Be2Awards news Archive

The inimitable Bernie Mitchell (@Berniejmitchell) has agreed to compere the 2012 Be2Awards and Be2Talks at the Building Centre in London on 26 September, continuing his successful association with the event from last year and with Be2camp

Bernie has worked with Paul and Martin on several Be2camp events over the past couple of years, helping build a wider network of contacts from companies in architecture, engineering, construction and beyond. He is also involved in similar initiatives such as London Bloggers Meet-up (with Andy Bargery) and TagTribe (next London event: 5 September).

As well as being fanatical about social media, he is engaging, effervescent, ever-optimistic, witty and confident - all attributes that make him ideal to keep the Be2Awards event on track.

The 2012 Be2Awards and Be2Talks will be a unique opportunity for potential sponsors to associate their company or brand with best practice in social media in the built environment, either by sponsoring part of the event itself or sponsoring a particular Be2Award category.

In addition to branding on the website (high visibility during online nomination and voting processes) and at the event itself, sponsors will also benefit from visibility to audiences viewing the live broadcast and subsequent video recordings of the event.

In terms of visibility, this can mean thousands of views of your company name and logo, particularly during the online voting and build-up to the event. In 2011, our peak voting day saw over 2700 unique visitors to the website in a single day; we had over 10,000 unique visitors and over 50,000 unique page-views during the month preceding the event. Sponsor logos remained online after the event, and the website received another 100,000 page-views over the following nine months. The event also stimulated considerable online interest across Twitter, etc (see The Be2Awards Day in Numbers), and numerous blog posts.

For more details, visit the Be2Awards sponsorship page or email Paul Wilkinson.

Nominations for the 2012 Be2Awards, rewarding best practice in use of social media in the built environment, open today (Monday) 13 August 2012.

As social media advocates, and to encourage discussion about the relative merits of candidates, we use a discussion board format (learn more here). The current categories are:

• Built environment blogger of the Year
• Best sustainability blog
• Best AEC social media blog
• Best use of Twitter
• Best AEC collaboration platform
• Best AEC community, network or community application
• Best use of Web 2.0 for construction products
• Best location-based AEC application
• Best 'internet of things' application
• Best mobile application
• Best virtual or hybrid event
• Be2 media award
• Best use of social media in an AEC PR campaign
• Best use of social media in an AEC marketing campaign
• Best AEC education and learning project
• Best charity, third sector use of social media
• Best AEC use of photo / video

Meantime, if you are interested in sponsorship or some other aspect of the event, please contact us.

Guardian Sustainable Business is holding its own event, Social Media for Sustainability, on the morning of 26 September, also as part of London Social Media Week, and aimed at sustainability and communications professionals.

Why not learn about creating great social media and sustainability campaigns in the morning and then discover some outstanding examples of social media in action in the built environment at the Be2Awards and Be2Talks in the afternoon?

The Guardian event is part of it Sustainable Business Shorts series. This short course will teach you everything you need to know about doing social media and sustainability. You will leave with:

• Ideas and insights from brands who have created great social media and sustainability campaigns
• Advice on how to avoid social media disasters
• Opportunities to collaborate and learn with other sustainable business doers

Speakers include:

• Jo Confino, executive editor, The Guardian and chair Guardian Sustainable Business
• Marta Obrebska-Daina, social media strategy & programs, Dell
• Debbie Weinstein, global media innovation director, Unilever
• Matthew Yeomans, co-author of #FAIL: The 50 Greatest Social Media Screw-Ups and co-founder of SMI
• Esther Maughan, general manager sustainability, Sony Europe
• Dana Poole, global digital communications consultant, BP
• Giulia Pesaro, senior European brand manager, Timberland

The Be2Awards website will be re-launched, new sponsorship will be agreed, more nominations will be gathered, and thousands of online votes will be cast, and....

... the second running of the world's first awards for social media in the built environment will be in London in September 2012.

We will also be hosting really thoughtful and provocative speakers at a special TEDx-style event - Be2TALKS - interspersed with the Be2Awards, and, as usual, the event will be live-streamed to the web via video, live-blogging and Twitter.

The event was originally going to be during London Social Media Week on 16 February, but heavy workloads prevented both Paul Wilkinson and Martin Brown from organising venue, sponsorship and speakers. It was decided to hold it, provisionally, in June 2012, but then London Social Media Week was given a new date of September, so the event will be on 26 September 2012.