An awards ceremony celebrating the best and brightest women in the region's tech scene has welcomed its biggest collection of winners to date.

Eastern Daily Press: Founder of DevelopHER Vickie Allen, a software developer at Proteo in Norwich, at the DevelopHER Awards 2017 at Cambridge Corn Exchange. Picture: Tim Stephenson PhotographyFounder of DevelopHER Vickie Allen, a software developer at Proteo in Norwich, at the DevelopHER Awards 2017 at Cambridge Corn Exchange. Picture: Tim Stephenson Photography (Image: Tim Stephenson Photography)

The third DevelopHER Awards, held at the Cambridge Corn Exchange, saw women from apprentices to entrepreneurs crowned in 14 categories encompassing the whole of East Anglia's tech industry.

The awards, which had almost 200 nominations, counted Google among its sponsors and welcomed a 250-strong crowd rivalling those at the previous ceremonies in Norwich and Ipswich.

Keynote speaker Juliana Meyer from SupaPass, who won the DevelopHER Award last year, gave an inspirational talk about her journey as a woman in tech and how she balances her busy job with her home life and new baby.

The awards' founder Vickie Allen, a software developer for Norwich company Proteo, said: 'It was another fantastic event, and amazing to be surrounded by so many awesome women.

Eastern Daily Press: Guests at the DevelopHER Awards 2017 at Cambridge Corn Exchange. Picture: Tim Stephenson PhotographyGuests at the DevelopHER Awards 2017 at Cambridge Corn Exchange. Picture: Tim Stephenson Photography (Image: Tim Stephenson Photography)

'The fact that many of the winners, despite having been asking to prepare a winner's speech, did not have anything prepared as they didn't think they'd win, is testament to how important these awards are, and how we need to do more to make women believe in themselves and believe that they are doing amazing work.'

The organisers are already planning for 2018, when the awards will return to their home city of Norwich.

This year's winners were:

Agile angel: Andrea Jelley, Wheatley Solutions

Eastern Daily Press: Guests at the DevelopHER 2017 Awards at Cambridge Corn Exchange. Picture: Tim Stephenson PhotographyGuests at the DevelopHER 2017 Awards at Cambridge Corn Exchange. Picture: Tim Stephenson Photography (Image: Tim Stephenson Photography)

Apprentice: Hannah Jones, Absolute Digital Media

Best newcomer: Catherine King, Crafted

Digital marketer: Zhanna Askarova, Crafted

Emerging talent: Emily Godden, Audit Chaos

Eastern Daily Press: Founder of DevelopHER Vickie Allen, a software developer at Proteo in Norwich, speaks at the DevelopHER Awards 2017 at Cambridge Corn Exchange. Picture: Tim Stephenson PhotographyFounder of DevelopHER Vickie Allen, a software developer at Proteo in Norwich, speaks at the DevelopHER Awards 2017 at Cambridge Corn Exchange. Picture: Tim Stephenson Photography (Image: Tim Stephenson Photography)

Entrepreneur: Nikita Hari, University of Cambridge

Eye for design: Chiara Aliotta, Until Sunday

Game development: Jodie Azhar, Creative Assembly

Innovation: Gabriela Gallegos Garrido, London South Bank Innovation Centre

Inspiration: Hazel Cottrell, Creative Content Company

Tech star: Sylvia Lu, U-blox

Tester: Kaye Blundell, Wheatley Solutions

Unsung hero: Frida Tveit, Softwire

User experience: Jenny Cham, EMBL-EBI