Ditlefsen on stage receiving her award

Lisa Ditlefsen, head of search at specialist B2B agency Base One, has scooped this year's BlackBerry Women & Technology award for ‘Best use of technology by a woman under 30.' Ditlefsen fended off competition from Anita Moss at Edunation and Hollie Carr at IBM who were also shortlisted.

The awards were first launched in 2005 to show recognition for the important work that women do in a male dominated industry. This year's event was held at the Marriott Hotel in Grosvenor Square in London on 6 May 2008.

Ditlefsen says, "The awards ceremony was a very classy affair, it was amazing to be in a room with so many high powered and inspirational women. I have always believed that woman are just as good at technology as men - women tend to be more humble and modest so we need to stand tall and be proud when we do something well. Winning this award means so much to me, I love what I do and feel very passionate about SEO so it's fantastic to get recognition for that." 

Ditlefsen's prize was a designer glass bowl designed by sculptor Stewart Hearn, a BlackBerry Smartphone and an education advance package worth £2500, which Ditlefsen says she will spend on programming courses. She says, "I plan to use the prize money to learn more about programming as it's important as an SEO professional to have a solid technical and programming background. I will probably take a course in PHP programming as it's open source and more Web 2.0 friendly. I will also refresh my HTML skills and get proper training in cascading style sheets (CSS). I can't wait - I'm genuinely excited about progressing my skills."

Charmaine Eggberry, vice president and managing director at RIM, EMEA, adds, "The core philosophy behind the BlackBerry Women & Technology Awards is to encourage women to engage with technology and the industry by celebrating the achievements of those women who are already leading the way. Technology fuels innovation and drives change as do the incredible women on this year's BlackBerry Women & Technology shortlist."

Other winners included Jayne Opperman from Lloyds TSB, who won the award for 'Best use of technology by a woman within the corporate sector' and Beatriz Alonso Martinez from Avid Technology Europe, who won the award for 'Best use of technology within the multimedia industry by a woman'. BT Group was voted 'Best company advancing women in technology'. 'Best use of technology by a woman in small to medium business' was awarded to Polly Gowers from Everyclick.com; and 'Best female mentor' was won by Kate Bishop from Dell.

The overall winner was Professor Lizbeth Goodman from the Smartlab Digital Media Institute, who won the award for 'Outstanding woman in technology'.

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