Saturday, March 13, 2010

Hive Awards launch at SXSW


For me the best opening party of SXSWi last night was the first annual Hive Awards show held "to honor the unsung heroes of the internet." The show was inaugurated to give props to those who innovate and create on the web but rarely get credit: coders, programmers, information architects, and others. It was the brainchild of Alan Wolk of Toadstool fame and former creative director from FCB. Ironic to me that it took a renegade from traditional advertising to come up with a way to acknowledge creators of digital.

The party was a rambunctious, live-streamed gathering of SXSW campers at Red 7, a fun bar near Convention Center. I'd thought a launch ceremony would be pretty barebones, and was pleasantly surprised by free drinks, catered eats (including local treats like chicken fried chicken which impressed my local friend who is hosting me here), a bona fide stage and comfortable seating. Alan, master of ceremonies wore a Mad Men-era tux, which contrasted dashingly with the crowd of ironic t-shirts.

Slickly produced programs were provided on chairs, but it was too dark for ad broads to read, even by the light of their iphones. So I had no idea that Ad Broad was a finalist. Honestly, hadn't seriously considered that a blogspotter who can't speak a speck of html could be thought of as a "hero of the internet." Halfway through the ceremony, my companion and housing host announced she wasn't well (maybe the chicken-fried chicken?) and I drove her home. What a thrill to receive news (via twitter of course) that Ad Broad won in the Advertising blog category.

Congrats to all winners including Deep Focus, Firstborn, RGA and others. Lucky for us and appropriate to the category that prizes are items more practical than dust-gathering engraved statuettes: flash drives.

2 comments:

California Girl said...

Hey! Congratulations on the award. You do provide insightful info so no surprise you're being recognized. Also, have always wanted to see Austin. I still have an old advtsg friend there, now Market Mgr for Univision. She's even older than I am but she's going strong. Says it's a wonderful city with fun things to do and pretty good weather. She is also an original California girl so I trust her judgment. Maybe some day I'll get out there.

Susan Ellis said...

Congratulations! I thoroughly enjoy your blog and it does deserve recognition!