Every year during the Vancouver International Digital Festival (VIDFEST) the POPVOX awards are handed out to the winners selected by the Voice of the People! The POPVOX awards celebrate and recognize all the fields of digital media in a variety of categories. The winners are annunced at the Gala event scheduled May 23rd (pretty soon) so buy your tickets.

Nominees submit their projects and the masses then vote for their favorites online (that's why they are the people's voice awards right).

The Vancouver International Digital Festival is an event for the top creative minds working in digital media. Attracting visionaries from games and digital entertainment, Web 2.0, interactive design, animation and mobile applications, it is an annual ‘must-attend’ in Vancouver, Canada.

Last year, Raincity Studios brewed up the PopVox website but our involvement this year is focused on supporting our friends like the crew over at Strutta who are on the docket for Best User Gen/Crowd-sourced Content Site and Best BC-Based Venture.

Along with Strutta a few other Vancouver friends were nominated for categories ranging from the homegrown award to the do-gooder award.

• MakeFive took the unique approach of trying to get people to create new social networks online by connecting people with similar ideas and opinions. That landed them a nomination for best BC-based venture AKA "the homegrown award."
• Design Can Change is an effort to make designers more aware of sustainability and climate change placing them up for the "do-gooder award" for Best Venture Dedicated to Social Change. The site is one of the only resources designers can use to share ideas and make their practice more green-friendly.
• Changeeverything.ca is another contender for the do-gooder award for Best Venture Dedicated to Social Change. The category is a perfect fit as the site's main focus is on social change of people, communities and the world.
• Going up against Strutta for Best UserGen/Crowdsourced Content site is the news network Nowpublic.com. NowPublic has helped the field of citizen journalism to grow by building a platform to document events from an incredible amount of angles.

This year Raincity Studios will also rally-up some social coverage of the event with blogs, podcasts and pics. Dave Olson's POPVOX podcast from last year's event is still kicking around too!