 Can I ask really quickly, who was at Splash Awards last year? Good job of you. Thank you. Alright, let's get started. So welcome everyone to our second Drupal South Splash Awards. We would like to start today by recognising the Gadigal people, the traditional owners of the land that we meet on today, and pay our respects to their elders past, present and emerging. We would also like to acknowledge the contributions to this conference from our keynote speakers, delegates who are attending from beyond the A and Z region, our fellow Drupal South and Drupal Association committee members. We are of course here today to celebrate the very best Drupal websites that are created by you, the incredible developers, designers, project managers, product owners and other team members that deliver the most outstanding Drupal projects in Australia and New Zealand. The awards showcase outstanding work and give the teams behind them the opportunity to be recognised for being the talented people that we all know that you are. Splash Awards like this one have been held internationally and are exclusively for outstanding Drupal websites. The first Splash Awards was held 10 years ago in the Netherlands. Since that time there have been awards in France, Belgium, Germany, the US, the UK and of course last year at our very own Drupal South Wellington. In some countries they are hosted as a gala dinner, which is how we get the inspiration for the black tie dress that you will see with some of the presenters and some of the winners and nominees tonight and we all just love dressing up a little bit to mark the occasion. Last year at the first Drupal South Splash Awards we had an incredible time handing out some deceptively heavy trophies. We would like to once again congratulate last year's winners the New South Wales Digital Channels. Some New South Wales fans here. Yeah. Salsa Digital. Previous Snakes. And Morved. Our past winners and nominees have told us that the recognition from last year's Splash Awards has helped them win new work, strengthen their brand and build their client relationships. This is something we are thrilled to hear. We'd also like to take a moment to thank last year's sponsor, Technocrat, who graciously handed the sponsorship over to Ironstar this year. There may have been a little bit of arm twisting. But this gave them the opportunity to enter some of their own sites this year as well so we're delighted to see them pick up a couple of nominations as well and we wish you the best of luck picking up a trophy today. This year we are recognising projects across five categories. Corporate, Design UX, Federal Government, State and Government and Local Government and this year we're also introducing a new open source category. This recognises the best open source Drupal projects built and championed by members of our industrious local community. Each category received many submissions which were painstakingly whittled down to no more than four nominees. Out of these nominees there is one runner up and of course one winner. In addition we'll have one overall winner which is the website with the highest score overall. That site will receive the coveted Best in Show trophy in addition to their category trophy. Nominees receive a splash award certificate while the runner up in each category will receive a special runner up certificate. And finally the winner in each category will receive a certificate and a very special Drupal South Splash Awards trophy. We placed a call out to our community earlier this year asking for folks to self nominate to help judge the awards. Where a judge had a conflict of interest by having an entry in any of these categories they were not allowed to view or judge entries in that category. Judging this year was really hard work under an incredibly tight deadline. So please join us, Mel and Lee, if you're in the, yes, can you stand up. So please join us in thanking Freddie Liviano, Lee Nguyen, you want the Le Cumge, Anand Varson and Mel Stubbings for their work as a judge this year. It was very difficult. Mel and Lee will both be presenting a category as well separately but when they come up an extra loud round of applause for them please. Just like the Drupal South Conference itself the splash awards is dependent on the commitment and contribution of sponsors to make these events possible. On behalf of the Drupal South Steering Committee we would like to acknowledge this year's splash awards sponsor, Iron Star. So ordinarily this is the point where we'd invite the sponsor up to say a few words but it's a little bit awkward because I'm already up here. So I'll... Say the words. Say the words. All right, get on with it. So I will very quickly put my Iron Star hat on and just say how excited I am and how excited the whole team is to be able to sponsor the awards and give all of these really fantastic agencies and their clients and the teams within them a chance to show off their hard work. Pretty much everybody in this room knows just how much effort, ambition, energy, sweat, blood and tears goes from taking the idea of a website, the notion of a website and turning it into an in-production finished product. At Iron Star we're lucky enough to work with some very talented teams that do exactly this. They bring to life the dreams of their clients and the organisations they represent. They do it with impossible budgets and impractical deadlines every time. They juggle contradicting priorities and competing goals and they discover and then solve big unexpected technical and commercial and other challenges along the way. The end result is so often outstanding that you can fall into the trap of thinking that it was easy. I know this is a very familiar story for many, many of you. The awards this year had 29 entries, nearly double what we saw for Wellington last year. We're excited to see the addition of the very special open source category as well. On behalf of the whole team at Iron Star, we'd like to congratulate