It’s that time of the year again.
Web awards season is now open.
So what do we have this year?
Well if you’re into commercially run awards ceremonies that require an entrance fee for nominations AND attendance, then there’s the Golden Spiders. I’ve said enough about them in the past, so I won’t bother wasting energy on them this year. Suffice to say that charging 150 euro for a nomination and another 290 per seat at an event that is sponsored is sickening.
At the opposite extreme Damien Mulley has launched The Irish Web Awards
Unlike the Golden Spiders you don’t have to pay to nominate someone and the tickets for the event are a nominal 30 euro a pop. nor do you have to pay to attend. Yes – there are sponsors, but they’re the ones covering the costs. Imagine that!
And then, somewhere in between, lie the IIA Net Visionary Awards. It’s free to nominate people, but you have to pay to attend.
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It’s horses for courses. Personally I’d agree with your sentiments, but I recognise there’s a place for the commercially driven Spiders as much as the Irish Web Awards. Bottom line, all these bashes are an excuse to showcase what’s happening and hopefully that’s good for the wider industry. We can only hope that when it comes to judging, that decisions are based on what’s best in the eyes of judges that aren’t influenced by commercial factors. It also begs the question of how much relative credibility awards afford to the winner. I wonder, for instance, does it bring tangible financial reward to have a gong from one of these awards, or is it just a chance for industry types to have a party and get a bit drunk?
R
Ralph
Why should there be a place for commercially centred awards that do nothing to enrich the industry or its participants?
All they seem to do is enrich themselves (literally!)
Michele
Well lets take the market argument.
Why, if there’s apparently a commercial appetite for sponsors to pay for it and for companies to attend, should there not be a place for it?
Clearly some people/companies feel it has a value or it would have withered and died before now. No?
In this case I thinks it’s reasonable to let the market decide, whatever our misgivings about the actual merits it brings to the industry.
R
I could be wrong Michele, but I think I remember Damien telling me that there will be a charge at the door.
There is room for more than one awards event – they all contribute to publicising the industry, and that’s good. A little competition is also good for everyone, it’d be terrible if there was just the Golden Spiders.
Well done to Damien for setting these up, they’re already well on the way to being the most significant and meaningful of the lot.
It is about time the Zeddies had a replacement. The IIA’s Netvisionary awards are fine but the industry needs something more. The Golden Spiders have only marginally more credibility than the late and unlamented Web Ireland NIBAs. Over the years, it seems that the GS awards function on the greater fool principle. They exist in order to extract money from people who are so uncertain about their relevance to the industry that they have to pay to have their site judged by the GS “experts”.
Michele and everyone else. I just want to apologise and clarify that there is a charge for tickets for the night. A ticket is €30 to attend on the ceremony. Winning does not depend on turning up, we’ll post the Award out.
We could have done free tickets but there was a worry it would be valued less if it was free in, leading to guilt-free cancelations without notice. A paid for ticket also means someone wouldn’t mess and block book 100 and then not turn up and it also covers some of the costs, bringing down the cost of sponsorship of categories and thus allowing smaller companies to be able to come in and be sponsors.
Again, sorry for the confusion.
Damien
30 euro is practically free, so I wouldn’t worry about it 🙂
Michele