suprised, stunned, amazed… read the full story to find out how i received 3 Web Awards this year at SxSW.
This was my second year at SxSW, and i missed the Web Awards last year, and wasn’t going to make that mistake again this year. I had a chance to hang out with Jordan and Melanie Stone from sofake. Jordan was one of the two developers who designed the eminem.com website. We were hanging out before the ceremony, and ended up sitting in the verry front of the ballroom at a “reserved for finalist” table.
When the awards ceremony started, the first award went to Heart Atack but it took so long for someone to come forward to receive the award that we thought none of the developers were there. I decided that if another award was given out to an attendee who wasn’t there, I would spare them and recieve it on their behalf.
Well it happened. Yes you read that right; i received an award for someone I’ve never met just because they didn’t show up. As it happened in the Film/TV category IMAX’s Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D won, and when no one went up to receive it, I jumped up.
I am not one for speeches, or doing crazy things like that, but what the heck you gotta have the guts to do something crazy sooner or later, right? Obviously I had no speech prepared but all I could do was to give a little toung-in-cheek “I want to thank my mom, and my grandmother” because I hate all the “thank you….“s that are given in normal acceptance speeches. After the quick speech I got my picture taken and a quick video interview.
Moments later when I walked back into the ballroom, Jordan Stone was just announced as the winner for eminem.com and as is expected he gave another awesome speech ending with “It means a lot to win this award, especially because I know, in the back of my mind, that some of you are bloggers.” This was Jordan’s 3rd year for receiving awards at SxSW. way to go!
While Jordan was out getting his interview done, and a picture taken…. and visiting the bathroom… his name came up two more times for awards. Once for peoples choice (let’s face it… eminem is popular) and once for best acceptance speech. Of course i filled in for him as well and picked up both those awards.
Turns out that the MC said I was second place for best speech. DOH! I should have pushed it more; but I got to pick up the award anyway =)
And that was enough to start an awesome evening of parties. I really enjoyed hanging out with the Stones, and on top of that SxSW is awesome.
Of the legit awards. 9rules really deserved their award, and I’m happy they got it. They have cultivated an awesome community.
I’ll post a few pictures when i get them.
Update 3⁄15 Here is the video coverage