all of the nominees this afternoon for securing your spot in the Annals of History. We know how hard you work. We recognise how talented you are. We are amazed by you and we wish you the very best of luck in picking up an award tonight. I'll put my Drupal South hat back on right now but please join me for a round of applause for all of the nominees this evening. So now let's talk about the judging rules for all of our website entries in the corporate, design UX, federal government and state and local government categories. The concept was assessed against a set of five criteria. Under concept, the site needed to have clear idea of itself and the submission needed to be able to demonstrate that the concept was consistently and clearly implemented. Did the website tell a clear story? Did the chosen strategy for building the site lead to a successful execution of that concept? The design category elevated everything that is visible for the end user including UX, motion and visual design and accessibility. All across both desktop and mobile. Judges looked for a design that was high quality, accessible, fitted the target audience and supported the message that needed to be conveyed. For the technology criteria, judges assessed the performance and functionality of the site. Has the site followed the appropriate standards and best practices for Drupal websites? Was the implementation innovative? Were there complex integrations with third party systems that were executed successfully? Sites were also assessed based on their execution of the client's business case. Judges looked for a positive business outcome from the project. For example, submitters needed to explain how their website increased sales, lowered costs or provided a better brand experience. In the final criteria, sites were assessed for their community value. Drupal is of course an open source platform and owes its existence to the community behind it. All submissions were judged on the value. The website returned to this community. This could be via code contributions, education and sharing of knowledge, gained through the project or more indirect contributions like exceptional builds that help demonstrate Drupal's capabilities and using that to help market Drupal as a solution. The waiting system for each of the five criteria assigned a different score depending on the category. For example, Design UX assigns more weight to design points while the government categories assigned more points to community value. This is why you might see a winner in one category not be the winner in another category. Agencies and organizations could submit up to two entries per category. You'll see some sites today that were nominated across multiple categories. After each site was evaluated, they were assigned their weighted score and the top four highest scoring sites in that category became the nominated sites. Not every entry was awarded the status of being a nominee, so all of the nominees deserve special recognition for making it that far. As with the 2023 Splash Awards, community contribution made the largest difference in determining the winners and runners up. All sites scored very well and most sites were very close in margin to one another. The average score was 44 points out of 50 and in most categories the winner only had about 46 points. In some cases the difference between being the runner up and the winner was 0.05 points. So the biggest difference in points came from those sites which delivered exceptional community value as this was the criteria with the widest margins between entries. If you're working on a site right now that you want to have as a winning chance next year, it's best to start thinking now about how to work on those community contributions. So it's time to start handing out some awards. To help us present each category this year, we've invited some very special guests to take part. They are key community members, Drupal South volunteers and committee members and other astimed individuals who help propel our community forward. Here's how it works. We'll be inviting two community presenters up at a time who will announce the nominees, runner up and winner in each category. If you are a successful nominee, you can collect your nominee certificate from Mike or myself after the show. If you are a runner up, you can come up to collect your runner up certificate right away. And finally, if you are the winner, please come up to collect your certificate and trophy and then take a couple of minutes to address the audience if you would like to. So our first category tonight is Design UX. These are the websites and experiences where visual design is intended to be beautiful, emotional and appeal to the senses. UX, visual design, motion design and a robust front-end all-player major role. This category includes sites that rely on visual design as a critical part of a functional user experience. We'd now like to invite Splash Awards judge, Mel Stubbings and Drupal South Volunteer, Griffin Hills to the stage to present the Design UX category. APPLAUSE The nominees for the Drupal South 2024 Splash Awards Design UX category are... ChildSafety.gov.au for the National Office for Child Safety by Morphed. Space.gov.au for the Australian Space Agency by ICON Agency caused for a cause. APPLAUSE Age Care Equality.gov.au for the Age Care Quality and Safety Commission by ICON Agency. Pacific Blue for the Pacific Blue by Akama, pronounced Akama. I think I was meant to do that, but that's OK. Pause for a vote. The runner-up for the Design UX category is... Morphed for ChildSafety.gov.au for the National Office for Child Safety by Morphed. We know of the Drupal South 2024 Design UX category is... Oh no, don't happen again to me this year, come on. The winner is Space.gov.au by ICON Agency. APPLAUSE I clearly didn't get the black tie memo until the speech this morning, and then obviously you never think you'll win. That's not any reflection on our work, but obviously there's a