We are now at Stage 3!
The Finalists are now been selected and notifications will be sent by Tuesday 24th June - Congratulations to each of you who have submitted.
The 26th annual Sunshine Coast Business Women of the Year award program will continue with formal interviews being held
- Tuesday 22nd July,
- Wednesday 23rd July , or
- Thursday 24th July
The Purple Room Finalist event will be held Thursday 7th August 2025 at 5:30pm [venue to be advised]. (PS: Mid-afternoon there will be a Media Master class for Finalists)
The SCBWN Awards will culminate in the glamorous Gala Event Thursday 21st August 2025 [venue to be advised] where the award recipients will be revealed. Tickets will be released shortly.
Learn more about our awards and their history here.
Behind the Scenes of the Awards Process
Creating and running awards involves countless volunteer hours to ensure the integrity of the awards process.
Where many of us may only see the end results with the glamorous awards galas, the shining trophies and proudly hung certificates on the walls of many businesses across the Sunshine Coast, there is so much more that goes on that quite often no one sees. This is true of our award nominees as well as the team that manages the awards process.
These awards maintain their credibility in the Sunshine Coast community because of the integrity of process. A Judging Chair is appointed to guide this process and maintain the prestige of these awards for all past, future and current awards holders.
To the judging chairs, judges, committee members and volunteers over the past 26 years we give our enormous thanks for the tireless and truly valued work you have contributed.
The current Sunshine Coast Business Women’s Network committee would like to give special mention to Michelle Hamer who was the inaugural and longest running Judging Chair to date with 16 years in the role, as well as to Vicki Clark, Michelle Faulkner and Min Swan. We honour you and applaud you as Judging Chairs and for your commitment to recognising and celebrating exceptional business women in our region.
Working to a robust (and newly streamlined online) system there is no margin for favouritism or error, with 10 people involved throughout the selection round, written reviews and interviews and individual judges’ scores marked against specific criteria. Collecting all the scores from the judges, the judging chair identifies the winners of each category and facilitates a round table discussion on the selection of the overall Outstanding Business Woman of the Year. The hardest task of all is the Judging Chair being the only one who knows the winners (not even the other judges know!) and keeping it a secret for 3 weeks until the envelopes are opened on stage at the gala event held each year in August.
It’s a very involved process, but it is one that allows the finalists and winners to be exceptionally proud of their achievements knowing that their work has been so carefully reviewed by remarkable people with such care and attention.
