Wednesday, May 28, 2008

CellMap Wins Best Mobile Application at PopVox Awards!

You like us, you really like us!

Yay! We won! Yes, yes, it was in a category of 2, but STILL! A win's a win.

To recap the night a bit, I'd have to say that it's my first "big" award show. I mean, I've been in high school award nights, and even university "fun" award nights, but this was something else.

When I first entered the "Great Northern Way Campus", I didn't think much of the venue. Yes, it looks pretty neat on the outside, but the first couple of hallways were like every other concrete university buildings.

Then, I entered "The Hangar". WOW. They really turned it into a gala. Lights were low, spinning colour lights were everywhere. There were caterers coming around with fancy hors d'oeuvres, and everyone was dressed up, geek chic style. (When I was at the VIDFEST's opening ceremonies at Vancouver Art Gallery, I was in a nice shirt and slacks. I felt a little out of place, since everyone there was in "geek/artist" type style. I made sure I fit in this time, with my new trademark-pending look. ;) )

There was a bit of mingling, but the event went on its way shortly thereafter. The PopVox Awards. Lots of presenters, lots of big sponsors like Microsoft and Bell. Every time an award was presented, I can't help but think how much this is like what you see on TV: there was a presenter, then "Here are the nominees", along with a video of their stuff. Even when the winners went up, some of them had a prepared list of "thank yous". (Hm... I wonder if Aaron prepared something. And how would the let-down feel if we didn't win, but still have prepared a speech?)

Anyway, as the night went on, I became more and more anxious. When our category came up - Best Mobile Application - my heart was definitely racing. Then, the winner: CellMap!

We went up to receive the award, and Aaron DID have a short list prepared. Michael and myself stood to the side, and only in retrospect did I realize that we should'ved crowded around the podium (think Oscar's, when the entire crew goes up for Best Picture). Ah well. As we left the stage, Kenton, the president of New Media BC, even said a few more words about CellMap! That's pretty awesome.

Afterwards, went to the back to get our pictures taken, and on to mingling! I found out how much carrying the the award is a great conversation piece. Met some cool people, even another UI guy, who works for EA. Raced on PGR4 on the 360, and had some food.

Speaking of UI, the had a buffet table for chow mein. This in of itself isn't anything crazy. They had the same food on both ends leading towards the middle, to allow more people going through. Still not the problem. The main issue was that the table was AGAINST THE WALL. This effectively reduces the number of people going through by HALF! If they moved it away from the wall, the line-ups would've been MUCH shorter.

Phew, there's my UI design rant.

Anyway, the rest of the night went great, met more people, and had more cool food. And, of course, winning an award is always nice! Hope to be back next year!

Oh, and it's cool to have other people blog about the event (TechVibes, Fade to Play). Thanks to Fade to Play for the pic!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

What a great web log. I spend hours on the net reading blogs, about tons of various subjects. I have to first of all give praise to whoever created your theme and second of all to you for writing what i can only describe as an fabulous article. I honestly believe there is a skill to writing articles that only very few posses and honestly you got it. The combining of demonstrative and upper-class content is by all odds super rare with the astronomic amount of blogs on the cyberspace.