lot of very good websites in that category. And also they're judged by some pretty impressive people, so I think that's a surprise, but also makes that all the more special to win it. Having said that, I'm probably not the person that should be accepting it, given I had nothing to do with the actual project itself. So I think special mention, so Carmen was the lead designer on the project, so I think a big round of applause for Carmen. APPLAUSE I was encouraged, shall we say, to stand up and accept the award if we did get to go up, but I think obviously a shout-out. So we're a digital team of, I think, 22 in an integrated agency of about 80 staff. There are probably seven or eight people that worked on the project. Carmen obviously was one of them. I think Jamie was one of our designers, and I think several others whose names are now going to escape me, but I think the whole digital team deserves a great shout-out for that. And obviously the client as well. We're very lucky to work with clients that have got a pretty good purpose. Space, their role is advancing Australia's interest in the space industry, so they're pretty exciting, and this is their first-level website, so a pretty exciting project. And the same with the ACQSC, I won't say the full thing because I'm sure I'll stumble over it, but their role is protecting older Australians, so we're pretty lucky to have clients like that, and obviously they have played a huge part in the project as well. So thanks to them, and thanks to their team. Thank you very much for the job. So thank you ICON agency. Our next category is Government Federal. This category covers sites delivered for federal government clients of which there were, of course, many. It is not an understatement to say this was fierce competition in this category. We'd now like to invite Yvonne Norris and Alastair O'Neill to the stage to present this category. GOVCMS customers and agencies will know Yvonne and Al who consistently go above and beyond for supporting their users in the GOVCMS ecosystem. Government Federal, not federal government, Government Federal Catery are. Oh, I've got some extra words in here. Okay. Transcribe AWM GOVAU for the Australian War Memorial by their own public programs branch, the digital experience section. space.gov.au for the Australian Space Agency by ICON agency. childsafety.gov.au for the National Office of Merchandise Office for the Ture Isle Safety by Morved. IPIA.gov.au for the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority by Morved. So the runner up for the Government Federal category is the Australian War Memorial for transcribe.awm.gov.au And the winner of the Drupal South 2024 Government Federal Category is I can't drum and open childsafety.gov.au This is so exciting. Oh, thank you. You shouldn't have but I will take it anyway. This project has been lots of fun, very exciting and sometimes challenging. At times it felt like we operated in the multiverse. Everything was happening all at once. But we were gifted with a very engaged and highly responsive client in the National Office of Child Safety. And they helped us along the way to make this a success. So I've got to say thank you to, they're not here, but Rachel Darcy and Scott. And from the Morved team, Amber for keeping the multi-streams working nicely together. And Matt, who's the lead designer who created some masterful designs for their site. And Hugo, who's not with us either. And of course, always thank you. I'm me. I did a good job too. All right. Next we have Government, State and Local Category. This category of course covers websites developed for local or state government clients. We'd now like to invite Drupal South Steering Committee members, Marge Tongwe and Chris Burgess to the stage to present this category. The nominees for the Drupal South 2024 Slush Awards Government, State and Local Category are WA.gov.au for the Western Australia Department of Premier and Cabinet Office of Digital Government by Salsa Digital. SydneyOperaHouse.com for the Sydney Opera House Trust by Setback Solutions. Bendigo.courts.vic.gov.au for Court Services Victoria by Salsa Digital. GippsWater.com.au for GippsLamp Water by Akima. The runner up for the Government, State and Local Category is WA.gov.au by Salsa Digital. And the winner for the Drupal South 2024 Government, State and Local Category is SydneyOperaHouse.com by Setback Solutions. Not from Setback Solutions. I'm David McKinnon. I'm the web technical lead at the Opera House. So, Setback did a great job for us against a very aggressive timeline and we're very pleased to accept this award on their path. We're looking forward to building their work and building an even better site. Thanks, everybody. Thank you and well done Sydney Opera House. All right. Our next category is corporate. These Drupal sites deliver commercial value for their clients. We would now like to invite Drupal South Sydney track leads, Fonda Duffy and Suchi Gag to come up and present the corporate category. The nominees for the Drupal South 2024 Special Awards Corporate Category are MyBig.com.au for the Master Builders Association NSW by Technocrat. Drupal360.io by and for Salsa Digital. FirstStateOctions.com for FirstStateOctions by Technocrat. Subaru.co.nz for Subaru New Zealand by Sparks Interactive. And the runner up for the corporate category is MyBig.com.au Technocrat. The winner of the Drupal South 2024 Corporate Category is Subaru.co.nz by Sparks Interactive. Thank you, everyone. This is quite a surprise. Subaru have been a client of ours for a decade now, I guess, around 10 years. They're lovely people. This is our third Drupal website for them. They're very kind, they're very patient, and they're very committed to delivering on their mission. So they'll be stoked. Sorry they can't be here tonight. They're back in Auckland. So thanks, everyone. Cheers. So it's probably a good time to point out that Julia and I solely run and manage the Splash Awards, and we're the only two