Changes to the Changes? 

7/11/2011 

On June 20th, we announced some changes to the Nominee Announcement party. The most significant of which was that unlike the previous nominee events, the nominees would not be informed of their nomination in advance of the public announcement. The intent was to bring a different kind of excitement and surprise to the event, to encourage a wider celebration of the community and we wanted to try something new.

We usually have between 400 and 500 attendees at the nominee announcement event, which is the capacity for the space. So these changes were not about getting more people to attend. They were really about getting a broader cross-section of the community, not just the nominees.

However since we broke the news about the change, we have received overwhelming feedback asking us to reconsider. We have met with community members and had many conversations about the event, our objectives and the changes.

We have always relied on the community for feedback and you have given us some very valid opinions and observations:

Not informing the nominees in advance would change the character of the event. Instead of it being a celebratory party, where everyone is there to honor the nominees, the change would mean that a number of people present would be disappointed or upset.

OOB artists already have overtaxed schedules and letting the nominees know in advance allows them to make attending a priority and helps ensure that they are present for what can be a very meaningful moment.

We also recognize that not being nominated can be a disappointment, so it is also respectful of everyone’s time including those that may not be nominated this year.

The IT Awards serves a non-conventional community and we have custom designed our events to take the quirks and needs of this unique population of artists into account. The “nom party” is an eagerly anticipated event each year and we hope it will continue to be so.

We have discussed all of this at great length within our organization. We want to honor the goals and objectives that our board has given us and we also have an obligation to listen to the community. So after a lot of careful consideration and some frantic rescheduling we have decided that we will be informing the nominees in advance of the public announcement.

Of course this decision means that we do not have enough time to do everything that we need to do before July 18th. For the first time in our history, the nominee announcement will not be held on the 3rd Monday of July. In order to give us the time necessary to properly prepare for the event, this year’s nominee announcement will be held on Monday, August 1st. Next year however it will be right back on the 3rd Monday of July.

We know that this – let’s just call it what it is – waffling may have caused some confusion and for that we are sincerely sorry. We take your input seriously and want to make sure that we consider and respond to the needs of the community.