The 2026 Leeds Digital Festival Awards winners were announced at a ceremony at The Wardrobe in Leeds on Thursday, October 1, according to BusinessCloud. The ninth annual awards recognised individuals and organisations across Yorkshire’s technology community.
2026 Leeds Digital Festival Awards winners
BusinessCloud’s October 2, 2026 report lists these winners by category:
- Best Tech Place to Work: Cognisys Group
- Entrepreneur of the Year: Andrew Mason
- Leader of the Year: Andy Crossley
- Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Award: Optum EMIS
- Facilitator of the Year: Leeds Digital Drinks
- Growth Company of the Year: Enablis
- Rising Star 2026: Qursam Hina
- Start-up of the Year: Avenue3
- Tech4Good Award (Small Company): Senflow
- Tech4Good Award (Large Company): DTP Group
- Tech Innovation of the Year: The Curve Consulting
- Tech Team of the Year: Skipton Building Society & CGI
BusinessCloud’s full results report is the source for the winner-category pairings above.
About the awards ceremony
BusinessCloud describes this as the ninth annual Leeds Digital Festival Awards, organised by Ward Hadaway and tech consultancy byProduct as part of Leeds Digital Festival. The awards recognise work across growth, innovation, leadership, workplace culture, equality and technology for social good. The report says winners were selected by a panel drawn from Leeds’s technology and business community.
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The ceremony was hosted by Ward Hadaway partner and head of IT/IP Bill Goodwin, byProduct founder Andrew Maeer and Leeds Digital director Deb Hetherington.
What the organisers said
Maeer said: “The strength of Yorkshire’s technology sector comes from the range of people and businesses within it, from emerging companies and rising talent to established teams continuing to innovate.” He added: “The awards give us the chance to bring that community together and highlight some of the work happening across the region. It is important that the people helping to move the sector forward have the opportunity to be recognised.”
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Goodwin said: “Yorkshire has built a strong and diverse technology sector and supporting the businesses and people behind its continued development is important to us at Ward Hadaway.” He also said: “The Leeds Digital Festival Awards give us an opportunity to recognise the talent, ideas and businesses contributing to that sector. This year’s winners represent organisations at different stages of growth, alongside individuals making their mark within the industry, and I’d like to congratulate everyone recognised.”
Hetherington said: “The awards are a real highlight of Leeds Digital Festival, giving us the opportunity to shine a light on the incredible individuals, teams and organisations driving innovation and growth across our vibrant digital community.” She added: “Congratulations to all of this year’s winners and finalists. The range of work represented across the categories shows the breadth of talent and activity within the sector across Leeds and the wider region.”
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A note on the category count
BusinessCloud says awards were presented across 12 categories. Its report names the three winners highlighted in the preceding discussion and then prints a list containing 12 winner entries; the category-count wording is not fully clear from the article. The list above preserves the categories and spellings reported, without inferring any additional awards.
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