European Podcast Award

I hope, every  one of you had some great time finding easter eggs – maybe you even did do some live recording outside in the beautiful spring weather? :) We just sent out this mail to our newsletter and wanted to share it with you here as well.

Dear fellow podcasters and listeners,
 
we have some exciting updates for you from the European Podcast Awards.
 
Short summary:
- new deadline for podcast submissions: 30st of May
- deadline for voting: 31st of July
- announcement of winners during IFA Berlin in September
- your favorite viral tools: Facebook and Twitter 
 

In the past few weeks we received quite a bit of emails from you asking us if could just extend the nomination and voting period a little bit. As it so happens, this was our original plan because we were hoping for a special location to honor the winners of the second European Podcast Award: IFA in Berlin.

Not only because our sponsor Olympus will be showing his audio gear there, but also because IFA is a great place for everybody involved in the media business. It is the perfect opportunity to hold the award ceremony, and we are very happy about it.

The new and final timeline looks like this:
You will have the chance to nominate your favorite podcasts til the end of April and Voting commences until the end of July. After that, our jury will take the results from the voting plus the points for all the other elements and we will announce the European winners during IFA.

Don’t forget to tell your listeners about the award and encourage them to vote, as they too can win something courtesy of our sponsor! And don’t forget to include "#epa10" to tag your tweet and posts.
 
Your Favorite Viral Tools
It is fascinating to see that this year Facebook and Twitter are the top referral sites for votes. Except for some very large podcasters, where we can see votes coming directly from their website, most of you promote successfully through Twitter, Facebook and co!

A quick tip: If you want to spread your address to your voting page, copy the address and use a tool like Bit.ly to shorten the URL. Example: Instead of http://www.european-podcast-award.eu/uk/start/award-information.html the service makes this short web address: http://bit.ly/ahQBHQ Much nicer, don’t you think? :)

Good luck from your EPA team!
Nicole 
 
ABOUT THE INITIATIVE EUROPEAN PODCAST AWARD
The "Initiative European Podcast Award" is a European project that promotes a European mindset and cultural  diversity. The Initiative was founded in December 2007 in Hamburg, Germany.

Visit us on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/EuropeanPodcastAward

Visit us on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/epa_eu
(We suggest you use the hashtag #epa10)

Please find below the press release for the second European Podcast Award. To nominate a podcast, visit the EPA homepage and click on the according country of the podcaster.

Available press releases in other languages (PDF):
Czech / Danisch / Dutch / English / French / German / Italian / Polish

Hamburg, January 2009 — The second European Podcast Award, the only Europe-wide award honouring the most popular and professional audio podcasts, has now begun. The award enables producers and podcast fans alike to nominate their choice of candidates and also rate them at www.european-podcast-award.eu. Nominations can be submitted via the portal up until 15 March 2010. In 2010, Olympus Audio Systems will once again be supporting the “Initiative European Podcast Award” as its exclusive sponsor.

Last year, over 750 audio podcasts were nominated from across Europe. A total of eleven European countries (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, UK, France, Spain, Italy, Holland, Czech Republic, Denmark and Poland) are taking part in the second European Podcast Award, which will be overseen by a specialist editorial jury in each country. For lots more info on the award, visit the EPA blog at: http://blog.european-podcast-award.eu/

In May 2010, a total of 44 national winners will be selected in the categories “Personality”, “Non Profit”, “Business” and “Professional”. Four of these will then go on to receive the title of “European Podcasts of the Year” and one will be awarded the “European Podcast Excellence Award”.

This year’s coveted top prize will once again be the brand-new Olympus LS-11 mobile audio recorder including the Cubase 4 LE production software from Steinberg.

Images: Logo, 300dpi + Olympus LS-11

About audio podcasting
A top tip from insiders in the digital-audio world, podcasting is rapidly becoming a lifestyle trend. And here’s why: Whether you’re on the tube, jogging, in the gym, on the road or on a plane — a podcast keeps you informed and entertained wherever you are. Millions of PCs and mobile MP3 players are used to play these audio magazines every day and the number of programmes available on the Internet is exploding. Throughout Europe there are thousands of podcasts from a broad variety of providers, covering a plethora of specialist genres and catering for a wide range of target groups.

About the Initiative European Podcast Award

The “Initiative European Podcast Award” is a European project that promotes a European mindset and cultural diversity. The Initiative EPA was founded in December 2007 in Hamburg, Germany.

For more information, please contact:

If you are nominated for the European Podcast Award, you should know that voting by your listeners is a crucial part in getting to the next stage of the competition. Like last year, it is not all based on voting by your listeners, but it is a crucial part. Why not use some of our images to encourage the listener to vote for you?

