Published on the 31/08/2016 | Written by Newsdesk
Five New Zealand businesses received awards for online excellence at the Australia and New Zealand Internet Awards (ANZIAs) in Melbourne…
The ANZIAs is an annual event, held jointly by InternetNZ and auDA, for organisations, businesses and individuals delivering online content that is accessible, innovative, informative and secure.
New Zealand companies made a clean sweep of the new Tech StartUp category, with Auckland based Latipay taking out the main prize, and Christchurch’s Linewize being named as highly commended.
Latipay is an online payment solution that facilitates transactions between China and New Zealand bank accounts. Its solution can be used to make payments for goods or travel, or to pay a bill in NZD directly from a Chinese bank account.
Linewize provides software that lets teachers track what students are actually doing on their devices. Teachers using Linewize can identify which students are staying on task on their device, and which students have been distracted by other things.
Massey University’s Design + Democracy project won the Information Award for its work on online voter engagement. Design + Democracy is a research unit at the University’s College of Creative Arts, focused on looking at how design can help to advance 21st century citizenship.
The Virtual Learning Network Primary School and Attitude Live were both highly commended in the Diversity and Digital Skills category.
In a statement, InternetNZ CEO Jordan Carter noted that five out of the seven Kiwi finalists received awards and two organisations won their respective categories. “The quality of New Zealand finalists shows that [the country’s] tech sector is in good hands. We have a lot of positive ideas.”
Newly appointed CEO of auDA Cameron Boardman said it was encouraging to see diversity and innovation across the wider tech sector.
InternetNZ said 2016 attracted a ‘huge’ amount of entries with a high calibre of finalists from across Australasia. “It shows that work in the Internet space is continuing to advance and improve and we are producing some brilliant and innovative work in this area across the region.”
