Webby Awards Report

Hey, Melissa here with a more detailed report of how the Webby Awards went down. John Noe and I accepted on behalf of Potter fans; you can see pics of the event right here.

So, what happened at the Webbys? We confused the hell out of the Webby people. We knew it would happen, but the proof is on the Web site now (this has been fixed - thank you marvelous Webby peeps!); comprising our five-word acceptance speech for the 2006 Celebrity/Fan Site People's Voice Webby were the most famous four-word speech in the Harry Potter books and the name of the most famous author in the world, but that didn't matter. Harry Potter may be mainstream fiction, but it doesn't seem it's mainstream enough so that when you stand up in front of a crowd of 600 or so industry professionals and say, "Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!" and then hug a copy of Harry Potter to your chest and say, with a wide smile, "Rowling," it is not enough to make sure people know what you're talking about. The Webby Award site thinks we said: "nitwit blubber (something mumbled) tweak.. rolling?"

(We realize now we should have said, "It's ROH-ling, not RAOW-ling, people!" and done Jo a public service while we were up there.)

Anyway, that no one professed to quite get what we had said (more on that in a bit) seemed to fit the night. Harry Potter fans at the Webby Awards; as the first unofficial, fan site to ever win one of these awards we knew going in we'd be little fish. When we met the guys from Google, or discovered we were in an elevator with the ones from Technorati, this point was made exceedingly clear. If everyone in the room was a huge Harry Potter fan, it might not have felt as huge as it did. Standing in front of people that probably expected us to be there as much as we did, it felt oddly correct that they didn't quite get us.

Not that those involved were anything but great to us, no; the people from the Webbys took our picture later (presumably for the Web site), and were just about as friendly and interested as could be. Most times we got a, "Oh, you're the Harry Potter guys!" when we introduced ourselves; it was either that or a very interested, "Ahhhhh!" as if to say, "Oh, wow, isn't that cute!" They also inevitably asked our Web site statistics, and cutesy glances turned to astonished eyebrow raises when they heard just what a force the Harry Potter community can be. Still, we went into the first event (a cocktail hour on the roof of a downtown hotel) with sweaty palms and nervous sidelong looks.

The first real jolt happened when we met the Google team, many of whom were from Google Maps, based in Australia; as funloving as you'd expect the Google team to be, many had kids who were huge fans of the series, some were huge fans themselves, and others had already hit Leaky in their trawls, of course a massive compliment. When we shared that our homepage is powered by AJAX, the gentleman with whom we were talking gave us an apologetic look. "We developed that in an afternoon," he said, then chirped, "Sorry about that!" in reference to the many compatibility issues that come with the technique.

At the actual gala on Monday night we were, if possible, even more nervous; when we checked in with the friendly PR lady who had told us the night before to do so, we were suddenly handed a Webby trophy and led onto a "red carpet"esque area, with a Webby backdrop behind us and a firing squad of photographers in front. They all yelled about which way we should turn and who to smile at next, with things like, "Next door, darling, next door!" (ie, Turn my way please!). It was completely terrifying, and ultimately won't show up anywhere because there isn't an editor alive who is going to pick the photos of the Harry Potter webmasters over, you know, the MySpace guys, Prince, the founder of the Webbys, Thomas Friedman, et al. Still, only a small percentage of winners were asked to do that at all, so we still felt extraordinarily special.

The gala was at Cipriani Wall St., a huge former bank in Manhattan's financial district. We sipped from martinis that had been passed through a giant twisting ice sculpture and gawked at all the Web heavyweights all around us, which was interesting to do since we had no idea what people looked like. I found our name in the program, listed as a winner, and gawked at that as well.

The program started with a skit from the Saturday Night Live crew, presented via video, celebrating "The Spammies." They awarded the originator of the "Meet New Girls!" spam, who materialized as a button-downed shirt, mullet-tied-with-an-elastic-band wearing middle-aged guy with a lisp. The award was "presented" by the Nigerian prince who desperately needs you to transfer him all your money, and, for some reason, Megan Mullally (or at least a spoofed version).

The awards show took a few hours to complete, which made us thank goodness all those speeches could only be five words long. One of the longer acceptance speeches was by Thomas Friedman, a brilliant journalist. He said, "Whatever can be done, will be done. Will you do it, or will it be done to you?" which provided us with one of the more ponderous, head-shaking moments of the night.

That was quickly extinguished when one winner spoofed the old Bob Dylan video and used large flash cards to show his speech; Corddry, the resident "expert" on everything on The Daily Show, lamented, "I sooooo wish I could read right now." He interjected wise-guy remarks after many speeches; even ours. I walked to the podium and said, again, "Nitwit, Blubber, Oddment, Tweak, Rowling," and he said, "Very Dada," causing me to almost fall down the stairs on the way off the stage.

And as for that whole, "No one really quite got it" thing - that's only what it sounded like. Because once I left the stage, people started offering words of appreciation; even one guy who'd never read the books mouthed something like, "All right!" There were a lot more Potter fans in that room than were willing to admit it, I tell ya. Sing it proud, adult Potter fans!

And speaking of singing it loud: We were then treated to a rendition of - cover your eyes, kids - "The Internet is for Porn" by the cast of the Broadway show Avenue Q. Definitely a show for adults, but the song itself wasn't raunchy, mostly; for a room full of Web professionals it was a perfectly chosen spoof.

We proselytized the people at our table on Potter - I had two converts by the end of the first course - and mostly continued to stare in awe that you all had decided we deserved to be there. After all the special awards were given out - Gorillaz accepted theirs as puppets on the balcony, and the MySpace rep stuck to his five words beautifully - we knew we were waiting for just one guy, and rumors of him performing (someone with a guitar was already standing next to our table, which alerted us) had already circulated.

When Prince was announced it was indeed as if royalty had shown up; the entire place got to its feet. He marched right by our table with his entourage, stood on the stage and said, "Everything You Think is True." Then he performed a song (which I liked but the name of which escapes me), threw his guitar on the ground, and swept right off the stage and (presumably) out of the building. John said, "I don't think he liked his guitar very much."

After that we headed to the afterparty, where at a very loud bar everyone danced and drank and let loose. And when a room full of professional geeks let loose, it's really something.

Thanks again, guys. We had a fantastic time and were honored to represent Potter fans at such a cool and prestigious event. Nitwit, Blubber, Oddment, Tweak, Rowling - indeed! :)

PS: How cute are my parents?

PPS: Oh, yes, almost forgot: When Tijuana Flatts said, "Chipotle Can Kiss My Ass" for its speech, John and I looked at each other like, "Did he just - what? Really?" and stared back at the stage with mouths dropped open. I had a hand ready to push John back into his seat if it came to that, but luckily it did not, all it did was give a reassuring, calming pat on the shoulder. He took it in stride. :)

PPPS: AGH and I'm back to thinking the Webby people HATE us, look at this awful picture of me doing the speech: Yeeechcchchchhchcchch; it's made up for with this one.