United we Twitter Fall at the #HowDoAwards 2010

There are a few sore heads over at KMP Towers today, well for those who have managed to make it in! The Palace Hotel in Manchester is fast becoming the scene of many over indulgent crimes, this time it was the fault of the How-Do Awards, nothing to do with the free drinks reception we sponsored or indeed the generosity of the KMP credit card.

The How-Do Awards bring together the cream of the North West’s media , from Digital Agencies, PR, Press, Radio and Television for a bit of a shin dig, a few awards, a pat on the back, a dig in the ribs, you know the score. This makes for an interesting mix of ideas and contrasting fortunes on the future of the Media within the North West.

The event was kicked off by Robert Shrimsley, the managing editor of the FT.com, delivering a stirring speech on the challenges UK journalism is facing as content and classified are finding more effective platforms online. Likening the landscape to that of the Wild West, where after the many battles for land peace was finally achieved and people found their place and their living within the new order. It was an interesting speech and for the gathered digital practitioners such as ourselves it offered a stark reminder of the realities faced by traditional medias within the North West as our digital world blossoms.

And so after being suitably fed and watered the collective back slapping began. Congratulations are extended to all the winners, KMP Digitata were up for best Digital Agency, an award won by Code ComputerLove, with CTI Digital highly commended, both richly deserved. Other notable winners included Brazen for PR agency and Made in Manchester delivering the best Radio Program for Gay Life After Saddam. Perhaps juxtaposition of the night was delivered through the best Newspaper category as Crains Manchester Business shared the stage with The Westmoorland Gazette as joint winners.

That’s not to say we didn’t make it on the stage in some sort of presence. Throughout the evening’s events, our Twitter Fall was showing on the big screen providing much entertainment. Having learnt from ITV the perils of allowing unmoderated comments on screen, we tasked our placement student Graham with building an app that would allow us some control over the wall, should people get a bit giddy.

Graham was more than up to the challenge and throughout the night the KMP team were happily moderating whilst trying not to let the power go to our heads. Although we were fairly permissive (we’re all adults after all), a few choice comments caused the guilty tweeters to be sin-binned for a cool-off period. By the end of the night the leader of the Naughty League was, perhaps predictably, Gordo from Manchester Confidential. He stormed in front mainly thanks to his overly-enthusiastic and potty mouthed appreciation of the female form. He’s not known for his tact or enlightened gender politics, our Gordo! The Sin Bin feature quickly became a challenge to some Tweeters to see who could get to the top of the list and a special mention must be given to @jameskay83 for his effort and appalling language he almost got through our moderating, but we were wise to him.

Our Twitter fall was used to discuss more than Awards. Tweets relating to other subjects appeared thoughout the night. One example was that it was used to keep people informed of the latest scores for Liverpool’s Europa League Semi-Final tie. There was a notable cheer when the news of Diego Forlan’s goalflash appeared on the big screen thanks to Paul Fabretti, the relationship between Manchester and Liverpool seems as strong as ever.

@paulfabretti: Hang on Liverpool fans…Forlan has just scored. Liverpool need one more now. 20 mins of ET left. #howdoawards

The awards was attended by some of the brightest technical minds in the North West who would of loved nothing more than to crash our system but we learnt from the Tories Twitter mistake and was able to build a system that was able to hold up to their attacks. @ajevans85 attempted to get some Java Script in there with the Tweet on behalf of @ctisn:

@ajevans85: while(true){print “@ctisn for the win!”} // #howdoawards

For @danielashcroft, behind the scenes of the Twitter Fall, it was an enjoyable night of watching discussions happen and observing the jousting to get into the Sin Bin, unfortunately these tweets prove too rude to publish but gave us a good giggle at the KMP Digitata table.

So thank you again everyone who attended and helped out with #howdoawards.

Photos from the event can be found on our Facebook page and Flickr.