We’ve wanted to have some awards for the New Zealand web industry for a couple of years now. We think it’s a world-class industry, doing some amazing work. We’ve wanted to celebrate that. If Webstock is about connecting and informing and educating the industry, then the ONYAs are about celebrating what we do.
Entries are now open for the ONYAs and will be open until Friday 24th July. We’d love to see a lot of entries. There’s such great sites and applications out there that deserve to be more widely known. Please help spread the word about the ONYAs by letting people know entries are now open.
An event like this simply could not happen without the support of sponsors.
We’re delighted that the ONYAs are being presented in association with Shift, our major sponsor. Shift have been a leader in the New Zealand web scene for a decade now and it means a lot to us that they see the potential of the ONYAs.
We’re also pleased to welcome category sponsors NZ Post and Idealog. NZ Post are the sponsor of the Best content (personal) category and Idealog a sponsor for the Most Innovative category. Idealog has been a supporter of Webstock and the ONYAs since we started and we’re delighted that NZ Post are now involved.
Good luck!
Why is there a fee associated with nominating a website for an award?
A fee to nominate websites! Do you expect to get any nominations at all? No nominations mean no awards.
I think they only want people who nominate themselves.
They’re missing out on the unsung heroes and those suffer from humility.
The Onyas are on the same lines as the Australian Web Awards (http://webawards.com.au) and the Webbies (http://webbyawards.com), both of which charge a fee to enter (AUD50, USD85 respectively).
The idea is that a development shop will nominate its best work. I assume it’s both a crap filter (so you don’t get judges wasting their time wading through a million personal web sites that their creators are very proud of but which aren’t world class) and to defray the costs. It’s quite possible they’ll miss out some people but, as they clearly say, they’re “by the industry for the industry”–the industry can afford to nominate its best work, and that’s what the Onyas acknowledge.
As I said on National Radio yesterday (http://xrl.us/bezhhf), the Onyas are a great thing for the NZ web industry. It’s a sign of maturity that we have awards that are peers of the Webbies and the Australian Web Awards–an internationally judged contest that will promote and reward great work from the professional web design companies in NZ.
It’s also standard practice in the design & advertising industries, and is quite inexpensive when you look at what ad agencies will pay to enter something like Cannes or the Effies (hundreds of euros/dollars per entry, depending on the category).
The ONYA team have managed to attract some extremely high-calibre judges of national and international renown, and as Nat says, without some sort of filter they’d be in a situation where they would have to review hundreds or even thousands of entries per category. These are people with busy schedules who are taking some not insignificant time out to do the judging, and it would be nice to think that by providing some focus they might enjoy the judging experience and want to come back next year.
I checked…I really did…so I’m either blind, or you haven’t put in where the awards ceremony is going to be held??