The twitter posts from my mobile were a plentiful (see here and here), but alas the Internet at the event was non-existant and I was unable to live blog the event. Below is a summary of the night out.

At 6.45pm my colleague and I joined the queue of elegantly creative dressed folk on the yellow carpet outside the Royal Festival Hall, only to discover 15 minutes later we could have bypassed the whole thing if we had used the “Press” entrance. We were then presented with a press package which included an all access pass, a program of the night’s activities and even the winner’s sheet, two hours before they were even announced. I felt quite important.

Needless to say we went straight to the VIP room, on the 5th floor, to enjoy some expensive champagne whilst admiring the view of the London Eye, Westminster Abbey, Waterloo Bridge and the River Thames.

After the pre-drinks we were summoned to take our seats in the Royal Festival Hall. Trust the advertising crowd to be called three or four times before they actually made a move and left the various champagne bars for their seats.

Sitting in the designated press area I was quite glad I was unable to live blog as it seemed the trendy press crowd around me seemed a little too cool for laptops and live blogging, instead opting for traditional pen and paper.

Simon Amstell, of T4 and Never Mind the Buzzcocks fame, managed to keep some form of order over the awards preceedings, all the while ridiculing the importance of “Yellow Pencil” awards. The D&AD awards CEO handed out the pencils to the various winners wearing a suit littered with pencil cutouts. A full list of the winners can be seen on Bizcommunity.com.

What I found quite surprising was how many awards that irritating Cadburys Gorilla advert won; apparently it is a shining example of great advertising… Sony managed to win quite a few pencils with their big budget colourful Bravia adverts, and Apple picked up two Black Pencils in product design for their iPhone, iPod and iMac designs.

One of the highlights of the night was seeing BBDO Cape Town winning a Yellow Pencil in the radio commercials category. The “Drums” advert for Marshall Music was played to the audience, fromwhich it received great applause.

Once the awards were done the after party commenced in the ball room. The venue was surrounded by cut out illustrations by Le Gun which made for quite an interesting landscape.

Shock and horror, the drinks were not free as most people were expecting and the queue for the bar was at least half an hour long, seeing the bar staff had forgotten to check the paper in the card machines.

The live music was awesome, with Beardyman wowing the crowd with his mind blowing beat boxing skills and The Cuban Brothers bringing some funk to the party with some latina rap music.

All in all a great night out which ended at 1am for me, just in time for the last train home. Thanks for the experience, Bizcommunity.

The other South African nomination, King James for kulula.com Credit Card “Hijax” in Broadcast Innovations, unfortunately did not place.

PS For more tweeting from Mark Forrester: see here and here.

With about an hour to spare till I must hop on a train bound for London Waterloo I have picked out my outfit, that just about resembles the dress code “Creative Elegance” (a black suit, and a white shirt). Perhaps, not the most creative outfit, but I’m hoping I’ll blend into my surroundings well. I’ve charged my camera battery, and located an iPhone for live updates from the Awards. I think I’m ready.

I’m looking forward to mingling with lots of creative folks, sipping on some expensive bubbly, and partying at the after party to live performances by the awesome DJ Hot Chip and the beatbox champion of the world BeardyMan.

Until later. Adios amigos.

The Times Multimedia portal launched today after a couple weeks of heavy development. We decided to utilise the open source content management platform WordPress to power the new site and we’ve consolidated all our video and audio into the new portal.

Nu Metro are now providing current and future release movie trailers on the website and we are finally showcasing our best photographers in the new photos section. This new portal is a wholly encompassed multimedia solution and while we’re still in Beta phase for the site we do plan to integrate a lot of new features and sections in the coming weeks.

South Africa has two nominations: BBDO Cape Town for ‘Drums’ in Radio Advertising and King James for ‘Hijax’ in Broadcast Innovations. Nine other SA entries went In-Book. Go, SA, go! Do us proud!

Read more about what it takes to win at D&AD on Bizcommunity.com.

We’ve tracked down a few handy products, some of which the team is test driving (at our own cost) to make your winter a warmer one! You don’t have to send fruit baskets to thank us for these tips, just promise not to laugh (audibly) and point when you spot us.

First up are the heated slippers which you can pop into the microwave and which the editorial team are currently test driving. Simone’s velour slippers are featured in the pic attached. (Thanks Simone, don’t worry, we will protect your identity further). She bought them at The Women’s Show a few weeks ago and is trying to track down at which craft markets they are sold in Johannesburg. Another brand is Aroma Soothz, also microwave-heated: nuke the removeable wheat kernel bags. And being someone who does her research, Simone also says Dischem have a battery operated version (of the slippers, that is).

Then my personal favourite – for those who have contacts in London and Neverland – heated slippers and gloves that you can plug into your USB port! Here’s the link from Amazon.co.uk.

We welcome further suggestions from our readers in the interests of keeping everyone working warm and cosy in front of their computers when they are reading Bizcommunity!

Keep warm!

Louise Marsland, editor@bizcommunity.com
Marketing news: marketingnews@bizcommunity.com

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This column originally published 12 May 2008.

For news articles concerning twitter and news reporting, see Google News Search and Summize, once again.

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