people who knew who the winners were. That was a hard secret to keep. But let's... Harder for some than others. Yes. All right. Just saying. It's been a stressy. I'm trying to get through this, okay? Yeah, got it, got it. Our last category today is very special. The open source category recognises outstanding open source Drupal projects developed and maintained by our local community. As a community, here in Australia and New Zealand, we punch above our weight when it comes to Drupal contribution globally. So it felt fitting that this Splash Awards should include recognition for the folks behind this achievement. Just like creating website... Sorry, just like the website categories, the open source category is assessed on five different criteria by our judging panel. The first criteria is the problem. How significant is the problem this project is trying to solve? For this criteria, judges aim to strike a balance in assessing a project's usefulness in terms of the number of people it helps, as well as the significance of the problem regardless of the audience size. For example, a judge can award a high score to a project that solves a big problem for a small group of people, or for a project that solves a small problem for a big group of people. The presentation and marketing criteria rewards projects that do an excellent job of marketing their problem. Really great open source solutions that nobody knows about don't help as many people as they could. Higher scores are awarded in this criteria for a good job of communicating with their intended audience by clearly explaining what they're trying to do and making a serious effort to always reach out to the community and raise awareness. Community activity assesses whether the project has an active and engaged community of users and advocates. Open source projects thrive when interested people decide to get involved and contribute to the project as well. Judges award higher scores based on how effectively the project maintainers engage with their community and encourage contribution as well as how active that community is. One key test here will be how many users just ask for help versus how many users help other users without the project maintainers needing to be directly involved. The support criteria considers how well the project maintainers and the community provide support for their project. This doesn't just mean responding to issues and engaging on Slack but providing resources like tutorial videos and training, hosting office hours as well as speaking at Drupal South and other LESA conferences. Finally. I think LESA. Let's make sure you're all paying attention. Are we listening? Finally, the quality criteria asks if the project shows the best that Drupal can offer and if it does it consistently. A project with a great website but poor documentation doesn't offer a consistent experience. Similarly, high quality code is great but that alone isn't enough to make the project successful. We'd now like to invite Drupal Association CEO Tim Doyle and Splash Awards judge Lee Nguyen to the stage to present the open source category. That's you Tim. Thank you. I'm Tim. The nominees for the open source category are GovCMS by GovCMS Digital and Amazing.io The Revision UI API for all entity types by Service New South Wales and Previous Next. The Sector Distribution by Sparks Interactive and finally the Bootstrap 5 Module by Tomato Elephant Studio. The runner up for the open source category is Project Sector by Sparks Interactive. And the winner of the Drupal South 2024 open source category is Tomato Elephant Studio. Thank you. There you are. I don't have anything to say but thank you. Thanks so much. Use Bootstrap. Use Drupal. Come in. Cheers. Congratulations to all of our nominees, runner ups and winners today. There are some amazing projects and websites and we are very grateful to all the agencies, organisations and clients who took the time to submit their excellent work for this year's Splash Awards. It is now time to recognise the entry which had the highest overall score across all categories. This one website stood out above all others when it came to outstanding achievements in all of our judging criteria. Competition was fierce. To present the overall award we'd now like to invite Dries Wurther to the stage. Wow. What a great event. I love it so far. First of all congratulations on all the nominees and all the winners. Some really fantastic work and I have the honour to announce the best in show winner like you. I don't know who the winner is so let's see. And the winner is Child Safety from Morfts. Congratulations. Wow. That really was unexpected. Mainly because there was just such great competition in the room. I had to look through all the sites a couple of days ago and I was very impressed with all of them and so this really means a lot to us and well done to the team who worked on it. I'd also like to thank Mike and Julia for putting this on. It's just such a great thing you're doing guys and thanks for all the effort. And thank you everyone and good luck next year. And that's a wrap for this year's Drupal Self Splash Awards. On behalf of the Drupal Self Steering Committee I would like to thank everyone who submitted their sites into the awards and once again congratulations to all of our nominees, runner-ups and winners. We'd also like to thank once again all of our judges for all of their efforts this year. The Drupal South Steering Committee is committed to the Splash Awards being an annual event so start thinking about your entries for Drupal South 2025. If you have any feedback or suggestions on how we can make the Splash Awards bigger please find us during the networking event drinks hosted by Acquia and let us know and if you're a nominee come and get your certificate because we don't want to take them home. So finally a special thank you to Iron Staff for sponsoring the Splash Awards and Acquia for sponsoring the networking drinks which are coming up right now.