Well, GDT didn't win this year. That's ok. It's good enough to be just nominated. Heck. There are some very, very good programs out there that get nominated and don't win. We're talking about the best of the best software out there. I'm honoured to be nominated this year!
This year the competition was with Help & Manual and VMware. Really tough. They're both stellar programs and I use them both.
Alexsander Halser was there - the guy from Help & Manual - and I had to joke around with him about hoping that the little guy won and not “those big guy bastards” from VMware. :)
Well, VMware won. They've got a really good product and I certainly can't begrudge them in the least. I use their product all the time and really love it. They very well deserved it.
Alexsander is a good guy, and even better after a few glasses of wine! :)
One of the guys from TrialPay came over during the SIA banquet and told me that he and the other guys from Trial Pay were rooting for me. The Digital River people there were rooting for me as well. That felt good and I really appreciate them all. There are a lot of really good people at Trial Pay and at Digital River.
There were a few betting pools about the winners of the SIAF awards, and it was rather humorous when chatting with the DR folks after the awards. Elisa from ShareIt! was the one person from DR that betted against me winning, so I had to joke with her about being a “traitor” and all. She's a really sweet girl and you'd love her if you ever met her. (Love you still Elisa!)
I also managed to get a few interviews with Michael Lehman, Bob Walsh, and Mitchell Vincent. All very good people and all very smart. Mike from Shareware Radio got a lot more than I did though. :)
I also managed to get a few interviews scheduled from Greg and Nick.
Greg won this year for Pretty Good MahJongg. That was good to see. He's a fantastic guy, great programmer, and very well deserved it. I'm looking forward interviewing him very much.
Nick Bradbury has a bit higher profile perhaps and is pretty well known in the mISV community. He sold his program HomeSite to Allaire which was then sold to Adobe. They've pretty much killed it with no updates, but it's still available. He's also the guy behind TopStyle and FeedDemon.
One of the highlights was when I got to present the Silver Faucet award to Kevin from ICUII. He's a great guy and really deserved to have his name on it more than anyone. (Really - I'm not exagerating in the least.) Well, that and Nick Bradbury and I decided that we're both scared of his wife, Debbie, and that in any event she was right! :)
Bill Dickson (from DR) had another idea for the winner, and I think next year we'll see that one. Or at least I hope so. I'm not going to leak anything here, but if you're interested... Show up at the Shareware Industry Awards for 2008 and we'll present the Silver Faucet to the next winner shortly after. Of course there will be alcohol involved!
Congrats to all the winners at SIC 2007, and I'll hope to see you all at SIC 2008 in Boston!
Cheers,
Ryan