The ninth Big Chip Awards took place last night and 500 guests celebrated 20 N/W companies.
Hosted by broadcaster Anthony Wilson, in his first public engagement since leaving hospital, the awards attracted its largest ever number of entries - over 200 submissions from over 100 companies.
Wilson himself, although clearly affected by his recent health issues, was in great form and a number of the sponsors made a point of welcoming his return to the awards ceremony. He even managed to restrict his Liverpool gags, although he couldn’t help himself when it became clear that Liverpool agency Smiling Wolf hadn’t turned up (the only winner on the evening that failed to show) – “still stuck at Athens airport no doubt” he muttered into the mic….before adding “god bless all you Evertonians”
Organised by Manchester Digital, the sponsors included Microsoft, Yahoo and the NWDA.
The ceremony was simultaneously broadcast live in the online virtual world Second Life, which the organisers claim is the first time an awards ceremony had been broadcast live in the virtual world. Wilson himself was digitally recreated for the virtual world presentation.
Dave Carter of MDDA took the opportunity of almost 500 digitally inclined guests, to announce the launch of Broadband Atlas, an initiative which will endeavour to track every single piece of broadband under the streets of Manchester. The rationale behind the initiative he claimed, was the extraordinary pricing differentials for broadband between Amsterdam – fore example – and Manchester: a difference of several thousands of pounds a year per user.
The Big Chip awards are open to any organisation based in the North West. Projects, products or services entered for an award should have originated in the North West or most of the relevant work should have been carried out in the North West.
The Neighbourhood won three awards (matching its 2006 total) while IT247 and Pavilion shared two each. The Neighbourhood’s awards were for best animation, best of Greater Manchester and the evening’s top award – the Grand Prix Award. The animation, a popular internet viral download, was branded ‘a profoundly beautiful and engaging piece of work’ by the awards judges. In plain and truthful English, one judge was moved to say “f**k me” when he was judging the Neighbourhood entry.
Designer fashion boutique Gorgeous Couture won the award for best commercial website and Jamie Clouting from Manchester agency PushON was named best rising star.
Smiling Wolf picked up the Manchester Digital original modern award for its design of the website for popular indie band The Maccabbees.
Sponsors of this year’s event included the Manchester Digital Development Agency (MDDA), ICT Merseyside, ICDC, Cultural Industries Development Service (CIDS), Orchard Suits, Manchester College of Arts and Technology (MANCAT), Manchester Metropolitan University Business School, Mediaburst, MIDAS, North West Vision, InfoLab21, as well as Microsoft, Yahoo and the NWDA.
Chairman of Manchester Digital, Shaun Fensom, said: “Yet again this year’s winning entries are a real testament to the talent and quality of work found in the region’s digital sector. And, with our pioneering broadcast into the Second Life virtual world, the Big Chip Awards continues to act as a showcase for the industry’s cutting edge and original work and the best of the North West.”
Images from the dinner will be published on How-Do shortly.
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