June 10, 2008

Checking in from the Webby Awards

by Allen

Greetings from New York City! Yours truly is currently sweating through a heat wave to bring you all the news about the Webby Awards. It's been a whirlwind so far, but your Canadian Webby Ambassador is doing Canada proud.

On Sunday evening, Planker Geoff and I enjoyed the opening cocktail party at a great terrasse at the Maritime Hotel. Really nice, and it was fun to meet some really cool web professionals from around the globe.

Last night was the Webby Film and Video Awards. Hosted by Judah Friedlander (who yours truly had a nice chat with at the after party), the best of web videos were honoured. The highlight of the night was the lifetime achievement given to SNL kingpin Lorne Michaels, which included a montage of all the best SNL digital shorts. My favourite five word speech of the night was "Together, we'll make reading obsolete" from the Onion News Network rep. Excellent.

The after party proved to be even more fun, a phenomenal location at the Angel Orensanz Foundation Center, an arts and party space that was once a synagogue. My evening's highlight was a nice chat I had with Tay Zonday, a.k.a. the Chocolate Rain guy. Very friendly, and he seems a little overwhelmed by it all. His voice really is deep and low.

Tonight is the big finale, the actual Web Awards. Really looking forward to seeing Stephen Colbert get the Person of the Year. If I survive another after party, I'll fill you in tomorrow. Now would someone please turn up the A/C?