Ambassador Resources

I recently took a trip to visit Webby Ambassadors Jake Blok in Amsterdam, Nik Roope in London, and Karine Blommaert and Christian Daems in Brussels, all for Webby-related events. Visiting each city was a fantastic whirlwind, so I thought I’d share thoughts and photos with you all.

• Destination #1: The Netherlands (first time!), where I attended Inspiration Week Live in The Hague, an event supported by IADAS and The Webbys. In a word, it was fascinating. The big focus was Innovation Playground, a day-long brainstorming session to propose new business ideas as inspired by an amazing range of demos on-site–everything from high-tech RFID security systems, robotic fish, and a sustainable dance club, to Swoot’s browser-less Internet experience. While I didn’t learn as much Dutch as I’d hoped, I met wonderful people whom I hope to see again soon (at The Webbys in June?).

See Innovation Playground photos here (the location was Ado Den Haag, a brand new soccer stadium in The Hague).

• Destination #2: London (first time!), for The Webby 5s at The ICA on December 3. Nik’s idea for this was brilliant– interesting UK Web folk present their work in ICA’s theater, but must abide by these fun rules:

Additional rules were: “no pitching, not boring, not too niche.” Right on.

Here’s who presented (quite an incredible roster–including our own DMD, newly dubbed “Mr. Webby” that night):

More pictures from the event here. Thanks Nik!

• Final Destination: Brussels, Belgium (first time!) to attend the CMS Awards, where I met many wonderful people not only from Belgium, but from Denmark and Germany too. I had a great time at the celebration and felt grateful to learn first-hand about the Belgian Web community. Thanks Karine and Christian!

See photos from the event here

Enjoy!

If you’d like to post on this blog for the rest of the group, please let me know, and I’ll set you up. This would be a nice way to share tips and ideas of what’s working in your area to spread the word about the Webbys. If you have an event you can post a re-cap with pictures and a report. Share the Webby love!

email me to get going

Hello Webby UN!

Welcome back to all of you returning as our Ambassadors, and a big welcome to those of you who are new this year. This blog is an internal one just for all of us, and I post periodically to share news, thoughts, and ideas with the group. Take a minute to sift through the archives–there are some nice pictures and comments from last year.

But, moving forward: I asked all of you from last year for feedback on what worked for you in promoting the Webbys locally. I received some good ideas I’d like to share with you all, below.

What worked:
• email blasts; tell your network
• phone calls; call your contacts
• mailing the Call for Entries
• meeting with people one-on-one
• online advertising
• blog posts
• viral advertising
• word-of-mouth
• events!
• bringing on International Partners
• building Webby sites in your language
• translating our Call for Entries and press releases

What didn’t work:
• print promotion, print advertising (*this depends on the market)

Ideas for this year:
• More viral advertising and promotion online
• more blogging, cross-linking
• bigger web presence through banners, logos, blogs
• more word-of-mouth marketing
• do a local event, cocktail party, networking event
• more communication between Ambassadors
• planning further ahead with key dates
• tailor press releases for your country in more detail–talk about past winners and nominees from your area
• more use of the Ambassador Blog! (we are looking into opening this so everyone can post).
• host a party for Webby nominees in your country

Please sign in to comment and share your ideas with the group! What do you think are the most effective ways of spreading the word about the Webbys? Let’s make this year the biggest in Webby history!

Cheers,
Emily