The Melbourne event, hosted with energy and enthusiasm by ABC TV’s James O’Loghlin, showcased the best ICT talent Australia has to offer in a wide variety of categories from sustainability to undergraduate tertiary.

O’Loglin said the iAwards were “more important” than the Logie Awards, and boasted “less botox.” Winners from the State iAwards presented their pitch to the judges for each of the 7 Domains and 25 Categories on 27 and 28 August, with judges making their decision today and presented before a gala dinner event.

 The iAwards, in their 20th year, were co-hosted by the Australian Computer Society, the Australian Information Industry Association and the Pearcey Foundation, with funding help from the Victorian State Government, Hills and more.

Flinders University’s Professor Richard Constantine took out CIO of the year. Constantine led an “outstanding” transformation of the ICT practice at Flinders University. Eighteen months ago, ICT at Flinders was decentralised, technology-focused and ad hoc. Today it is a centralised, services-based organisation, demonstrating operational excellence, and completely focused on enabling the University business goals.

ICT Woman of the Year went to Fi Slaven, General Manager of William Buck Victoria. Slaven was awarded for “leading through motivation, transparency and a commitment to people being first. She genuinely enjoys making a difference in the recruitment, retainment and promotion of women within the IT industry.”

ICT Professional of the Year meanwhile was awarded to Johanna Westbrook, an “internationally-renown and leading Australian Health Information Communication Technology (ICT) professional who has initiated and led large-scale research programs that have contributed world-leading evidence about the role that ICT plays in enhancing patient safety and the quality of patient care.”

Other key awards included start up of the year, awarded to PeakResponse, a holistic solution that detects, forecasts and controls multiple electricity peaks across the grid. For network utilities, the system monitors grid usage and during times of peak demand, facilitates automatic load shedding from large energy users enrolled in the program. PeakResponse said it can also provide real-time information alerts that allows customers to reduce energy consumption to avoid incurring high market prices.

PeakResponse also won the Victorian Government Inspiration Award.

The Consumer award went to the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, for its “world class” The world-class CommBank app, launched in December 2013 available across Android, iOS and Windows Phone 8.

“Over the past two decades the iAwards has grown to become Australia’s premier celebration of innovation and excellence in ICT, recognising and rewarding the individuals, companies and organisations at the cutting edge of our industry,” Victorian Minister for Technology Gordon Rich-Phillips said.

“Victoria’s many innovative and creative companies have driven the growth of the State’s $34 billion ICT sector which is home to more than 8000 technology companies “Our ICT sector is underpinned by a first-rate technology ecosystem of universities, research centres, strong local development companies, as well as interstate and international investors. We have globally recognised strengths in cloud computing, interactive media, and high-end research and development and in the development of strategies and programs to boost broadband-services for citizens and business.

“The 2014 iAwards are an important opportunity to celebrate the sector’s achievements and highlight its immense contribution to our national and state prosperity.”

The event also featured some young winners; the Hills Young Innovator of the Year award, open to applicants under the age of 25, recognised the most outstanding innovations in three categories - Mobile, Cloud and Data.

The Mobile winner was Elliot Smith for Pepster, a home-based breathing exercise app and device for cystic fibrosis patients. Pepster gets kids to do respiratory therapy by linking breathing exercises to actions/moves in a computer game, and is currently in a clinical trial with 30 patients at Mater Hospital where it's receiving great feedback. Smith is llooking to complete a prototype for market between the next 6 and 12 months.

The Cloud category was taken out by Alex Sharp for Orion VM, which “provides a faster and cheaper cloud architecture” and has already signed up 450+ customers – across business, government. The Data category was taken out by Chris Eigeland for GoCatalyze -a Data platform that enables organisations to track and understand internal interactions, for example employees using email, social media, or VOIP.

Check out a full list of winners below and for more information about the iAwards check out the official website.