Idea acceleration company LookFar launched the inaugural Ada Lovelace Prize to honor the achievements of one innovative female leader in the New Orleans technology community who exemplifies the technical foresight and intuition that characterized all of Ada Lovelace’s endeavors.
On Tuesday night (October 6) during NOLATech Week, the company hosted an award ceremony and celebration at their downtown offices.
Event judges included: Adele Tiblier, VP of marketing at TurboSquid; Max Gaudin, COO at Operation Spark; Hank Torbert, Principal at RLMcCall Capital Partners and EIR at The Idea Village; Carol Markowitz of NOCHI; and Tara Allegra Adams of Dinner Lab.
Instead of announcing just one winner, the judges decided to also recognize two women as the runners-up for their innovative work in the community. They included Staacy Cannon, founder of local startup Grok + Banter that is currently in the IDEAx accelerator, and Ashley Guidry, a manufacturing engineer at Boeing.
Next it was time to announce the first ever winner of the Ada Lovelace Prize, which was presented by Torbert.
The award went to Crystal McDonald, co-founder and CEO of GoToInterview, an on-demand video interviewing platform for high-turn industries. While she couldn’t be there in person, McDonald was available to Skype in and receive her award, a hand-crafted trophy from a local artist.
The startup won $100,000 in May from AOL co-founder Steve Case during his Rise of the Rest tour, which seeks to celebrate startup communities across the country that are gaining momentum and rising up as entrepreneurs.