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First Annual Digi Awards

photo of man and woman setting up camera to shoot film

The Digital Storytelling Institute honored three community organizations with the first annual Digi awards for outstanding achievements in digital storytelling. Winners received distribution support and services from the Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC).

The awards were presented at a convening hosted by the Digital Storytelling Institute on Monday, April 2, 2007.

The focus of the event was on distribution of digital stories:

  • How can your organization use digital stories to advance your mission, raise funds, conduct outreach activities, and participate in the online multimedia revolution?

  • With basic training and some stories in your pocket, what are your next steps?

  • From Youtube to MySpace to to podcasting to film festivals, what is the best way for organization to get out their digital stories?

Workshops examined how community organizations can better disseminate their digital stories to advance their missions, raise funds, conduct outreach activities and participate in the online media revolution.

View the Nominees' Videos

Vote for your favorite video

Please vote on your favorite story (see selections above) based on the following criteria:

Social Justice: How does the story help illuminate or advance issues relating to underserved communities?

Digital media: How well did the story makers use digital media to present their stories?

Storytelling: How well did the creators tell their story?

Keynote Speaker Chip Heath

The event's keynote speaker was Chip Heath, Professor of Organizational Behavior in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University.

Chip Heath's research examines why certain ideas—ranging from urban legends to folk medical cures, from Chicken Soup for the Soul stories to business strategy myths—survive and prosper in the social marketplace of ideas. These “naturally sticky” ideas spread without external help in the form of marketing dollars, PR assistance, or the attention of leaders. A few years back Chip designed a course, now a popular elective at Stanford, that asked whether it would be possible to use the principles of naturally sticky ideas to design messages that would be more effective. That course, How to Make Ideas Stick, has now been taught to hundreds of students including managers, teachers, doctors, journalists, venture capitalists, product designers, and film producers.

Chip’s research has appeared in the Journal of Organizational Behavior, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Cognitive Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Journal of Consumer Behavior, Strategic Management Journal, Psychological Science, and the Journal of Risk and Uncertainty. Popular accounts of his research have appeared in Scientific American, the Financial Times, The Washington Post, Business Week, Psychology Today, and Vanity Fair. He has appeared on NPR and National Geographic specials.

Chip has taught courses on Organizational Behavior, Negotiation, Strategy, and International Strategy. Prior to joining Stanford, Professor Heath taught at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. He received his B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Texas A&M University and his Ph.D. in Psychology from Stanford.