Meet The Presenters at this Year’s Philly Geek Awards
So the Philly Geek Awards are next week. NEXT WEEK.
As you can imagine, over here at the Geekadelphia camp, our jimmies are justly rustled. But lucky for us, we’re fortunate to have a number of people that have our back. And I’m not just talking about our loyal readers who bought tickets to the sold out event (thank you!) or our fantastic sponsors (all of whom Mikey highlighted earlier this week).
I’m talking about our presenters.
This year, we’ve got some great people on board presenting awards, some of who even sponsored their specific categories. Read on to meet this year’s presenters. They are all awesome.
See you all in a week.
Technically Philly: Okay yes, we make fun of this crew a lot. But the truth is, they’re actually really great friends of ours. And I’m thrilled to have them on board opening the show this year. You might know them from the amazing local tech blog, but you also might be familiar with their work on Philly Tech Week and a large array of other projects. You can learn more about those other ventures on Technically Media.
Christopher Wink, Brian James Kirk, and their newest reporter, Juliana Reye, will be presenting Headline of the Year (which they also curated) and Hacker of the Year, the first two categories in this year’s Geek Awards.
Jill Sybesma: Jill is the Adult Programs Coordinator & Teacher Naturalist over at the Academy of Natural Sciences, and is the other half of the Philly Geek Awards. She’s the gal that’s been making this all happen over on the Academy’s side, coordinating with us and the museum to make the show REAL. The Geek Awards wouldn’t exist without her, and we adore her.
And guess what? You adore her too. Jill’s the gal who brings you all Mega Bad Movie Night at the Academy, as well as a number of other awesome programs. She’ll be presenting Scientist of the Year.
Leah Cevoli: Ever watch Robot Chicken? Sure you have. You’re reading a website called Geekadelphia. Chances are, you’ve heard Leah Cevoli’s voice on the show.
An actress with local roots, Leah’s done voiceover work for Seth Green’s hit show, and a ton of other awesome things. From producing TV shows to appearing in indie films, she’s done a lot. Just check out her IMDB page. She’s presenting Viral Project of the Year.
Social Media Club Philly: We’re psyched to have Philly’s Social Media Club chapter presenting at this year’s Geek Awards, as well as sponsoring the Social Media Campaign award. Gloria Bell and Cecily Kellogg will take the stage to present this year’s award, and we’re thrilled to have them both.
Alex Hillman: You might recognize Alex Hillman from such movies as Indy Hall.
Whether he’s giving lectures on coworking, throwing amazing parties, or starting projects that benefit the community (just because!), Alex is all over the place, doing great things for Philly’s geek community. He’ll be presenting the award for Web Dev Team of the Year.
Monetate & Elise Wei: The front end engineer for Philly’s Monetate, Elise is presenting Best New Local Startup.
Unfamiliar with Monetate? You better head over to their website and scope out their blog, immediately. An amazing local company, we are really excited to have them be a part of the ceremony this year, as well as a sponsor.
Chris Grant: If you were at the awards last year, you’ll remember Chris Grant. You may know Chris from his stint as the editor-in-chief of Joystiq; others may know him as a would-be carpenter, never far from a DIY project. Now he’s building the world’s best video game site with some of the world’s most talented writers, at Polygon.com.
Chris lives and works in a remodeled brass bed factory in Fishtown, with the exceptionally talented Erin Murray, the famously cute Yuki, the comically blind Link, and the always secretive Zelda. He’s presenting Indie Game Dev of the Year.
Kyle Cassidy: Celebrated local author and photographer Kyle Cassidy will be presenting two categories, Comics Writer of the Year and Comics Artist of the Year. You might know him from his work with Amanda Palmer and Neil Gaiman, or his legendary LiveJournal where he posts a ton of his incredible photographs.
As a fan of Kyle’s work, I’m really quite honored to have him be a part of our ceremony this year. Now go follow him on Twitter.
Dan Tabor: Geekadelphia’s film guru, Dan Tabor, will be presenting Indie Feature Film of the Year. He’s awesome and we love him.
Kara Zhang: An actress currently residing in Philadelphia. As much as she loves her City of Brotherly Love, she is often chagrined by the fact that Philly is lacking in decent Korean food options. She wants to rectify that one day by bringing all of Seoul to Philadelphia. Her first feature film, Alpha Girls, is nominated for Feature Length Indie Of the Year, so she’s beyond psyched.
Christine Maddela: You’ve likely seen Christine on NBC10, where she’s a broadcast journalist. She’ll be presenting Annual Event of the Year. David wrote a great Geek of the Week on her a while back, which you can read here. Get to know her, and give her lots of high fives next week.
Doogie Horner: Local comedian Doogie Horner will be the final presenter of the evening, closing out the ceremony with Geek of the Year. Rumor has it he has something special planned. Speculate away.
