Creative Amsterdam report: Day 3

After a nerve wrecking night for the six finalists of the Creative Amsterdam Award, Caroline Gehrels (responsible for Economic Affairs, Art and Culture of the City of Amsterdam) and Jasper Roos (Business Development Manager Dialogues Incubator at ABN AMRO) announced the winner on friday morning. !syou was rewarded for their appealing combination of co-design, crowdsourcing and sustainability.

!Syou
Merijn ten Thije en Jaap Spoorenberg, founders of !syou, winners of the Creative Amsterdam Award 2011
‘We’re very happy, this price is a megaboost for us! Not only does it bring us closer to taking our next steps, the recognition of the creative industry also means a lot. People that we respect a lot come up to us to congratulate us and telll us it’s a great idea. Our next step is to explore new markets, like the US and Colombia. Co-design is not only a concept we work with, we actually work like that ourselves. We believe in division of labour, so we work with people that help us with the things we can’t do ourselves very well. Parties like HTNK, Butterfly Works and DAY helped us to build up. After taking a lot of small steps, now it’s time to take bigger ones!’

Bert Hagendoorn
Bert Hagendoorn, freelance marketing project manager Adobe in Amsterdam
‘!syou is a good winner. Not the one I voted for, but they had a good presentation and I love the noble charachter of their concept.. I voted for 22tracks, I think their idea is simple, superstrong, and rolled out in a smart way. They already achieved a lot, which is not easy in their field. !syou was number two on my list. They have a strong idea and with lucky breaks like this they’ll make it for sure. Last night once again proved the value of good presentation skills. There was a big gap between my two favorites and the other nominees. The other four really missed out on a chance to convince people of their ideas.‘

Ralph de Lange
Ralph de Lange, founder of MIXacademy and finalist for the Creative Amsterdam Award
‘Of course I would have liked to win, but I‘m very happy !syou won the price. I liked them the most. I applied for this price pretty late, and after hearing what the jury had to say, I understand what the requirments were. Crowdsourcing, branding, social: !syou ticks all the boxes. And they work with the creatives themselves, which really appeals to me. I’ll continue my plans anyway. I believe in cosmic energy: from the 200 people who heard my pitch, 5 will be enthusiastic. Thanks to people I met last night, I can speak at TedX, will visit Pieter Henket in New York and be connected to a platform in Brussels. This nomination opened many doors!’

text: Janneke Grootings