DIGI Awards – handed out but not announced (yet)

November 11, 2009 by Dave Haynes

Last year I stirred up a bit of a stink because the DIGI Awards were announced at the Digital Signage Show and I could not get anyone to tell me who won. For days.

I was actually at the thing this year and being old and stupid, forgot about last year’s fuss. But then I started to remember and asked a couple of guys who were going to be writing about it if there was a press release or winner list passed around. Nope.

So I asked the organizer/sponsor. Later that day on the New Bay Media (Digital Signage Weekly) website, I was told. Nope. Checked again this morning.

Grrrr.

Why would you go through all the motions of doing awards and then not make the results immediately and widely available? The awards are done, in part, by a publication, so the editor wants people coming to his website. Understood. Got that. So say who won and drive people to the site to get details and see pix.

Anyway, the awards were rattled off pretty quickly and I missed some. Pending the release of details at some point, here’s what I know.

DDC won two awards for retail work. Omnivex was named the best new non-SaaS platform. Thinking Screen and Scala were the best for the digital picture frame SaaS offer they have. Cognovision won for its measurement technology. GestureTek for its gesture stuff, maybe with Monster Media (missed that). MicroSigns from Montreal won for its little LCD screens that are used at the shelf edge in wireless retailers. Walt Disney, Microspace, Harris and Adex were also winners.

Apologies if I missed any, but, well … oh, don’t get me started again.

Interesting note – of 16 awards, half were won by Canadian companies. 

Bill Yackey from DS Today took more notes and said he would get a list up today on his site, so look there for more detail.

The crowd for the awards was very thin and the event had all the glitz of the grand opening of an auto body shop in Brainerd. It was at the very back of the hall in a draped off room and the awards were rattled off quickly by a guy at a mike. I contacted a couple of clients who won and it was the first they knew of it.

I like that this is done and kudos for those who make the effort and spend the money, but from what I saw and how it shakes out, it needs a serious re-think.

Congratulations to the winners, who all do great work.