A showcase of outstanding work from Australian Web Designers and Developers

Friday night’s Australian Web Awards dinner, held at the Novotel Langley Hotel in Perth, showcased the best of the best in Australian web design and development, with companies from WA, NSW Queensland and Victoria taking out top honours.

The Australian Web Industry Association (AWIA) has been running a state-based awards program in Western Australia annually since 2005. The 2009 Awards are the first to be open to entrants nationally.

“The standard of sites from entrants in all states was very high”, said Helen Burgess, Judging Chairperson of the awards. “Although there were a high number of WA entrants as expected, we’re very pleased that so many companies from other states decided to enter their work as well. ”

Judges were sourced from noted web professionals specialising in a variety of areas from around the country. Each site was judged on a number of criteria relating not only to design, but usability, functionality, accessibility, and code quality.

According to Canberra-based judge Ruth Ellison, the task of evaluating the sites was not easy. “Judging was tough. I think it speaks volumes about the great talent we have in Australia – we’re competing on the world stage.”

Platinum Awards Sponsor, Fast Hit, Mr Chris Bauer comments, ‘We would like to congratulate the winners once again on lifting the standard of web work produced in this country." Fast.hit is a Perth based web hosting company and has been proudly associated with the Web Awards for the past three years.

More details about the Australian Web Awards program can be found online at http://www.webawards.com.au/

The 2009 Australian Web Awards winners are:

BLOG: Peter Dancewicz for weddinglightroom
VIRTUAL BUSINESS: Truelocal.com.au for True Local
RETAIL: Clever Starfish for Sophie Kyron Jewellery
SELL TO PEOPLE: Bam Creative for Yuki Jo
SELL TO CORPORATE: Loop 11 for Loop 11
GOVERNMENT: WA Museum & Equilibrium for Nick Cave – the exhibition
EDUCATION: Creative Nature for John Curtin College of the Arts
MEDIA: Wotnews for Wotnews
NOT FOR PROFIT: WA Museum & Equilibrium for Nick Cave – the exhibition
EDGE OF THE WEB: Loop 11 for Loop 11
ARTS & EVENTS: WA Museum & Equilibrium for Nick Cave – the exhibition

FASTHIT WEB HOSTING MOST OUTSTANDING:
WA Museum & Equilibrium for Nick Cave – the exhibition

The Web Awards winners presentation dinner is on tomorrow night, so here are some last minute details.

The event is being held at the Novotel Hotel (200 Adelaide Terrace, Perth). Pre-dinner drinks are from 6.30pm, with the main event starting at 7pm sharp.

Attendees will enjoy a three course dinner while the winners of each category are announced, along with the Fasthit Web Hosting Most Outstanding award.

The dress code is “upmarket and glam”, which means dress to impress – but don’t forget we’re the web industry not a bunch of accountants, so don’t be afraid to have some fun – this is not a stiff and formal event!

A limited number of tickets may still be available so if you don’t yet have a ticket, see Rebecca and Jan at the Edge of the Web registration desk or phone Rebecca on 0406 671 829.

Due to scheduling issues, the Ideas 6 seminar event in Brisbane has been postponed until next February. As well as two speakers, the Australian Web Awards finalists from Queensland and South Australia were going to be announced at this event – so we’re letting the cat out of the bag now!

The finalists are:

Media Category:
Richard Slatter (QLD) – Wotnews
Brascoe Publishing (SA) – Metal As F**k

Not for Profit:
Propeller Global (QLD) – Anglican Parish of Waterloo Bay

The full list of all 2009 finalists can be viewed here.

Congratulations to all of our very talented finalists! The winners will be announced at a black tie dinner (with a web twist) on November 6 at the Novotel in Perth. Tickets available now!

Next week in Sydney, AWIA are running a fun event called WebWiz as part of Australian Web Week, a series of events around the Web Directions South conference. At this event, we will also be revealing the Australian Web Awards finalists from NSW, Victoria and the ACT.

