The 9th Annual Shorty Awards
Now in its 9th year, the Shorty Awards continue to honor the best influencers, celebrities, brandsand agencies on social media, across Snapchat, Periscope, Instagram, YouTube,Twitter and other platforms. In order to keep up with the competition’s growth,the Shorty Awards upgraded to the PlayStation Theater in the heart of TimesSquare in New York City for the ceremony on April 23.
Nearly 800 influencers,brands, agencies and guests packed the theater for the ceremony, which featureda cocktail reception, a seated dinner and an after party at Refinery Rooftop. Thestaged event streamed live on YouTube to over 60,000 viewers internationally,as fans all over the globe tuned in to watch their favorite social media stars.
Tony Hale (Arrested Development and Veep) hosted the show and kept theaudience entertained while presenters including Casey Neistat, Bill Nye (TheScience Guy!), Skai Jackson, Kaitlyn Bristowe, Kelsey Darragh, and ShayMitchell gave out the awards. Mitchell and Nye even won their own categories ofBest Actress and Best in STEM, respectively.
This was themost competitive show to date, as over 5 million votes poured in from fans allover the world, a record for participation. Winners of the signature Whale-TailTrophy included Gaten Matarrazo, Doug the Pug, Gigi Gorgeous, Chrissy Teigen,BTS, Mara Wilson and many more! Karlie Kloss was the esteemed recipient of theinaugural Shorty Phenom Award for Kode with Klossy, a summer camp where sheworks to inspire young girls across America to pursue their interest incomputer sciences.
Rising star andR&B/hip-hop artist Lizzo amazed the crowd with energetic performances ofher songs “Scuse Me,” “Phone” and “Good as Hell.”
We’re proud topartner with The Shorty Awards for our third year and we wish a hugecongratulations to all the winners this year!
Guests received their first taste of technological innovation at registration, where they were welcomed by name on a reactive LED screen installation covering the full width of the entry wall. A large lunch café was created with a décor scheme that incorporated custom-built, ceiling-high steel LED frames draped with foliage to create smaller, intimate restaurant-style spaces that displayed both technology and nature.
A series of breakout sessions presented content targeted to attendees’ varied interests, while imagery displayed throughout the venue showcased real-life applications of how products designed to empower developers help to unleash the power of data and reimagine possibilities that will improve our world.
Every element of Microsoft Connect(); from registration, breakfast and keynote, to lunch and evening cocktails, were custom-designed to communicate exacting brand messaging and to deliver a high-touch guest experience to this important audience. The keynote and breakout sessions were livestreamed through an onsite studio built for this purpose and content was watched online by millions around the world.
Empire is proud to collaborate with Microsoft on this annual, top-tier business communication event.
To view excerpts of Connect(); 2017, please visit https://www.microsoft.com/connectevent