[Click here for the images including a copy and paste HTML-Code]

Of course the easiest way  is to use our new player: it incorporates all the edits you have made in the background like name and description of your podcast, as well as the logo and your chosen episode. Plus, most importantly, the “click here to vote” button. It also has a with a direct link to your nomination page on the EPA website. You can find the code for when you are logged in and edit your podcast, pick the point “Player” from the menu at the top.

Other images for you to choose from:

Summary:

As a podcaster, you can now submit your podcast(s) for the new competition of 2009/2010. If you like, get yourself a user and enter your podcasts through filling out the form. If your podcast has been submitted last time and was connected with your email address, you will see it in the list after login. After the approval of your podcast you can find it in our portal. After a short beta period we will go public and invite everybody to enter their podcast or nominate other podcasters. Don’t forget to test out our new voting player and see what others are saying on Twitter!

Welcome to the EPA 2010!

Our new "vote and play" widget

The goal for the 2009/2010 contest is simple – the same as last time: Find the best audio podcast content from around Europe and show case it for listeners to explore  and help podcasters find new audiences. Nearly 750 podcasts where submitted last time, and we are looking forward to even more submissions this time.

How can you participate?

Easy! Register yourself (see more information below) and fill out all information needed. Once you have submitted the podcast, our local editors will check your podcast and once it is online, you will receive a confirmation mail.

Now you can point your listeners to your voting site and or include our new player on your website. And don’t forget to tell your fellow podcasters – maybe just the ones from other categories ;) – about it!

(more…)

We are very happy to present to you the winners of the first European Podcast Award for 2008 / 2009, including videos and photos from the award ceremony.

From left to right our winners 2008 / 2009: Jose Antonio Gelado (Communicando Podcast), Annik Rubens (Schlaflos in München), Mark Pentleton (CoffeeBreak Spanish) and Diana O’Carroll (The Naked Scientists)

A short video from the ceremony (look further down for a longer one plus interviews)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDZ-fQk0fqE

Chosen from ten participating countries across Europe and over 750 nominations, the panel of judges awarded the first European Podcast Award to five winners from Germany, UK and Spain. The award seeks to promote audio podcasters across Europe and to encourage the continuation of first-rate achievements. All this has been made possible exclusively by Olympus Audio Systems.

The invitation to attend the ceremony in Hamburg was reason to celebrate for the award-winners. The award was topped off by an elegant glass trophy and the high-end LS-10 mobile audio recorder from Olympus.

David Prest, English member of the panel of judges, says: “The award does a much needed job all over Europe in recognizing excellence in podcasting. These podcasts are clever, creative, imaginative and extremely valuable programmes with high production values. Event organiser Michel Mertens from the German “Initiative European Podcast Award” continues: “Without the innovative support of Olympus across Europe this would not have been possible.”

Using online voting and with the help of a panel of judges, all the nominated podcasts were judged according to comprehensive assessment criteria. This marked out the national winners and then the European front-runners. The biggest surprise of all was the Spanish contingent, with the country ranking at number 3 after Germany and England due to its number of nominations.

The European Podcast Awards of the year 2008/2009 go to:

• “Schlaflos in München” [Sleepless in Munich] / Germany
• “The Naked Scientists” / United Kingdom
• “Communicando Podcast” [Communicating Podcast] / Spain
• “CoffeBreak Spanish” / United Kingdom

Special prize: European Podcast Excellence Award

Honored with a special “European Podcast Excellence Award” where living legends Wolfgang Rudolph and Wolfgang Back from the “ComputerClub 2″ / Germany.

Thumbs up and the “European Podcast Excellence Award”. Wolfgang Rudolph, Award-Speaker Nicole Simon and Wolfgang Back (left to right)

Videos and Interviews from the Award Ceremony in Hamburg

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlYThHIa9Lo

Diana O’Caroll, The Naked Scientists

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjXfrIjnD7g

Mark Pentleton, CoffeBreak Spanish

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8M_FW4fDYZY

Annik Rubens, Schlaflos in München

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDqlT5_GTS4

Wolfgang Rudolph, ComputerClub 2

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l204L7QgLbg

Nicole Simon, Speaker European Podcast Award

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RtWYiRpj_Y

Dave Wallies, Manager Olympus Audio Systems Europe

What about next year?

Looking forward to the next edition of the EPA? So are we! After a short break we will start again in June with the EPA for 2009/2010, including some new features. Stay tuned for more information about this years edition and subscribe to the newsletter if you like to be one of the first to know about it:

In order to promote European podcasters we also have started a fresh Facebook page for the EPA (would love if you become a fan) plus a new mini forum where you can promote European podcasts you like.

Additional Links

• overview of all national winners of the EPA
• Norman Osthus has put some video from the ceremony onto youtube as well as put together interviews in his German Normcast Episode 135.