WebWiz is a fun quiz in the style of RockWiz with a web geeky twist, and will be on October 6. The event is free, but we are asking that everyone who wants to go registers so we know how many to expect. It should be a blast, and we hope to see you there.

West Australian finalists will be revealed at Port80 Perth, next Wednesday 7th October. Finalists from Queensland, the Northern Territory, South Australia and Tasmania will be announced in Brisbane on the 21st of October, at a special Ideas 6 seminar event (link coming shortly). And of course, the 2009 Australian Web Awards winners from all states will be announced at the black tie awards dinner at the Novotel on November 6, as part of the Edge of the Web conference in Perth (tickets on sale now!).

We hope to see everyone who entered at one (or all) of these events!

Tickets to the Australian Web Awards final presentation dinner, being held in Perth in conjunction with the Edge of the Web conference, are now on sale.

The WAWAs finals dinner, held from 2005 until 2008, developed a great reputation for being a fantastic night out, with a three course dinner and drinks at a swanky venue – and the new national awards final will be an event in the same style. There will be dancing as well as dinner and it’s a great chance to dust off the back-tie finery. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a finalist or not, you’ll have a great time!

Discounts are available, as always, for AWIA members and students. Not an AWIA member? Sign up now!

If you’re looking to go to the Edge of the Web conference and workshops, there’s also some great deals to be had.

Hope to see you there!

Judging of the Australian Web Awards is in full swing and due to the range of  entries we  received nationally, we have  decided to streamline the judging and awards process. The 2009 Australian Web Awards will be judged as  one  national awards contest, meaning  all entries from across Australia  will compete   against each other for a finalist (and winning!) place in the  relevant awards category.

However , celebrating regionally is still an important part of the Australian Web Awards   and  AWIA will be  hosting   special regional events in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne at which, any national finalists for that region will be announced,  congratulated and presented with a finalist category certificate. All National winners will be announced on Friday 6^th November at an Awards dinner in Perth, following the Edge of the Web Conference.

The  quality of entries across Australia has been very strong this year, with high levels of compliance, however  keep in mind that as we enter into the final judging phase of the awards, with the validation process now complete,  it is still a very competitive process! Please  remember that web sites are judged not on who produced them or where they are located, but on their conformity with the  stipulated criteria for each award category.

If you have not already done so, check out our  esteemed judges  panel. These are the people that are going to be taking the nominated sites apart, selecting category finalist (up to three for each award) and ensuring that  category winners truly are the best in Australia.

Watch this space for details of venues and dates for our regional special events and updates on the  finalists (and their profiles) announced at these events. [link] as. We hope you will come celebrate with us, as these  events are shaping up to be truly  awesome.

Entries for the 2009 Australian Web Awards closed at midnight WST last night.

Judging Chairperson Helen Burgess now has the unenviable task of sorting through the entries and checking them against the entry criteria, then beginning the mammoth validation task – all this before the judging process can begin.

A big thank you to everyone who entered – this is going to be a very interesting competition!

If you’ve previously looked at the categories for this year’s Awards and were unsure which category your sites should be entered into, Judging Chairperson Helen Burgess and judge Gary Barber have provided some more information that may help make the categories clearer.

Check it out: Category Details

Not only have they provided an explanation of the purpose of each category, they’ve added examples from previous WA Web Awards winners and finalists.

Don’t forget, your last chance is fast approaching – entries close on Tuesday night.

With the entry deadline looming in less than a week’s time, it’s great to see some interest shown in the Australian Web Awards around the web. We’d like to thank the following sites for their support:

Design Federation: Australian Web Awards accepting submissions

Web Directions South: First Annual Web Industry Awards – nominations close in 1 week

TechNation Australia: Australian Web Awards – Entries Close July 7th

These sites are all telling us the same thing though – the entries clock is ticking! Don’t leave yours until the last minute – Enter Now.