This week's Inside the DIF spotlight is on championing diversity, fostering digital inclusion, and recognising those making a difference across our tech innovation ecosystem. The DIF Online Event Hub has some new on-demand webinars and we highlight two Meetups using tech for good. A reminder we also have the DIF Community Call this Thursday so please join in the conversation.

Latest Awards News

New in 2020 is the TechDiversity Hall of Fame celebrating outstanding expressions of leadership, behaviour, commitment and courage. Congratulations to Avanade Australia, Victorian Government and Vic ICT for Women in the organisation category. Also three outstanding individuals Rebecca Campbell-Burns, Michelle Bourke and Kathy Coultas who were inducted into the inaugural TechDiversity Hall of Fame in recognition for their commitment to raising awareness and creating change through diversity initiatives and programs.

The National iAwards were presented last week by the AIIA at an interactive virtual experience. Congratulations to Bryk Group (Vic) who won the inaugural Peoples Choice Award and a Merit in the Infrastructure and Platforms Innovation of the Year category. The Victoria State Government Inspiration of the Year went to Intelicare (WA) ‘Ageing In Place AI Platform’ who also won the Not For Profit and Community and Infrastructure and Platforms Innovation of the Year categories. Be sure to check out all the winners and merit recipients. 

Finally the 2020 Australian NFP Technology Award recently recognised the not-for-profit sector for innovation. Humanitix and Orange Sky Australia were joint winners of the NFP Technology Innovator of the Year award. We are proud to say that the Digital Innovation Festival won the Technology for Community Impact Award for Best Government Agency which we share with all our event partners. Well done to the team at Connecting Up and the Infoxchange Group for this great work in hosting these awards.

Featured On Demand Events

IMPACT2020 Series

The impact2020 webinar series by the Centre for Social Impact looked at the role of technology for not-for-profits, digital inclusion in the context of covid 19 and the findings of the 2020 Australian Digital Inclusion Index and lots more.

#TechDiversity Webinar Series

The 2020 #TechDiversity Webinar Series may have wrapped for the year but you can catch up on some great panel discussions on making business sense out of corporate diversity and why should diversity be top of your recovery strategy.  

Australian Digital Inclusion Alliance Webinars

Connecting people is where the Australian Digital Inclusion Alliance (ADIA) steps in and this year is no different with COVID-19 and the impact on community sector requiring a collective response. Catch up on two webinars and hear stories from the front lines. 

Join the DIF Community Call

Come along to the final DIF Community Calls for 2020 to connect with others hosting digital innovation events and also share your thoughts on how DIF2020 Festival made a difference. See you on Thur 27 Nov and 17 Dec at 2pm! Register now.

Upcoming Meetups

Meetups are a great way to connect with likeminded people and so we're featuring two Melbourne groups with upcoming events. Making a difference is what we're all about. After all, our name is a play on words, it’s about making a ‘dif’. The tech sector is made up of passionate people who do just that, they volunteer their time and expertise - as advisors on boards, kids code club coaches or weekend hackathon-hustlers.

Wondering how you can do the same? Why not look up Civic Makers, a program run by Code for Australia, that brings people together to say, "how can we make our communities better"? Or go along to The Good Citizen Developers Meetup, a new group driven by fairness, diversity and inclusiveness, transparency and accountability.