One cannot speak of women in tech and business in South Africa without mentioning 2018 Inspiring Fifty: South Africa multifaceted award winner, Lianne du Toit.
With the help of the United States Embassy in South Africa, Silicon Cape, Tech Pearls, Girls Hype and many others, she hosted a hackathon in November at the Waterway House in the V&A Waterfront in an attempt to explore possible ways to best respond to social ills such as gender-based violence.
In her career, she has hosted over a thousand events that have helped uplift communities through raising awareness of technology.
Apart from being a founder of HackOnSA, Renegade Tech Events and Talent Fusion, she
is also the business network director for non-profit, the Young
Presidents Organisation (YPO), which is a global platform for leaders to engage, learn and grow, and in turn certifying as a Leadership Coach helping to build the”leaders of tomorrow today”.
“I love learning and I love learning new things,” she said, adding that being able to combine her events and her passion for technology has been great thus far.
Previously, she was on the core team of Future Females which helped women engage and connect with networks in cities like Cape Town, London, Brisbane and Berlin.
She said she loves drawing inspiration from people who keep on “doing amazing things,” and the fact that her field of work constantly allows her to work with such people.
Her job might not be one which people can easily attach the word “traditional” to, however, she said as long as she forms part of a team that creates efficient processes that help others and in turn have her learn a thing or two, she will continue to thrive.
She studied entrepreneurship curriculum writing at Harvard Business School in 2016 where she came to understand the role of operational labs, incubators and accelerators in entrepreneurship, insights of growth, the financing and management of dynamic enterprises.
She also has a BComm in marketing and industrial psychology from Unisa, a certificate in transformational leadership from Lucca Leadership, a certificate in executive and management coaching from GetSmarter, “to mention a few”.
In addition she is a qualified Lego Serious Play facilitator, which is a proven methodology developed at The Lego Group that helps unlock the potential of all the participants in a workshop environment.
“At its core, participants work together to solve complex issues by building models using Lego bricks.
“The metaphors in the models serve as the basis for group discussion, knowledge sharing and problem-solving and help foster creative thinking and finding unique solutions.”
And on top of it all, she is also an associate at The Creative Leadership Consultancy, which is a boutique leadership development house focusing on building traction and impact in organisations through new leadership practices. The Creative Leadership Consultancy is run as a partnership network of hand-picked associates.
“We bring many years of experience across multiple sectors in leadership development and new work practices.”
Recently, she added to her long list of professions and expertise, completing a short course on becoming a death doula.
Lianne, who lost her grandmother who had been ill for a while, said she wishes to walk other people going through the loss of loved ones without having them feel the way she felt when she lost her gran.
Currently, Lianne is studying towards becoming a qualified mindfulness children practitioner with Mindful Minds.