SpinVox; MoblogUK win at the Media Guardian Innovation Awards
I was at the Media Guardian Innovation Awards tonight. Very meejia. Very… ‘print’, very ‘mainstream’.
The SpinVox team were out in force with their own table having been shortlisted in the ‘digital innovation’ category. I took a look at the judging panel this morning and thought SpinVox would have quite a challenge winning anything.
As it turns out, I was correct. The judges knew nuffink. The other two shortlisted companies were smart; but none, in my opinion, had the widespread potential to change and improve the way we interact day by day. I didn’t expect the panel to get this though. I wonder how many of them actually use text messaging.
The ever delightful Sarah McVittie surprised the hell out of me by tapping on my shoulder and saying ‘hi’ just before we sat down for dinner. She’s got a lot of gossip — Texperts are moving at lightspeed at the moment — but, I wasn’t able to extract enough from her. She was shortlisted for the Rising Star award. Alas she was pipped to the post, according to another panel of judges, but, again, like SpinVox, it wasn’t as if Sarah or Texperts actually needed an award. Sarah doesn’t need the validation — her success, and the continued success of Texperts, speaks for itself.
The know-nothing judges managed to get one category accurate. Alfie Dennen of MoBlogUK was ecstatic to win the Community Engagement award along with Channel4 for their work on the BigArtMob. I’ve covered it quite a lot here on SMS Text News and it was good to see the judges appeared to get what they’ve achieved. Top work.
I really enjoyed the entertainment — dan le sac VS scroobius pip “Thou Shalt always Kill” rocked. Ever heard it? Here’s the Youtube:
Toward the evening, I was particularly impressed when a bald be-speckled dude stormed the stage and asked to borrow the microphone. He had a beef about the fact that all three independent blogs on the shortlist won. The judges couldn’t decide which should win. The presenter, Hardeep Singh Kohli — the turban-wearing uber-Scotsman, did a brilliant job of drowning out the almost-protest, so I wasn’t able to document the beef in any more detail.
