Clare Swallow has been 'crazy busy” and run off her feet for the last few weeks – and it all culminated at the Millennial Women of Influence awards evening on Wednesday night.

The digital agency Cucumber's digital team general manager is one of five award-winners from throughout the country, as voted by New Zealanders everywhere.

Clare Swallow.

And this national contest has made her realise just how much she loves Tauranga.

'The Millennial Women of Influence awards were set up to run alongside the main Westpac Women of Influence awards, and designed to find the top five young digitally savvy women who were making a difference in their chosen field.

'When I read that description I thought ‘there is no way that sounds like me'. I was also in the camp of ‘Why do women need their own awards?' My view was if we are going to be treated as equals, stop focusing on the gender issue, which things like women's awards only single out.”

Clare says it took much gentle persuasion, but finally, with 'the opportunity to meet one of my business idols [Kathryn Wilson] and the bribe of new Kathryn Wilson shoes, I did indeed chuck my name in the hat”.

From 200 nominees, the top 10 were selected by Westpac; then the public decided on the final five champions.

The lucky few met with Kathryn Wilson, Diane Forman and Sinead Boucher, who Clare describes as 'three incredibly inspiring women all doing amazing things in very different ways”.

During the course of her chaotic day, she had 'a couple of lightbulb moments”.

'[First] the key message that hit home for me was ‘stand for something, create your personal brand'. Working for a brand – no matter what that brand may be – it's easy to hide behind the company, in that the company values, mission and vision become your own.

'Now, this is great in some respects, but in some ways you lose a sense of your own identity. Standing for something creates value for yourself and the organisation you work for.”

'[Second] I thought I was busy, but there is always time to do the things you are passionate about; if you don't make time, they are not important. Simple, really.

'Some of the women I met tonight fit incredible amounts into their days – it was almost like they lived on another planet that has a different time scale – but all of them had one thing in common –the passion for what they were doing, and the discipline to get it done.”

'[Finally,] you can do bloody great work from heartland NZ. This may sound obvious, but as a 30-something, relatively ambitious person, I've often find myself flip-flopping between loving living in an amazing place like Tauranga, and craving the career opportunities that come with living in a bigger economy.

Clare says the process has taught her places like Tauranga are full of amazing people and opportunities people in bigger centres would be lucky to experience.

'The amount of people that emailed, phoned and popped into Cucumber to chat to me about the awards is overwhelming, and as someone said to me: ‘This wasn't a win for you, Clare, this was a win for Tauranga'.

'I even had a bunch of flowers delivered by people I had never met, because they were proud that someone from Tauranga was in the awards. Not sure the winners from Auckland could say that!”

So while Clare was a little cynical about women's awards, now she's a 'complete convert”.

'The winners of the awards tonight each had stories that absolutely needed to be told. Not only to celebrate and recognise the amazing work they were doing, but to inspire other people – not just women – to go on and do great things, with whatever it is that they are passionate about.

'For me? Well, that is seeing more females enter this crazy, exhilarating, dynamic industry that is technology.”