Galveston.com & Company Takes Top International Creative Award

Galveston.com & Company is a silver winner in the Community Website category of the 2007 Summit Creative Awards® competition, for its creative work for Galveston.com, the official website of The Galveston Island Convention & Visitors Bureau.

According to Galveston.com & Company’s Vice-President Jim Cordell, “It's a very exciting time for our team here at Galveston.com.  From the Stevie Award in June, to our Interactive Media Award in September, to two Davey and W³ Awards in October, to this, it’s great to have our efforts acknowledged by such respected organizations."

Rich with interactive polls, site-wide searchability, a robust message board, audio and video podcasts (the first Convention & Visitors Bureau-related website in the world to offer such), tourism-related rss feeds, tourism-related member pages for local businesses, continuously updated AccuWeather, city-wide megapixel webcams, personalized itinerary builder, "one-click" expandable navigation, and complete interactive reservations for lodging, cruises, cruise parking, and airport transfers, the recently relaunched Galveston.com was produced over a two-year period by a team of designers from both Texas and the United Kingdom. Galveston.com & Company is currently working on a virtual Galveston Island in Second Life, to debut May 2007.

The Summit Creative Awards recognizes and celebrates the creative accomplishments of small and medium sized advertising agencies and other creative groups with annual billings of $25 million or less. Over the last decade, the competition has established itself as the premier arbiter of creative excellence for firms of this size.

This year's international panel of judges included professionals from TBWA, Ogilvy & Mather, Door Number 3, Paragon Marketing Communications, Ilan Geva & Friends, SP3, Stormhouse Partners, Tantramar Interactive, Inc., Jeff Fisher LogoMotives, Promoseven Network Inc., Stellar Debris Creative Studios, Velocity Design Works, Quantum Advertising, and Turner Studios.

Entries in 14 creative categories are judged against a stringent set of standards. During the blind judging events judges search for innovative and creative concepts, strong executions and the ability to communicate and persuade.

“Winning a Summit Creative Awards is a significant accomplishment. The combination of our excellent judges and the tough judging criteria ensures that only deserving entries receive Summit recognized.” said Jocelyn Luciano, Executive Director for the Summit Awards. “It was an exciting year to watch and listen to the judges debate the details of individual entries. Making the hard decisions of which ones receive the top spots is hard.”

This year's creative competition included companies from the following twenty-three countries: Australia, Austria, Belarus, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, Denmark, India, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Papua New Guinea, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and United States.

Winners were selected in categories that include print, broadcast, emerging media, online advertising, marketing materials, direct mail, political, corporate video, public service, best idea never produced, industry self-promotion and student competition.

Additional information about the Summit Creative Awards and winning firms can be found on the Summit Awards web site at http://www.summitawards.com.

Galveston.com & Company, Inc. is a destination marketing corporation based in Galveston, Texas. Additional website ventures by Galveston.com & Company include Galveston.org, GalvestonCruises.com, HoustonAreaHotels.com, and Kemah.com. The company specializes in destination portals, as well as online lodging, cruise, parking, and transfer reservations via its proprietary DestinationNext_^TM reservation module. For more information, contact Galveston.com & Company at via phone (409)763-8676 or email at websites@galveston.com.