industry awards
Strike a medal, hire a band
New media awards come and go ? these days mostly go. Most of them are thinly disguised promotions ? wobbly coat-hangers on which to hang sponsorship ? or your basic industry knees-up. Since 1995, though, Milverton Wallace has been running a useful conference and more recently a genuine annual awards programme ? together called NetMedia. Although he does his best to get down in the trough and scare up the sponsorship dollar, he doesn?t seem to have noticed that these events are supposed to be run for the sponsors and ?partners? and that when the money runs out (as it tends to do in an industry crash) you?re supposed to beat a retreat and hide out until the money comes back. NetMedia is a Europe-wide programme for online journalists and media owners. The honours go to obscure articles in Norwegian local news web sites, to massive media conglomerates who rewrite the landscape and to cross-disciplinary teams who work together to break important news or inform the public ? real achievements. The whole thing seems to have been kept going by the force of Milverton?s will and a persistence that must have its origins in his life as a journalist (if my mobile rings after ten at night, my wife says ?that?ll be Milverton?). I think he deserves a medal or a plaque or at least a holiday.
What do you think?