BraunPrizeBlog

I’m currently waiting for a bunch of videos to be released by the media agency which has been in charge of editing all the material. So please allow for some more days to go. Once the videos are here I will make a separate posting for each of the final presentations. This should give you a good impression what it looks like to be a BraunPrize finalist ,-)

Furthermore in contrast to my original attempt to conduct interviews with BraunPrize forum members after the ceremony I finally decided against this. As I’ve explained in my previous posting the finalists and myself had a pretty long day and consequently I’ve been absolutely tired at the end of the day. But far more importantly once the buffet has been opened I sensed that it might not have been the right time to bother people with my voice recorder while socializing, chatting, having fun and finger food … Therefore in conjunction with all the photos and videos being shot that day I concluded that these materials should give you sufficient impressions.

But wait … the next morning I’ve been lucky and grabbed at least 4 of the 5 finalists for a short snapshot interview at the Braun Collection. Unfortunately Franziska Faoro had to catch her train so she’s excused ;-)

While you should listen to the interview yourself I’ve found some details notable and stunning. Donn, the BraunPrize Winner 2007 concluded that beside the great feeling of being the winner he equally well appreciated the friendship he’s made with his fellow finalists (and from watching them for at least a day I can confirm this!). Secondly Donn will donate a share of his prize money to the child care hospital which supported his project. Thirdly (beside the little joke about it) all finalists concluded that beyond the corporate atmosphere of the event they’ve all had the feeling that they still have been part of the center of the event (I’ve heard from other events that this can be quite the opposite ;-(

Anyway listen yourself and my apologies for the sometimes lousy sound quality as the surrounding noise has been pretty lively (fun happens ;-).

Well, I’ve been quite busy over the last couple of days. Therefore my apologies for not posting earlier here some more details on the BraunPrize ceremony last week at the Braun/PG headquarters in Kronberg, Germany.

Actually there are so many impressions to digest especially when your in charge as I’ve been this year. Therefore I think it’s a good idea to split my impressions in short bits which are better to digest ;-)

After all instead of repeating about the BraunPrize ceremony what has been written in press releases somewhere else I’d thought I will make a list of press mentionings of the BraunPrize later on. Instead I will share my very personal experiences and impressions.

As you might know (or not ;-) I’ve had the honor to moderate the final BraunPrize jury session in large parts during the afternoon of September 12th. This mainly included the introduction of the 10 minutes presentations each of the 4 finalists were supposed to deliver in front of the jury panel which consisted of approx. 200 design experts from across the globe!

However prior to their live performance we’ve met in the morning hours in order to discuss and fine tune their presentations to be delivered later on. This session which only included the 5 finalists and myself lasted from 09:30 to 13:00 hrs. and it has been an intense time with rehearsal in front of the group as well as last minute editing of the presentations (which is quite tricky when slides consist of JPGs or even executable Adobe Flash Files!). I think it’s OK to mention that Donn (who has been the final winner later on :-) even spent the whole lunch break to give his presentation the final tweak (at least it was worth it ;-)

Unfortunately we’ve been so busy that I did forget to take some photos while sitting together. I did however find the time to conduct an interview with 4 of the 5 finalists (Franziska Faoro had to rush in order to catch her train) the day after the ceremony. I will share this later on together with some more photos. That’s it for the first part; comment and/or ask questions if you like. Otherwise: Stay tuned!