Entries Closed, so the Judging Begins
Entries for the 2010 Australian Web Awards closed at 23:59 WST last night.
Chairperson Helen Burgess and Judging co-ordinator Gary Barber, 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.
Award Annoucements
The results of the regional finalists for NSW, ACT, NT and Tas will be annoucned at a event in Sydney at Web Week in October 2010. Where as the regional finalists for QLD, VIC and SA will be annouced in Brisbane in mid October 2010. The finalists for WA and the overall national category winners will be announced in Perth at gala event on 6th Novemebr 2010.
A big thank you to everyone who entered - this is going to be a very interesting competition as there are entries from all the states and territories in Australia across the categories!
Reader Discussion
Does that mean Western Australians won’t know until the night the winners are announced whether they are finalists or not? Even if there isn’t an event to make the announcement, surely they should get some notice, or am I reading it wrong?
Why are the WA finalists only announced at the Gala Dinner? We have clients that would like to attend but only if they are finalists, as there is no point going otherwise.
Yes that is correct. The WA web awards finalists will not be know before hand. They will be announced on the night at the WA / National Awards.
If we pre announce the awards then we have to do the same for the rest of Australia, and this will defeat the point of the award ceremonies across Australia.
The only alternative would be to hold 2 events in WA on announcing the WA awards and one the National winners.
I understand that, but you could announce the finalists without an event before you announce the winners.
Our clients are excited to go, but there is absolutely NO enjoyment for them if they aren’t even in the running. I have enjoyed going to the awards in the past (when in the running for an award) but I will not be attending as a result of the way things are structured this year.
@cadmium, @bob Tell me would you attend if you knew you were not a finalist?
No. And since I don’t know if I am a finalist I am not attending anyway. If I am a finalist then almost everyone I work with and several of my clients will attend - a minimum of 10 people.
You could probably argue that people should be there to support the web industry anyway, but seriously how boring is it when you aren’t even a finalist? We can’t even check out the finalists entries before we get there, which is a great help to see what has actually been made and decide if we think they deserved to win.
The only other reason to go would be for the food & booze, and maybe some social networking.
@bob - you do realise the Web Awards organisers have no say in who wins and who doesn’t. The entire judging process is documented and the result is determined by the validation and the score from your peers (the judges).
We have found over the years the quality of the entries is improving, to the point that these awards are now won with just a few points difference in the scores.
Now we value your viewpoint. But it doesn’t matter if you think the site deserved to win or not. It’s a case that your peers in the web industry nationally and internationally have decided who wins from the sites submitted.
No correspondence will be entered into with respect to the judging.
Still this year the judges are giving feedback for all the sites judged. Telling you what works and what doesn’t from their professional view point.
That said I can understand your view point with respect to the finalists.
I wasn’t questioning the judging process at all… it’s just nice to check out the finalists for ourselves before rocking up on the night. It’s adds a bit of excitement when you at least know who is running in the race
Instead we’ll have the finalists being announced then the winner announced, and half the people sit around scratching their heads as to who it is that has just won and what for. In past years I hadn’t even heard of certain companies until I saw that they were finalists.
Knowing who the finalists are can generate interest in categories outside of the ones that a person entered.
I guess if there was a mini presentation for each finalist we’d get a better idea of each entry on the night, but I don’t see that happening
It’s highly illogical finalists for WA aren’t announced before the night.
Not winners, finalists.
HI Martin
We will be announcing the finalists for the various regions a few weeks before the relevant events.