Vin Murria, recently named Woman of the Year in the 2012 Cisco everywoman in Technology Awards, launched Advanced Computer Software Group, a leading provider of patient management software solutions, in 2008 and has since grown the company to £200 million market capitalisation and almost 1000 staff.

Vin has over 20 years’ experience of publicly listed companies and private equity experience focusing on the software sector. She is a partner at Elderstreet Capital and a non-executive director of Greenco plc.

Throughout her career Vin has been passionate about the advancement of women – setting up academies for employees to develop themselves and fulfil their full potential. She is also committed to various charitable projects as a Trustee for the Princes Trust and the Founder of the PS Foundation – helping to get young girls from disadvantaged backgrounds in India into education.

I had the great opportunity to pitch Empower Lounge at SXSW for Startup America Women's The Dolphin Tank.  What did I learn with only 2-minutes to pitch the panel of judges who happen to be ALL women, a rare opportunity for a female founder?  Less is more. More is better.

Less is more about the "why" behind your product. I spent most of the 2-minutes sharing research and what I learned first-hand about what smart women really crave from the digital world to build the case for the pain Empower Lounge was solving. Yes, this is story is important but so hard to squeeze in a short amount of time so the details ended up creating more confusion than clarity. Next time I would save the inspiration behind the idea for the second date.

On Thursday, renowned figures from the business and IT sector celebrated as the UK’s most talented women working within the technology sector were recognised at the 2012 Cisco everywoman in Technology Awards, held at The Savoy Hotel in London.

These inspirational women have been chosen by a panel of esteemed judges (including our own founder Simone Brummelhuis of The Next Women) from the industry for demonstrating excellence within their field and acting as role models to future generations.

According to UK Trade & Investment, the IT sector in the UK is the largest in Europe and employs over a million people who contribute 10% of GDP. However, the misconception still exists that senior roles are an exclusively male domain. everywoman, the UK’s largest female business community, set up the everywoman in Technology Awards in 2011 to shine a light on the women excelling in IT and demonstrate to others the breadth and variety the sector offers.

The winner of the 'Your Big Year' Global Social Entrepreneurship Challenge was unveiled at the Global Entrepreneurship Congress last week. We were keeping a close eye on the result: as we reported recently, eight of the sixteen finalists were women. 

On the day it was announced that Charles Batte, 24, from Uganda had beaten off competition from over 60,000 of the world’s top young social entrepreneurs to be named winner of the prestigious competition.

Charles will now embark on a life changing year which will see him fulfill the role of global ambassador for social entrepreneurship. Having grown up in the slums of Kamwokya surrounded by drug addictions, unemployment and crime, at the age of 20 Charles set up a farm that produces maize and beans which now employs 50 people and provides food for thousands more. You can read more about Charles here.

In third place, 21-year old New Yorker Barba Rudolph (pictured) was the only female in the top three finalists. Having travelled extensively in South America, getting involved with humanitarian efforts there, Barbra co-founded MAP_Collective, a philanthropic endeavour that pools creativity and talent from different sectors in order to fundraise and promote awareness about important social issues around the globe.