If this has a typo in it, it is owing to my support of the French wine industry last night.

The Big Chip 11 is the set piece event for the North West digital media sector.  This year the event was held at Manchester’s Palace Hotel, and was well attended by agencies, in-house digital departments and interested parties.

The Big Chip used to be an award ceremony that everyone took part in and Code Computerlove won.

Well this year it won again but was joined by Love and New Concept Gaming Limited in the victory stakes.  Other notable wins, as I know the guys well, were Simon Wharton and his motley crew PushOn who picked up Best Use of Search and Melbourne who won The Big Green Chip Award and AdInsight with Best Newcomer.

The effort this year, the push behind the awards, was to get the sector revitalised, to generate interest outside the sector as well.

Manchester Digital, the body behind the awards, feels that the North West can compete with London agencies.  Shaun Fensom who is chairman of Manchester Digital opened the evening by saying that agencies in the North West have a collaborationist outlook, success isn’t just measured by how many pitches you win – the sector up here is as talented as anything else in the UK.

With this in mind Simon Wharton, supported by many contributions, used blogs, Twitter (#Big Chip 11) and any other social media techniques he could think of to push the message home.

The event was a success, no doubt.  I think it was going to be anyway, but the effort in promoting the event to act as a catalyst for the industry being viewed as a more recognised and integral part of the business scene is the interesting issue.

Whether this is the start of something new will be decided in the coming months, if the sector maintains the momentum.  It is up to the efforts of digital media professionals as well as Manchester Digital.

Whatever the conclusion, Big Chip 11 shows the digital media industry in the North West is vital.

Too tired to proof again.

The results of a number of award submissions have come in or are imminently due.

But what is the value?

Reward submissions are time consuming.  At a time when many agencies and businesses are working harder to maintain there client relationships and new business pipeline the issue of whether this is the best use of resources is hightened.

I think it comes down to this: if a client knows and understands the supplier’s industries then they are more likely to chose their agency on criteria other than whether they have won an award.  Reputation, a referral, a chat at a business event or a reference from a current client are going to be better indicators.

If clients are new or not so attuned to the services on offer then awards mean much more.  You might also think that if a decision maker wants to cover themselves then a fistful of awards gives them some insurance as well as assurance.

But awards are so subjective.  Indeed they are open to fault.  The most recent CIPR awards in the North West resulted in farce. “The outstanding agency of the Year” Koan went into adminstration the next day.  So much for having in confidence in the judegement of an awarding panel.

When it comes down to it if you win then the time and the awards will be worth the effort of attaining them.  Awards do give businesses credibility.  If not it has not been a good use of time.  Either way it is a numbers game and you play with that risk.

The Big Chip Evening held last night was a sign of the intent of Manchester Digital to up its game.

Some 50 digital professionals and interested parties lent their support and attendance despite an unfortunate clash with Social Media Cafe and a very unwelcoming night to venture out in.

With the Big Chip Awards looming Manchester Digital wants not only an enthusiastic response to its call for entries, but to generate enough revenue from the awards to ensure that as fuller programme of events are run throughout the year for members.

Simon Wharton of PushON has been at the vanguard of getting the message out that Manchester Digital can only be as strong as its members’ input.  Simon has been putting in work on a Big Chip Awards Blog to create a buzz, which will be feed by contributions from members as well as conversation from Twitter – join BigChipAwards.

Shaun Fensom opened the event with a few inside tips on entry submissions although I think he could have been a little more forthcoming; the main piece of advice I recollect is answer the questions.  Come on Shaun. Shaun was also featured in Tuesday’s Manchester Evening News with a nice piece placed by SKV.

It really is up to members to generate the voice that will promote the interests of the industry to the wider business community.  It looks like a sea change forced through by members such as Simon and Shaun might bring that to fruition.

Crain’s Manchester Business has its 40 under 40 coming up and is looking for nominations.

Just go to the website.