Awards night in Aucks

And so another yMedia whanau meet-up came and went with last night's Auckland Awards. Ah, the warm-and-fuzzy 'family' vibe was there (albeit one of those estranged families where everyone knows others' names but not necessarily the fine print of their histories).

Stephen Tindall spoke, recalling how the Warehouse's decision to take a chance with electronic technology back in the day largely propelled it to success. The theme of the night was the changing importance of digital media, the new addiction that young people have to this technology, and of course, the spotlight was on the fantastic projects from this year's Challenge.

Massive congrats to the Auckland Winners: Team Open Eyes (Kyle Meszaros and Kevin Cooper) who worked with 'Community Connections'. We'd also like to congratulate all the other participants for producing some amazing blogs, Facebook pages, websites and so on.

For Pamela and myself, having Bon, Jade, Joe, Sheena, Nathan, Red and Anthea as quasi-co-hosts of the evening was a definite highlight. Telecom's gift vouchers of $400 to the winning teams, one set for Auckland one for Wellington, were also a lovely surprise.

We're very aware that the people in the room last night - the 2007 participants, our sponsors, judges, community groups, and 2008 students - are yMedia as it exists today.

In Ancient Greece, gathering in the forum was a part of daily life. In 1960s America, rallies and marches were part of the student experience. At the turn of the 21st century, it's becoming increasingly harder to drag people out of their homes and into real-world, face-to-face activities on a Wednesday night.

And so we'd like to thank everyone again for coming out and for making it another warm-and-fuzzy night.