Aidan O'Rourke Photographer Website Publisher Tutor

The Big Chip Awards 2009 Palace Hotel Manchester - a personal account

Written by Aidan O'Rourke
2009-06-19

I was invited to the Big Chip Awards 2009, an event that recognises and celebrates talent in the New Media sector in Manchester and the North West. I offer an insider / outsider point of view.

There's nothing more 'yucky' than an awards ceremony - all those inflated egos with their pretentious speeches. But that cannot be said of the Manchester Digital Awards 2009, held in the magnificent grand ballroom of the Palace Hotel, Oxford Road.

It started with a champagne reception. There must have been several hundred people there. The huge room was packed. Looking round I could see a few familiar faces amongst many unfamiliar ones. The champagne was excellent and it was easy to chat and make contact with people you've never met before.

Soon we were ushered down several flights of stairs to the Grand Ballroom which was magnificently decked out. I've photographed at this venue for the St Ann's Hospice Ladies Lunch, but never been a guest.

Terry Christian was an inspired and ironic choice of moderator - a self-proclaimed technophobe who doesn't even have his own website.

Poet Mike Garry recited his touching A-Z tribute to Tony Wilson, who presented the event in previous years.

The dinner was superb. pate, lamb on the bone and a wicked chocolatey dessert served on a slate.

The awards commenced - Oscar-style, but without the 'yuckiness'. Speeches were short and unpretentious.

Terry Christian alternated between irreverent Manc wit and a dutiful reading of the script from the autocue.

Company names flashed up on the screen - like the faces some familar to me but many of them I would not come across in my normal day. Now I have!.

Though I'm an insider in Manchester, with long experience of web publishing, I'm an outsider to the world of web design and new media agencies. As a quirky individualist, a bit of a maverick, with a large and high ranking though eccentrically designed website, I couldn't hope to gain any recognition at this event.

The prize winners, mostly male and mostly young-ish, went tup to the stage to get their awards. They posed for photos with Terry and whichever sponsor was announcing the results.

Code Computer Love, a familar name at the Big Chip Awards, went up to the stage, a succession of lads, evidently talented and, this evening, tanked up.

My friends at Push On received the award for Best Use of Search. Katrina Gallagher, like most of the women at the event, looked stunning in her black gown, just as glamorous as any Hollywood starlet and a lot more tech-savvy. Bespectacled Push On director Simon Wharton had few words but a big smile.

MDDA director Dave Carter made an impassioned rant in favour of the development of an ultra-high speed network similar to those planned in Sweden and South Korea.

In response, Terry Christian made more jibes about Transpennine Express and its 25 mph trains. "Britain, the only third world country where you can drink the water".

And ironically I had to leave early to catch the last train from Oxford Road with a connection to Stockport - a TransPennine Express to York. It left at the ridiculously early time of 11.18, and I had to wait until 11.38 for the last train to Stockport and all stations to Crewe. And there are only night buses on Friday and Saturday.

And that was it - a great night, lots of great food, good company, lots of talent - of every kind - but shame about the infrastructure, both data and passenger-carrying.

PushOn www.pushon.co.uk.

2009-06-19

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