Winning an Award, Part 2 (The Event)
The Finalist notifications were mercifully sent out the next day so there wasn’t too much time to wait. When the email came in with the subject “MITX Technology Award Finalist Information”, I almost dropped out of my chair. I had done it. I was going to the Awards Ceremony and Episend, Inc. was listed on the Finalists page right there in the Rich Media category along with some very successful companies.
At that point, I was more than satisfied, although I remember having some anxiety dreams, during one of which I went to the awards and barely anyone showed up and by the time they announced Episend everyone had left. But that was hardly the case.
My wife and I went and after the networking social hour, we found seats in the “Open” seating section at the back of the ball room where the event was held. They started announcing category winners, interspersed with several “Best-of” awards and the Lifetime Achievement Award to Bill Bulkeley, whom I had the pleasure of speaking with after the ceremony. The Rich Media category came, and I was happy for the GoTuit people, who won the category I was in.
After all of the category and Best-of winners were revealed, it was time for the PwC Promise Awards, given “to start-up companies whose emerging technology solutions show promise to make a significant business impact.” Before the event, I figured that if I had a chance to win anything, this would be it. The Price Waterhouse representative was on the stage to present the awards, and he began by saying “this year, we’re giving three Promise awards, one to Analytics and Business Intelligence, one to Mobile Infrastructure, and one to Rich Media.” At that point, my heart started jumping because I knew I had a good shot, being by far the smallest of the Rich Media finalists.
I heard “and the Rich Media Promise Award Winner is an application that lets users create and send messages with videos, images, large files”, I knew it was me, and I immediately started thinking about giving an acceptance speech to 450 professionals in a huge room. I made my way up to the stage and went to the podium. Fortunately, you could not see the people in the room, which made it easier. I think my brief speech reflected how truly happy and honored I was to get such an award, and I felt great. After I spoke, they had a Q & A with the three Promise Award winners and we made our way out to get our pictures taken.
I was still in such a daze that I only half-heard Jeremy Allaire’s speech for winning the Innovation Hall of Fame Award. One thing he said that did resonate, however, was something to the effect of “you can have the best team, the best idea, and all the funding you need, but in the end it really comes down to executing.”
The ceremony ended soon after. My wife and I got to meet several really nice people after the lights came back on, and I was congratulated countless times, which was great.
I need to thank MITX and the judges for being open minded enough to recognize Episend based on the merits of the application rather than on the size of the company. It sure says a lot about the organization.
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