On October 2nd, the Membership and Board of Digital Alberta got together at TELUS Spark to celebrate a one-of-a-kind evening in recognition of the exceptional digital talent in our province. It was a truly unique and inspirational night, with friends and colleagues from around the province in attendance to cheer, jeer and celebrate our category winners. Here are some of the highlights.

The winners

The work submitted was exceptional and the competition was strong, just like the drinks. We received over 100 entries from across the province. Best of Show went to DDB Edmonton for the Fatalities of Hwy 63 & 881. Best Young Talent went to Dayla Brown for her project Photography for Wheelchair Dance.

Be sure to check out the full gallery of winners.

The award statues

This year’s #DAA2015 award sculptures were individually 3D printed by Ed Keeble, although assembly was certainly a team effort! Together, the awards were a topographically accurate map of Alberta. They contained LEDs that were bluetooth controlled, open source and hackable so that winners could change the light patterns emitted by their statue. Pretty cool, if we do say so ourselves.

The assembly line

All ready for awards gala glory

Alberta lit up with digital talent

The gala

In true digital style, we started with cocktails and we ended with cocktails. Somewhere in between, we caught up with old colleagues and meet potential suppliers, ate lots of mini perogies and other delights catered by TELUS Spark. And of course, there was the awards show.

Checking in for the #DAA2015 celebration

The #DAA2015 spread courtesy of TELUS Spark

Among the show’s many highlights were the impromptu acceptance speeches by gala host Andrew Phung, covering for a handful of winners who weren’t able to attend. Here’s one of our favourites, where Andrew accepted the best E-Learning award on behalf of Leara eLearing Inc.

pic.twitter.com/syVPdMZd3n

— Digital Alberta (@DigitalAlberta) October 3, 2015

Many thanks

Our Sponsors were instrumental in making the 2015 Digital Alberta Awards a success. Special thanks to our Gold Sponsors TELUS Spark and Mosaic Communications. Please check out the full list of Silver Sponsors.

Thanks to our international panel of judges for their attentive and thoughtful selections.

A huge thanks to all those who made the event happen. Our tirelessly enthusiastic and resourceful board members. We certainly couldn’t have done it without Jenn Engroff from Catalystica Events, and her army of students from ACAD. Thanks to Donna McTaggart for her live tweeting magic.

Digital Alberta President, Owen Brierly, thanking the #DAA2015 audience