“These awards are so stupid.”
That’s what one of the winners said last night at the last ever Social Media Awards.
I so, so loved that comment.
Because that’s exactly what we worked very hard to do for the past 15 years. Make something stupid, fun and unserious.
And now, the Sockies are no more.
The vacuum will be filled, I’m sure. Enjoy your black-tie, ham-and-turkey-dinner awards events, everyone.
The Sockies were never really about that kind of thing.
Last night, we held the final awards in an old church in Dublin. There’s a video going aroud of people queuing for communion. Except communion was sweets, handed out by Bláithín de Burca, who was saying “Sweetie of Christ” or something equally ridiculous.
We opened the night with Crucified by Army of Lovers, one of the campest pop songs ever made, and went from there.
Somehow, we managed to hand out 32 awards to people who had successfully negotiated the horror show that was Dublin traffic restrictions to get there.
It was a very Sockies way to end the Sockies.
15 years of thank yous
You don’t do something like this for 15 years without an awful lot of people helping you along the way. And there are some people I really want to thank.
First, Eoin Ó Súilleabháin and Stiofáin MacDáibhéad from Bord Gáis Energy, who believed in what we were doing and backed us right from the start. That support meant an enormous amount, especially in those early days when we were trying to make something a bit different.
Rick O’Shea, who was part of the Sockies for 13 years and has worked with me on various events for more than 20 years. That is a lot of years, a lot of events and a lot of nonsense. Thank you, Rick.
Bláithín de Burca, who sent the Sockies away on an absolute high. I couldn’t have asked for a better person to do the final one.
Charles O’Sullivan, who has talked me off that ledge and helped me defuse that bomb so many times over the years. Often both on the same night.
Brian Greene, Vanessa Greene and Katie Chapman, who’ve been part of the AV team for so many, many years and helped make the whole thing happen.
Michelle McCormick, my manager and, very importantly, the person who politely said no to people. A skill I have never quite mastered.
Liam Burke, who helped run the nominations and judging systems over the years and built a swanky new one for the final Sockies. We finally got a lovely new judging system just in time to never use it again.
Nigel Heneghan and Heneghan Strategic Communications, who sponsored the Sockies for the past few years and helped us keep the whole thing going.
Pat Hollingsworth from P.H. Systems Ltd, who has done the lights, camera and action bits for the Sockies all down through the years. The screens and lighting this year were so, so good.
My props guy, Fran Hollywood, who has made all the ridiculous props and “rob-ables” over the years. There’s been a lot of them.
And Shane Rooney, who did the snaps and trophies for our final year.
All of these people helped make the Sockies what they were. Thank you.
And finally, to everyone who works in social media
The Sockies existed because of the people doing the work.
The people coming up with ideas, creating things, trying things, experimenting, making people laugh, making people think, occasionally making people wonder what on earth they’d just watched.
You’ve created brilliant, funny, clever, creative, ridiculous, moving and genuinely amazing work.
And it deserved to be recognised.
That was always the point of the Sockies. To celebrate the people doing interesting things in social media. To give them a bit of recognition, have some fun along the way and not take ourselves too seriously.
To everyone who has been doing amazing things in social media for the past 15 years, whether you’ve won a Sockie, been shortlisted, entered and were robbed of a trophy, or never entered at all, well done.
It’s been an absolute pleasure to celebrate your work, recognise what you’ve achieved and be a small part of it all.
And to everyone who came along, supported us, sponsored us, judged, presented, volunteered, helped out or simply enjoyed the ridiculousness over the years, thank you.
I think “These awards are so stupid” might be the nicest thing anyone could have said about the Sockies.
I’m delighted we went out being exactly what we wanted to be.
Stupid, fun and unserious.
Thank you for 15 years.
Over and out.