23rd Annual Webby Awards
The 23rd Annual Webby Awards was held at Cipriani Wall Street on Monday, May 13, 2019. Honoring the best of the internet, the show is renowned for limiting award recipients’ speeches to 5 words or less. Host Jenny Slate, from Parks & Recreation, Big Mouth, and Obvious Child, set the tone with a hilarious opening monologue before getting into the awards. Presenters and winners at the event included Michael Douglas, Tracy Morgan, Issa Rae, Tierra Whack, Hasan Minhaj, and many more. Empire Entertainment produced the event for the 15th consecutive year.
As always, winners’ 5 word speeches alternated from poignant (Monica Lewinsky’s anti internet-bullying “Unbelievably grateful. Click with compassion.”) to protest (climate change activist Greta Thunberg’s “Act now or face disaster”), to spur-of-the-moment irreverent (Michael Douglas holding up his trophy and saying “My kids think it’s hilarious”).
The Webbys also took time out to reflect on the fact that 2019 is the 50thAnniversary of the birth of the internet by inviting Vint Cerf to the stage to say a few words. Widely heralded as one of the very small handful of people who invented the internet, Cerf was thoughtful about just how far the technology has come in such a short time, and the incredible impact it has as “a mirror of our society”.
The Webbys took a new approach this year in order to distribute the best moments from the show. The night’s highlights, 5 Word Speeches, and biggest moments were shared in real-time, with #Webbys, across Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. The show was optimized for social sharing from how the show was filmed, to how the stage was built, to a partnership with Instagram, and beyond, in order to ensure people across the Internet were able to experience the best moments of the show as they happened.
Empire is proud to maintain longstanding relationships with our clients and is honored that the Webbys have chosen us as their production partner since 2005. You can view the 23rd Annual Webby Awards in full here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOtdiLaK2N4
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
