that our winners and shortlisters will become role models to other women and girls in the future.”
“We’ve had applicants from diverse backgrounds across different stages of their careers. From young entrepreneurs who have set up digital programmes to assist refugee integration, to technology innovators who are disrupting healthcare and e-learning, to an 11 year-old girl who is teaching her peers to code. We are excited about celebrating their success and encouraging our finalists as they continue to innovate and lead in the technology space.”
For more information about the shortlisted finalists, please visit: http://techplaymakerawards.com/finalists
Established in 1996 in Amsterdam, Booking.com B.V. has grown from a small Dutch start-up to one of the largest travel e-commerce companies in the world. Part of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: BKNG), Booking.com now employs more than 15,000 employees in 198 offices in 70 countries worldwide.
With a mission to empower people to experience the world, Booking.com invests in digital technology that helps take the friction out of travel. At Booking.com, we connect travellers with the world’s largest selection of incredible places to stay, including everything from apartments, vacation homes, and family-run B&Bs to 5-star luxury resorts, tree houses and even igloos. The Booking.com website and mobile apps are available in 43 languages, offer over 1.6 million properties, and cover more than 125,000 destinations in 229 countries and territories worldwide.
Each day, more than 1.5 million room nights are reserved on our platform. So whether travelling for business or leisure, customers can instantly book their ideal accommodation quickly and easily with Booking.com, without booking fees and backed up by our promise to price match. Via our customer experience team, customers can reach Booking.com 24/7 for assistance and support in 43 languages, any time of the day or night.
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About Technology Playmaker Awards
For all details on the categories, entry criteria, judging process and awards related information please visit the www.techplaymakerawards.com website.