Finalist in National Award Ceremony at Ullevaal Stadion

Huong Luu (Claire Bjaanes), Founder of Conscious Flow from Stavanger, Norway has been selected as one of the top 10 finalists in her category at HER Awards 2026, one of Norway’s largest national award ceremonies for women in business and leadership.Out of 2,054 nominations and a total of 76,700 public votes, Huong Luu (Claire Bjaanes) has advanced to the final in the category Tech Entrepreneurship of the year.

HER Awards highlights women and businesses that create real value through leadership, ownership, and long-term impact. The awards will be presented during the HER Conference & Awards at Ullevaal Stadion in Oslo on April 27, 2026. This year, the conference is organized in collaboration with the Norwegian Football Federation (NFF) and Toppfotball Kvinner.

– “It means a great deal to be recognized in this way. It is an acknowledgment of the work we are doing,” says Huong Luu.” 2025 was a year of disciplined execution. We moved systematically from idea to concept, prototyping and stress-testing individual components to validate feasibility, user demand, development cost, and long-term scalability. Our original ambition was to deliver a functional prototype for validation. Instead, we completed a fully developed MVP and first pilot are onboarded end of Q1 2026. This progress is not just technical, it is practical. Conscious Flow enables yoga teachers to scale their offerings up to 10× without compromising their premium quality

Beyond the product itself, I established an international engineering collaboration, with intention to have a strong female representation in the technical team. From Stavanger, working with an engineering team in Vietnam, we are shaping a new AI vertical in yoga and wellness : AI designed to strengthen human and connection. In this way, Conscious Flow stands at the intersection of tradition and technology, building the next generation of human-centered AI, says Huong Luu.

As in previous years, HER has chosen to highlight 10 finalists in each category to ensure diversity and representation from across the country – regardless of company size or social media visibility. When the finalists are evaluated by the jury, all candidates are considered on equal footing.

– “HER Awards is not about popularity, but about who is truly building, leading, and creating lasting value,” says Donna Kastrati, Founder and CEO of HER.

The winners will be announced at the award ceremony at Ullevaal Stadion on April 27.

Facts: HER Awards 2026

• National award ceremony for women in business, leadership, and society
• 2,054 nominations, 76,700 public votes, 700+ conference participants. Award Ceremony: April 27, 2026

I can also clean up the grammar and spacing while keeping the meaning unchanged.

Claire (Huong Luu) – Conscious Flow

Congratulations to our co-founder Claire on becoming a semifinalist for (Tech Entrepreneur) Aret Tech  2026 for her work with Conscious Flow.

With support from Innovation Norway, she has led a development team, including talented female software developers in Vietnam, while continuing to show up fully for her students and our community at The Yoga Nest.

Claire represents a new kind of female founder in the tech industry, bringing human insight into an increasingly automated AI landscape. Conscious Flow shows that technology does not need to replace human connection, it can scale emotion, awareness, and meaningful support.

Conscious Flow’s mission is to help yoga practitioners progress safely in their unique journeys, while supporting yoga teachers in building sustainable careers, so teaching yoga becomes a profession, not just a side hustle.

If you believe yoga can save lives and help prevent preventable disease, we invite you to support Claire and this mission.

Vote here and help Claire (Huong Luu)  to the finals:

https://www.herprogrammet.no/stem?utm_campaign=080eaaad-1003-440b-b9d3-ac4961691129&utm_source=so&utm_medium=mail&cid=c36bc99f-f590-4823-af9e-c6ec41883481

Deadline to vote: 23 Feb 2026

Press release

Claire Bjaanes (Huong Luu) nominert til nasjonal pris for sitt arbeid i 2025

Cliare, founder fra Conscious Flow and The Yoga Nest, er nominert til HER Awards 2026 i kategorien Arets Tech – grunder.

HER Awards er en nasjonal prisutdeling som løfter frem kvinner og virksomheter som skaper reell verdi gjennom lederskap, eierskap og langsiktig impact – på tvers av bransjer og geografi. Prisene deles ut under HER Conference & Awards på Ulleval Stadion i Oslo 27. april 2026.

Det betyr mye å bli nominert. A bli sett for arbeidet man legger ned, og for verdiene man står for, gir både motivasjon og ansvar, sier Claire. Gjennom Conscious Flow arbeider jeg for å hjelpe yogautøvere med å ta eierskap til egen helse og utvikling gjennom personlig veiledning og tilbakemeldinger. Samtidig støtter vi yogalærere i å bygge bærekraftige karrierer slik at undervisning kan være en profesjonell vei, og ikke bare en biinntekt.

Arbeidet er finansielt støttet av Innovasjon Norge og bidrar til FNs bærekraftsmål 3 (God helse og livskvalitet) og 8 (Anstendig arbeid og økonomisk vekst).

Bak HER Awards står HER – Hun Etablerer Ressursprogrammet, Norges ledende økosystem for kvinnelige gründere og ledere med blant annet Donna Kastrati, Iman Meskini, Ingeborg Heldal og Cecilia Brækhus som medeiere.

I fjor mottok HER Awards over 2 000 nominasjoner og mer enn 67 000 publikumsstemmer, noe som gjør prisene til en av de største i sitt slag i Norge.

