And the winner is...

Marie and I went to the Hitwise Online Performance Awards last night, and I gave a 5 minute speech (here's what I planned to say).

It was good to see the winners, find out some interesting statistics about online, and meet others in the industry.

But it could've been a lot better, without increasing the budget at all.

Admittedly, Hitwise hit their target, which was speed. They successfully announced 165 winners over an hour and a half.

But what about the suspense?

Each category was announced, and then the winners were shown on screen, while the Hitwise staff read out each name.

It was like watching paint dry.

And we got pretty sick of hearing ".co.nz" ... but I guess that's an occupational hazard when dealing with New Zealand websites.

Then there was - almost like an afterthought - the explanation of what it meant to win a Hitwise award. And even then, it wasn't in much detail.

What could they do better? Storytelling.

Instead of reams of (very useful) statistics about the industry, how about some information about what it takes to be a Hitwise Online Performance Award winner?

How about - at the very least - keeping back the winner's details until they're announced?

How about analysis of trends, seeing who are the long-term champions and who's new to the top of the table?

How about some storytelling, the way they do sport here in New Zealand? And in Australia, where all the Hitwise staff came from.

And how about some decent grub!

Complaints aside - the good points were, good venue, good sponsor (ahem), and good networking.