The first Shorty Awards ceremony was held on February 11, 2009, at the Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn, New York. Approximately 300 people attended the event.[1] The event was hosted by CNN anchor Rick Sanchez and featured appearances by prominent Twitter users MC Hammer and Gary Vaynerchuk and a video appearance by Shaquille O'Neal.[2][3] The awards, in 26 categories, were voted on by Twitter users.[4][5]

The 1st Annual Shorty Awards
DateFebruary 11, 2009 (2009-02-11)
LocationGalapagos Art Space, New York City
Hosted byRick Sanchez
Shorty Awards · 2nd →

History

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The Shorty Awards were created in 2008 by tech entrepreneurs Greg Galant, Adam Varga, and Lee Semel of Sawhorse Media.[4][6] They invited Twitter account holders to nominate the best Twitter users in general categories such as humor, news, food, and design.[7] Winners were chosen by more than 30,000 Twitter users during the voting period.[4] The founders of Twitter first heard about the awards after the contest had gotten underway and expressed support for it.[4]

Winners

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The first annual winners by category:[8]

Category Winner
Best in Advertising Peggy Olson, @PeggyOlson
Best in Apps brightkit, @brightkit
Best Brand Action Wipes, @MarthaVan
Best in Business Paw Luxury, @PawLuxury
Best in Design Yiying Lu, @yiyinglu
Best in Education RubyLearning, @RubyLearning
Best in Entertainment Flashlight Worthy Books, @FLWBooks
Best in Finance StockTwits, @StockTwits
Best in Food Foodimentary, @foodimentary
Best in Green green jaden @greenjaden on twitter
Best in Health Debra Wendler, @ADHDParenting
Best in Humor Charles Trippy, @charlestrippy
Best in Music Hunter Burgan, @tranquilmammoth
Best in News BNO News, @BreakingNewsOn
Best in Nonprofits Athletes for a Cure, @athletes4acure
Best Personal Arleen Boyd, @AlohaArleen
Best in Photography Kyle Reese, @Twipphoto
Best in Politics Justin Hart, @justin_hart
Best in Science NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander, @MarsPhoenix
Best in Social Media Dan Zarrella, @danzarrella
Best in Sports Jackie, @girlwithnoname
Best in Startups Hanniversary, @hanniversary
Best in Tech Twitter Tips, @Twitter_Tips
Best in Travel Cruise Source, @cruisesource
Best in Video Games Justin McElroy, @justinmcelroy
Best in Weird Martin Sargent, @martinsargent

References

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  1. ^ Otterman, Sharon: "The Scene at the Shorty Twitter Awards: Chatter", The New York Times
  2. ^ Vilensky, Mike: "The Media Is Twittering Away Its Short Time on Earth" Archived 2012-10-21 at the Wayback Machine, New York Magazine
  3. ^ Capistrano, Daniela: "MC Hammer, AFI's Hunter Burgan Celebrate Twitter Mania At Shorty Awards" Archived 2015-04-04 at the Wayback Machine, MTV News
  4. ^ a b c d Holmes, Elizabeth: "Surviving the Drama of the Twitter Awards", The Wall Street Journal
  5. ^ Turnquist, Kristi: "Portland's Carri Bugbee plays Peggy Olson of 'Mad Men' on Twitter", The Oregonian
  6. ^ Neisser, Drew: "How the Shorty Awards Became the Oscars of Social Media", Fast Company
  7. ^ Stone, Brad: "From the Twittersphere: Trophies for the Best Tweets", The New York Times Bits Blog
  8. ^ "The 2008 Shorty Awards Winners and Finalists". The Shorty Awards. Archived from the original on 2019-07-12.