Londonist went along to the Webby Night Party at the ICA last night. Hailed as the Oscars of the Internet by The New York Times and one of the most prestigious awards in the world by the BBC, The Webby Awards is the leading international award honouring excellence on the Internet - last night's shindig was to celebrate the most important and exciting year in the UK internet to date. It was also a chance to drink a lot of free vodka - of course we were there.
Any kind of invitation-only London media event is always in danger of turning into a backslapping reach around wank fest, but thankfully the folks on stage were self-deprecating enough to keep things genuinely interesting - the fact that they brought pornography and kittens with them also helped. After all those are the two driving forces that fuel the Internet. Along with pirates and Ninja.
It was also strange to bump into people you are more used to seeing as a small jpeg tucked away on an ABOUT page. But that was the point of the evening really, to show some of the faces behind the Internet's success stories.
First on stage were Shooting People and we were keen to hear how they had grown from a small email newsletter to a real player in the independent film making world. Our patience with powerpoint was rewarded with a short film that involved nudity, sperm and a lot of blood. That was fine because we were at the ICA - you can get away with that kind of thing in the name of art.
Next up was Joel Veitch from Rather Good. If anyone has shown the way for nerds to take what they do in the privacy of their bedrooms onto a global stage (via a longboat filled with Viking Kittens) then it's Joel. We shot a little piece of Joel's presentation because we don't think it's fair that we get all the fun. Here's how he followed up We Like The Moon:
The best thing is obviously how much of a kick he still gets out of his own work. Please swing by and check out Tommy's 12 Days of Christmas - it's stupid, funny, features The Hoff and Ricky Gervais’ cat - as well as being created for charity.
The evening was rounded off by Regine from We Make Money Not Art sharing some of her favourite pieces of design from the last year or so. This presentation especially helped reinforce the idea that often it only takes one person or a small group of like minded individuals with the drive to carve out a little piece of the Internet for themselves.
You can read all about The Webby Awards here. All you need to do to be a contender next year is a little piece of the Internet and an idea or two...
