Hanstweb Awards – Tuesday 18th September

Anyone who has visited the club website 1009mg.org.uk recently will not have failed to notice the “Finalist in Hantsweb Awards 2007” logo on the home page. The awards took place on Tuesday 18th September, and I was honoured to accompany site designers / webmasters Malcolm Bailey and Cat Lake to the ceremony at the Ark centre in Basingstoke.

131 sites had been nominated in our category alone. From the initial 81 sites, the judges drew up a shortlist of 12, and then picked 3 finalists. So to be picked as a finalist out of so many entries was in itself a fantastic achievement. We were up against www.petrolprices.com, a site comparing prices at different forecourts across the region, and www.whatson4littleones.com, providing details of activities for children locally.

The ceremony itself was due to start at 11.00am, with finalists arriving for coffee and briefing from 10.30. Luckily we set off in plenty of time, because the Ark centre is attached to Basingstoke General Hospital, and parking was in very short supply. We drove round the car park several times before finding spaces. On making our way into the conference centre, we were briefed by one of the “stage managers”, who gave us our instructions on where to sit, how to go up on to the stage, how to hold the trophy as it was in two separate pieces, and so on. I think she expected us to remember all this if we won.

The ceremony itself was compered by Steve Power of Wave 105’s breakfast show, who did an excellent job of keeping the proceedings moving at a fair pace - so much so that the deputy head of Hampshire County Council invited him to attend all future council meetings! Each award was presented in turn by a representative of the company sponsoring the category - which included best schools website, best small business site, best local / community, best young person’s site and so on.

Our category was the last but one to be presented, and we duly moved to the allotted chairs at the side of the stage. Cat had volunteered to remain in her seat to take photos / video of Malcolm and I going onto the stage. And the winner was... “whatson4littleones.com”.

The winners collected their trophy (both parts) and certificate first, and then we as runners up were invited onto the stage. Although we naturally felt a little disappointed that we were not the overall winners, the comments from the judge were extremely positive and reminded us what a fantastic achievement it was to have reached the final stage. Our site was described by the judge as catering for a very niche market, which may have been a deciding factor, but was agreed to be clearly laid out, well designed, very user friendly and with great use of photos.

Once all of the awards had been presented, closing speeches were given by the main sponsor, by Steve Power and by Michael Woodhall, the deputy head of Hampshire County Council, who told the whole auditorium that he had to come and find the MG Owners Club after the ceremony as he had some cloth seats from an MGB Roadster to sell!

I really enjoyed being a part of this day, and for Malcolm and Cat, it was a well-deserved recognition of just how much hard work they put into getting the site up and running, and in keeping it regularly updated. It was a great achievement, and something they can rightly be proud of.