Suppose you gave out awards, but wouldn't share the winners' list …

October 17, 2008 by Dave Haynes

Sometimes I just shake my head at the dim-witted stuff that goes on in this industry.

The DIGI Awards are industry awards handed out in a whack of categories to companies active in the digital signage space. They are annual awards that are sort of known in the industry, primarily by the marketing people, and pulled together by Seattle-area resellers The Digital Signage Group.

They handed out awards in January and then did some sort of deal with the new Kioskcom/The Digital Signage Show event and the publishers of Digital Signage magazine to do another one in the fall. So entry forms went out, people wrote up cheques and submitted their things, and a couple of weeks ago, people got quiet phone calls basically saying, “Psssst, you won. You should come to the show in New York in a coupla weeks.”

So here we are, the week of the show, and people are sending me notes pointing out something I had a hand in won one of the things. Which, as noted, is news I got slipped to me a couple of weeks ago. Great. Super.

I held off on writing anything at that time, respecting the event, and not wanting to be self-serving by humping my little bit while not relating anything else that passes for useful.

The event was last night. Press releases are out from a couple of companies that won stuff and who had announcements at the ready. But nothing from the event organizers, or the sponsors. The TDSG people have the winners list up … from January!!! There’s not even an article on the Web publication that is sponsoring the damn thing. Digital Signage Today, a COMPETING publication, has a brief piece, but still no list of winners and what-who-won-fors and whys and so on.

So I know a guy who is involved in the thing. And I know he has the list. I know he sent it to someone else already. So I zip him a note.

His response, and this is now 24 hours or more after the damn things are announced: “Sorry Dave, I am not able to provide this to you, but I will note for DIGI’s administrators that you would like to receive it (on the assumption that you want to publish this at 16:9).” 

This is nuts.

Listen kids, the world did not stop in its tracks while it waited for news of the DIGI winners. I can assure you news of the awards will rumble through the offices of this industry with the ferocity of a 2.1 magnitude earthquake. So when some dumb-assed blogger like me wants to do you a favor — repeat, a favor — by giving a little profile on this to the small, damaged mob that reads my ravings, HELP ME OUT!

We’re not that far removed from the days of just having to explain what the hell digital signage is. Having awards that celebrate excellence, and then making it goofily difficult to get the winner details, perfectly reflects an industry that isn’t even close to firing on all cylinders. There is WAAAAY more crap than excellence out there in the installed base, so when there’s a chance to make some some hay about the good stuff, help the cause!

And don’t get me cranky right after I watch Keith Olbermann. It rubs off.