Each year, the British Interactive Media Association (BIMA) announces the BIMA 100. These are the people who go above and beyond the Monday to Friday 9–5, who are outstanding innovators, confident trailblazers, who are passionate about what they do, and are inspirational to others in our industry. The event also includes welcoming someone exceptional into the BIMA Hall of Fame.
Our Client Services Director, Emma, was a BIMA 100 winner in 2020.
Recognising innovators as a BIMA 100 judge
I had the privilege to be a judge for the award category ‘Champions for Change: Planet’. This category was open to anyone championing sustainability in digital and making a clear difference to the world.
I’ve been a judge before for the DevelopHer Awards. For DevelopHer, my fellow judges and I agreed on the shortlist and the winner of our category, and I then presented the award to the winner on the big night.
Judging for the BIMA 100 was slightly different. I met the other judges online, where we discussed and shared our thoughts about the nominees, and then we voted in secret. It wasn’t until the ceremony that I found out who had actually been successful. It was a lovely surprise to see who had won, and I didn’t have the daunting task of writing a presentation speech!
One thing we judges noticed when discussing the nominees for the ‘Champions for Change: Planet’ award was that we had a very low number of nominations compared to other categories such as ‘CEOs’, ‘Rising Stars’ and ‘Tech Innovation’. We asked ourselves why this might be and how we could improve this for next year.
Sustainability and care for the planet are of vital importance to all of us, and it’s something both Studio 24 and BIMA are active in supporting. BIMA set up a sustainability council to build a framework and encourage members to take action. Our Managing Director, Simon, is one of the digital leaders on the council.
There are also organisations out there, like the Green Web Foundation and the Climate Action.tech community, who are working to elevate the issue of the climate crisis and drive change in the digital industry. As these issues gain more prominence and more people feel inspired to innovate in this area, we’ll hopefully start to see more ‘Champions for Change: Planet’ nominees joining the BIMA 100 in future years.
Celebrating friends who are changemakers
I had the honour of accompanying my ex-colleague Zuzana Kunckova to the ceremony where she was awarded her place on the BIMA 100 in the category ‘Champions for Change: People’.
Zuzana is truly deserving of the award. Her work as founder of Larabelles is so important in breaking down gender-based barriers for people working in the tech industry, and certainly fits the category of ‘Champions for Change: People’. Her passion and drive to support the community that she started is remarkable, and I’m so pleased to see her work being recognised with her win in the BIMA 100.
The ceremony itself was at Proud City, a cabaret bar in London, and along with the joy of celebrating the BIMA 100, and hearing the strong keynote from the Hall of Fame inductee Zoe Scaman, we also witnessed fire-eating and acrobatic performances! It was an enjoyable evening of entertainment, networking and feeling inspired!