It’s time for the Seattle 2.0 Awards (behind the scenes tidbits)
Once more I’m organizing the Seattle 2.0 Awards. I have not written much about it on this blog, since most of the posts are going to the Seattle 2.0 blog, but I thought I’d save a few behind-the-scenes tidbits here.
Today we announced the finalists. It’s an amazing group of 50+ people and companies that are competing in 11 categories (by the way, you can follow all of them on Twitter). Like last year, we are still learning how to do this right and we’re open to suggestions and feedback.
For simplicity and because I have other things going on in parallel, the model for this year’s Seattle 2.0 Awards will be pretty much identical to last year’s. The nomination, selection & voting process is the same. The event will have the same format and structure.
To be completely honest, I’m not a big fan of the current voting system. I wish it was more like the Oscars, where members of this community get to vote, than like People’s Choice Award. I considered collecting the emails of every single entrepreneur, angel investor, VC, lawyer, accountant, startup employee & consultant in Seattle, but that would have required countless weeks of (boring) work. However, the current system is not broken, it’s just not ideal, in my view.
Jennifer Cabala and I also decided that I had put so much behind the Seattle 2.0 Awards that it would not be the most effective use of her time and mine to bring her up to speed on this year’s event. So, she’s focusing on several upcoming events and other initiatives that we have, while I “wrap” this event for one last time.
This is the week I come out to breadth. The hardest part of putting together this Award is done. Actually, not done, but they are in steady motion. Putting the original website, then scrubbing the 6,900 nominations, inviting the selection committee and managing it, contacting all the finalists, putting the voting page (which requires me reading countless LinkedIn profiles & bios), picking the program, guest speaker, venue, setting up the Eventbrite (to sell tickets), soliciting sponsors, managing sponsors logo, inviting startups to participate on the showcase, yada, yada. That’s the real work. What’s left is a bunch of emails to sponsors, venue, finalists, startups and attendees and that’s easy.
One last thing I must say, is that a lot of finalists are thanking me for being a finalist and that’s wrong. You should thank the Selection Committee and the people who nominated you on the first place. I’m just the enabler or the catalyst if you will. So, you can thank me for doing the website, organizing the voting and putting together the event, but not for you being a finalist or winning the award.
