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Press Release: Friday 17^th June 2010

NORTH'S DIGITAL COMPANIES CELEBRATE AT 13^th BIG CHIP AWARDS

Top Digital Talent From The North of England Recognised At Biggest Awards Ceremony To Date

The very best of the North of England's digital talent gathered to celebrate the annual Big Chip Awards for digital excellence at Manchesters luxurious Palace Hotel on Thursday.

Hosted by legendary comedian John Thomson this years Big Chip saw a record number of submissions competing for one of 21 prestigious awards and more than lived up to their reputation as the premier digital event outside London.

Organised by Manchester Digital, the trade association for the digital sector, the awards were backed by media partners Insider and New Media Age.

Macclesfield-based Matmi were the nights big winners, taking home the biggest award, the Grand Prix, for Optathlon which also won Best Mobile Project and Best Digital Marketing Campaign. Matmi were also awarded the Big Chip New Media Agency Award, recognising the agency judges feel has done the best new media work during the year, as well as receiving the award for Best On-line Brand Development for Gorillaz: Escape to Plastic Beach.

Code Computerlove and Ampersand IT also did well at the awards, winning two awards each.

Code Computerlove won Best Use of Visual Design for Visual Design Brings Thrills Of Florida Theme Parks To Life and the Big Chip International Award for Innovation, open to entries from anyone, anywhere, for Flash vs HTML.

Manchesters Ampersand IT were awarded the Anthony Wilson Original Modern Award, which commemorates the late Anthony Wilson and was chosen by BBC Technical Manager Nick Gallon, as well as the Best E-business Project award for Made.com: Luxriously Affordable, Great Design.

Digital agency cahoona were crowned Best Newcomer whilst Manchesters 11 Out Of 10 scooped the Best Use of Search for Pure Gym with Lakestar Media receiving a commendation in this category for SEO for online fashion retailer Missguided.

Digital Blah Blah Ltd. was announced Best Established Freelancer / Enterprise with Sam Easterby-Smith receiving a commendation in this category.

Greater Manchester Police were awarded Best Use of Social Media for their innovative GMP24 Greater Manchester Police Twitter Day.

Skylab took home the Best Not for Profit Technology for British Gas Swimfit with Individuals and Tandot Ltd awarded a commendation for MadLab.

Cheshire based mediaburst won Best Public Sector Project for Florence whilst Manchesters Mi were awarded Best Use of Animation for The Sharp Project.

Stardotstar and All Out Productions took home the award for Best Application of Technology for Radio 1 on IPTV (concept project) and The DTP Group won the Big Green Chip Award for their work with Knight Frank.

The highly coveted Game of the North went to Sheffield based game developers Distinctive Developments for Hockey Nations 2010.

The Little Chip Student Award which gives the digital sectors rising stars a chance to shine was won by University of Central Lancashire students Matt Slade and Naseem Naeem.

The Tasty Website Award decided by public vote from a shortlist drawn up by the judges was awarded to XXXXXX.

The panel of judges were chaired by New Media Age Editor in Chief Michael Nutley and included Enda Carey from Vision and Media, Julie Meyer from Ariadne Capital, Jon Myers from Yahoo, Thayer Prime, Dr David Kreps from Salford University, Steve Smith, Industry Director, ICT Liverpool Vision, Alasdair Rawsthorne, Founder Transitive, Manchester University.

The headline sponsors of the 2011 Big Chip Awards were Melbourne Server Hosting. The other sponsors were Manchester Metropolitan University, The North West Fund for Digital and Creative, Pearson, Crowe Clarke Whitehill and Shootcutgo.

Chairman of Manchester Digital and Big Chip Organiser Shaun Fensom said: Its been a great year for the Big Chip Awards and, although times are tough, digital organisations, freelancers and agencies from across the North of England have stepped up to the challenge, providing us with the strongest Big Chip shortlist yet.

One of the real pleasures of organising an event like this is watching it grow each year, reflecting the continuing development of the digital sector across the region. I believe we have established the North as a world showcase for how the digital sector can help drive economic growth whilst creating forward-thinking creative products and services and its vital that we celebrate its achievements.

For more information on the event or on the winners and their winning projects and to read the judges comments visit www.bigchipawards.com

The winners of this years Big Chip Awards are:

Best E-business Project

Winner: Amersand IT

Project: Made.com: Luxuriously Affordable, Great Design

Best Public Sector Project

Winner: mediaburst

Project: Florence

Best Not for Profit Project

Winner: Skylab

Project: British Gas Swimfit

Commended: Individuals and Tandot Ltd.

Project: MadLab

Best Mobile Project

Winner: Matmi

Project: Optathlon

Best Use of Visual Design

Winner: Code Computerlove

Project: Visual Design Brings Thrills of Florida Theme Parks To Life

Best Application of Technology

Winner: Stardotstar and All Out Productions

Project: Radio 1 on IPTV (concept project)

Best Use of Animation

Winner: Mi

Project: The Sharp Project

Best Use of Search

Winner: 11 Out Of 10 Ltd.

Project: Pure Gym

Commended: Lakestar Media

Project: SEO for online fashion retailer Missguided

Best Use of Social Media

Winner: Greater Manchester Police

Project: GMP24 Greater Manchester Police Twitter Day

Best Digital Marketing Campaign

Winner: Matmi Project: Optathlon

Best On-line Brand Development

Winner: Matmi

Project: Gorillaz: Escape to Plastic Beach

Best Newcomer

Winner: cahoona

Best Established Freelancer / Micro-Enterprise

Winner: Digital Blah Blah Ltd.

Commended: Sam Easterby-Smith

Big Green Chip Award

Winner: The DTP Group

Project: Knight Frank sees TCO plunge 90 per cent with DTP

Game of the North

Winner: Distinctive Developments Ltd.

Project: Hockey Nations 2010

Big Green Chip International Award for Innovation

Winner: Code Computerlove

Project: Flash vs HTML

Little Chip Student Award

Winner: University of Central Lancashire

Students: Matt Slade and Naseem Naeem

Big Chip New Media Agency Award

Winner: Matmi

Anthony Wilson Original Modern Award

Winner: Ampersand IT

Project: Made.com: Luxuriously Affordable, Great Design

Grand Prix

Winner: Matmi

Project: Optathlon

For further media information and images please contact Andrew Spinoza, or Max Howard at SKV Communications on (0161) 838 7770 firstname.lastname@skvcommunications.co.uk