And the Vloggie Award Winners Are......

Yesterday afternoon, I called industry pal Valerie Cunningham, who handled Podtech's marketing at the Vloggies event and she said to me, "a lot of people are really going to dress up for this one, there's even a red carpet." She wasn't kidding.

Dan Farber and Thomas Hawk were spotted at the top of the stairs snapping away as if it were the Emmies. Nick from ValleyWag was spotted in a suit, but not with a notebook, at least not that I noticed.

I'm not accustomed to people dressing up in the Bay Area, particularly at a technology event. While a handful dressed in standard geek attire, others took me by storm. I kept thinking, "wow, they really clean up well." And I had that feeling over and over again all night. What a pleasure to see people in fun jackets, decadent jewelery, dresses and suits. The guys from the midwest brought energy and color to the stage and off the stage. On the left is Bill Streeter from St. Louis.

John Furrier kicks the event off, with the Vloggies screen in bright neon orange in the background. I was surprised how many sponsors signed up for this event - way to go John, Val, Robert and team.

I only noticed three open laptops, towards the front of the room, including Robert Scoble, who was actively blogging from the front row. Many in the room had cameras and video cameras. In attendance was a mishmash of technology social media types, the blogger crowd, and vloggers wanting to make an impact environmentally, internationally, politically, and socially. Then there was one of my favorites, Tanja Andrews of Freshtopia, a vlog dedicated to food, health and all things green.

Co-host Daniel McVicar remarked on stage that she makes eating kale look interesting, or is it making eating green feel sexy. She's a remarkable woman and truly inspiring. I had to laugh because the video clip included a glimpse of the VitaMix power blender, which I purchased in the past year and was so impressed, I ended up blogging about it. She apparently has a retro one from the 1970s and its still ticking away. Me with Tanja below.

And there she is with her mixer - taken by Scott Beale.

Irina Slutsky and Daniel McVicar hosted the event, introducing a series of social media people to present winners across more than thirty categories. Not everyone was present to receive an award, so they showed a series of video clips to honor their talent in specific categories.

The top vlog award chosen by the judges went to Alive in Baghdad. Brian Conley of Alive in Baghdad on stage accepting the award on behalf of those in Iraq who he gives significant praise to... it was a touching talk. And an inspiring one.

The below shot taken from their site and also shown as a short video clip at the awards.

Below, John Furrier presents John Conley with a check for $2,000.

Ze Frank won for favorite male video vlogger, and although he wasn't able to make it out from New York, he created a true-to-Ze-form acceptance video, which had the crowd in stitches.

Was I dreaming or was there a duck on stage accepting the award on behalf of the best community vlogging site - Minnesota Stories? A video clip plays in the background and we see a cow being milked. (really being milked :-)

We are reminded that this is not just about video communities, but all communities. Local is where it starts and where it can have the most impact.

Schlomo comes to the stage with the weekend weather kids to announce the Jetset Show as the favorite "kids" video, followed by American King, which wins as the best documentary vlog. Viral video goes to Singing Woodchuck and the funniest video goes to Ask a Ninja. (below taken by Scott Beale)

Best editing goes to Jay Dedman, best news vlog goes to Rocketboom (Andrew Baron shows up from NY to accept the award), favorite technology vlog goes to Bleeding Edge TV (a clip shows a guy blowing up a PC in the middle of a field over and over again) and the best entertainment vlog goes to Chasing Windmills.

To honor green, Treehugger receives kudos in the Green Vlog category, and on the opposite spectrum, Josh Leo wins for best personal diary.

I sat next to him in the front row for a bit; a great sense of humor, he tells me that his vibrant multi-colored shirt comes from Kansas City and to the crowd, he says, "you don't have to reach a mass audience, video and photograph your cats, whatever is important to you and throw it up on the net," a reminder that anyone can be a creator and the smallest of audiences and voices DO matter, something my client eSnips is learning daily with their exploding esoteric communities.

The best inspirational and spiritual vlog goes to Beach Walks with Rox. (what a great name). The list goes on and I didn't manage to capture every winner, but Podtech will no doubt include the entire list of winners on their blog soon.

A fun group shot taken at the after party, adjacent to the Swedish American Hall in Cafe Du Nord on Market Street in San Francisco.

Support and love for Pandora's Tom Conrad and Etienne Handman. No they're not a client, but they have a fabulous service for music lovers. Since I'm not yet a user, I told them I'd try it out at my next party, so I guess I should have one soon. They made sure I kept the hat as well, so yet another vendor cap went home with me, so I can share their logo with the mountains during some weekend hike.

The below Vloggies Award shot was taken by Scott Beale. (What a fabulous photo!! Check out this link for the rest of his photos from the event. Thomas Hawk, another photographer extraordinaire has a few shots posted on his site today - more coming. Dan Farber's photo set here.