– HER Awards handler ikke om synlighet eller popularitet, men om hvem som faktisk bygger, leder og skaper varige verdier i samfunnet vårt, sier Donna Kastrati, gründer og CEO i HER.

Nominasjonene er åpne frem til 27. januar, før semifinalister og finalister blir valgt ut gjennom en kombinasjon av publikumsengasjement og vurdering fra en uavhengig fagjury.

HER Awards anerkjenner verdiskaping og samfunnsbidrag – og løfter frem rollemodeller som gjør en reell forskjell for kvinners økonomi, helse og muligheter.

* Fakta: HER Awards 2026

Nasjonal prisutdeling for kvinner i næringsliv, ledelse og samfunn

Over 2 000 nominasjoner og 67 000 stemmer i 2025

Prisutdeling: 27. april 2026

Sted: Ullevål Stadion, Oslo

This began long before Conscious Flow had a name.

It began years ago, in a yoga class I almost didn’t belong in. I was 18, a student of Diplomacy in Hanoi, surrounded by people decades older than me. The class was organized in a formal setting, quiet, traditional, almost clinical. Most participants were seniors or people managing serious health conditions. I didn’t know why I had signed up but I only knew that something inside me was restless at that time. 

And then, something unexpected happened. As the class unfolded, I felt a calm I didn’t have language for yet. My breath softened. My mind slowed. My body felt… inhabited. I left the room changed, even though I couldn’t explain how.

At the time, I didn’t know this moment would follow me across continents and decades.

Nearly ten years later, in 2007, I was in the United States pursuing a master’s degree in International Service at American University. Life was busy, ambitious, and intellectually demanding. I felt excited but also stressed constantly and one evening, a friend invited me to a yoga class. The moment I lay down in savasana, the feeling returned: the same breath, the same stillness, the same sense of coming home to myself.

Different country, different language,  different life but same nervous system, same human need. That was when something quietly shifted.  I wanted to help people feel this too.

What followed was a long, imperfect journey into yoga education.

Like many practitioners who feel the call to teach, I stepped into the formal pathway: 200-hour, 300-hour teacher trainings, accredited through Yoga Alliance. I was determined to learn “properly,” to meet global standards. What I didn’t anticipate was how hard the system would be for people with real lives.

Most trainings required four to six weeks away from work, often during summers or holidays, precisely when professional responsibilities peak. Beyond tuition, there were flights, accommodation, food, insurance. A single 200-hour training cost me nearly $5,000 USD, not including travel.

To attend, I almost had to give up the very job that allowed me to afford the training in the first place. That training was a very nice experience for me in a sense that eventually, I managed to keep my day-to-day job when I came back to reality. 

Later, I chose another training in the U.S. This time at a stage in my life when I could take five weeks off, travel comfortably, and absorb the experience fully. It was rich and meaningful, more than a holiday could ask for. And yet, even then,  felt something familiar and unsettling.I felt left behind, not because I did not have help, not because I did not commit to the training, but because standardized classrooms do not serve everyone equally.

I excelled in chanting and sequencing. I struggled with philosophy. I hesitated to ask questions, afraid they might sound “stupid” or slow the group down. Research later confirmed what I felt intuitively: standardized education fails a significant portion of learners, not only in embodied, philosophical disciplines but also in physical training because we are all different and have unique needs. 

I eventually deepened my philosophical studies through both academic routes and immersive learning in India. But I kept wondering:

What if no one should be left behind in education and training? 

I tried online trainings too because online trainings are convenient, affordable and flexible. I can be at the comfort of my home and still have live training with my favorite teachers who are living continent away. Yet, I still fell something essential was missing…. Without mentorship, without meaningful check-ins, without a sense of being truly seen, learning felt flat. I could consume content, but I couldn’t feel uplifted.  That quiet loneliness stayed with me.And when I later opened my own yoga studio, it shaped everything I did: from noticing the hesitation to ask questions from students, to  feeling of being “not quite aligned” with the group pace.
The gap between knowledge delivered and wisdom integrated.

I became determined to close that gap for my students. And if only I have 40 hours in a day wearing many hats running a yoga studio, a yoga program, a yoga training. 

Then something unexpected happened. I know I need to create a smart solution to assist me to bring my teaching at scale, without losing sights of my concerns. After many discussion rounds  with Skape, Innovation and trusted friends and advisors, Innovation Norway said yes to funding Conscious Flow.
So did GG Young to collaborate with us.
So did advisors at Living Heritage.

What surprised me wasn’t the validation it was the recognition that the pain points of yoga students, teachers, and studios were being acknowledged not as personal shortcomings, but as systemic design failures.

Conscious Flow didn’t emerge from a business plan but from lived experience.
From years of moving between cultures, classrooms, studios, retreats, and inner landscapes always asking the same quiet question:

What if we didn’t have to choose between personalization and scale?
What if wellness education could adapt to humans, instead of humans adapting to rigid systems?

This is an invitation to explore that question.

And if, as you read, something in you feels recognized—

if you’ve ever felt unseen in a classroom, disconnected from your practice, or overwhelmed by trying to do it all alone—

you are already part of this story.

Conscious Flow is currently opening its early testing phase.

If you’re curious to experience what adaptive, reflective, human-centered wellness can feel like, we invite you to join us.

Not as a user.

But as a co-creator of what wellness can become.