A free app to help Australians quit smoking and “flight simulator for healthcare” were among other award winners at the 2026 TechDiversity Awards in Sydney.
An AI-powered edtech platform that helps corporations build inclusive workplaces for First Nations cultures has been awarded the TechDiversity Champion title, the highest honour bestowed at the annual Tech Diversity Awards.
Fire and Wattle’s Cultural Competency that Closes the Digital Divide initiative helps businesses understand First Nations knowledge systems, languages and cultures, helping advance Reconciliation Australia’s plan to build relationships between industry and Indigenous communities.
Profits from the program are reinvested into Deadly Coders, an Indigenous not-for-profit that provides STEM training for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.
The event on Friday was the 11th annual TechDiversity Awards – the first ceremony held in Sydney following ten years of it being hosted in Melbourne.
“We are not shy about naming where technology falls short,” said Luli Adeyemo, Executive Director of TechDiversity Foundation. “The bias baked into systems, the people left out of the design, the tools built without the workforce they are meant to serve. Those conversations matter, and we keep having them. But tonight is the other side of that story. Tonight is what technology looks like when the right people build it.”
Other winners from the night included Vantari VR, which uses virtual reality to teach doctors, nurses and students how to perform complicated procedures, and a virtual assistant that has helped 1 million people quit smoking and vaping called My QuitBuddy.
Fire and Wattle were presented the Champion award by Sam and Ben Paior, who won last year for their Make It Easy app which translates signage and instructions into easy-to-understand English for people with low vision, impaired hearing, perception and language difficulties. Cultural Competency that Closes the Digital Divide program also won in the Business and Tech for Good categories.
The 2026 TechDiversity Awards Winners
Business Category: Fire and Wattle: Cultural Competency that Closes the Digital Divide.
Government Category: My QuitBuddy, a free app that helps Australians quit cigarettes and vaping. Developed by Miroma Project Factory with funding by the Federal Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, it has helped over a million people quit smoking.
Education Category: Vantari VR. Founded in Australia and now headquartered in Seattle, Vantari VR calls itself “flight simulator for healthcare.” It provides VR training for life-saving procedures to doctors and nurses as part of its mission to reduce the millions of deaths caused by medical error each year.
Campaign of the Year: Uniting NSW. ACT’S Buddy. The non-profit arm of the Uniting Church devised Buddy, an AI assistant for eldercare, disability services and education. Buddy allows frontline workers to create case notes with simple voice-to-text, reducing admin and maximising patient time.
Tech for Good Category: Closing the Digital Divide: Deadly Coders Online Deadly Coders, with The EdTech Group.
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