Winning at an Award Show

EDITOR’S NOTE: On behalf of all Male Voice Talents who comprise MVO: The Voice-Over Guys, our own Peter K. O’Connell recently attended the 15th Annual BETA Awards, presented by InfoTech Western New York. He attended because The Voice-Over Guys were finalists for a show award: Best Use of Online Video. What follows is his account of the night that turned out to be pretty memorable.

I don’t know if Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have to worry about getting a babysitter for the award shows they go to but I did.

Those two probably have a live-in nanny so no babysitter problems when attending the OSCARS® but for my wife and me that was ‘Job 1’ as soon as I was notified that MVO: The Voice-Over Guys (which is a marketing collective of male voice talents I am a part of) was nominated for an award. If my wife and I were going to attend, we’d need a sitter.

Personally, I’ve only won a few awards in my life but none where I was nominated with other people and a winner would be announced. Someone usually just handed me a trophy, told me to smile for the camera and then told me to go play in traffic as my moment in the spotlight was quickly over.

So this nomination thing was going to be a first for me on behalf of The Voice-Over Guys.

I knew of InfoTech Western New York for a while as it has been in my hometown of Buffalo, NY for about 15 years. It’s a consortium of multi-sized software, hardware, telecommunications companies, government and economic agencies, and educational institutions all of whom focus on building their industry in the region while helping to attract new IT jobs and projects to the region.

One of the ways this professional association promotes itself is through an awards program called The BETA Awards, which recognizes and celebrates the Buffalo Niagara region’s organizations and individuals that set the standard for technological innovation and implementation, workplace culture, and industry activism. I’d even been a past co-host of the awards some years ago.

But Info Tech and the BETAs were not on my mind when I was just flipping around the web many months ago, coming across the “Call for Nominations” for the 2015 BETAs.

When I saw the Online Video category for #BETA2015, I immediately thought of the explainer video that MVO: The Voice-Over Guys had recently produced entitled “Meet MVO: The Voice-Over Guys”. The purpose of our video was to explain to people who we were, what we did and why it was such a good idea for people to work with us. Not only were the graphics awesome but it featured all 20 Voice-Over Guys doing the video narration.

So I submitted us for the award and then promptly forgot all about it.

When I got the email from the BETAs letting me know MVO was a category finalist, I first had to remember what they were talking about. In voice-over, everyday we voice actors submit a ½ dozen auditions that we never hear back on, so submitting to The BETAs was just as quickly forgotten.

So with the babysitter secured for the award show, my lovely wife and I headed down to the Buffalo Convention Center for the show.

Now, I have to tell you…we didn’t stand much of a chance in this contest. We were competing against a full service professional video company (who I’ve done work with for years) a marketing agency and an e-learning company. Being just a bunch of VO Guys, no way we were going to win anything more than the nomination certificate given to us at our table.

We didn’t have to wait long to learn our fate as our category was the first one of the night. My friend Joel Columbo from 360 PSG was at the podium to introduce the category and the video introduction of the nominees. He ripped open the envelope and announced the winner of Best Use of On-Line Video: MVO: The Voice-Over Guys!

Holy cow. I mean seriously, holy cow!!

I can’t describe the level of shock to my system realizing that we won. Not only were we not supposed to win…but, we were NOT supposed to win!! But we did win.

Now what?

Oh yeah, OK, get up. Stand up boy, you gotta walk to the stage. Legs are a little more wobbly than usual. This is surreal. I’m not sure why I am having this reaction.

It’s at about this time, as I walk to the stage, that I realized there was an email I neglected to read from the BETAs about how to prepare your speech, should we win. I realize at the moment I walk up to the podium, with the microphone expecting me to speak into it, that I should have prepared something to say.

But we weren’t supposed to win.

The good news about working on the business end of the performing arts (the stage, on-camera, microphone side) is that extemporaneous speaking is not such a stretch. Now, you may ask me what I said and I tell you without a stitch of a lie that I don’t know. I remember some phrases and my thought process but not enough to be able to recount it here.

But people were cheering and clapping at the end so that was a good sign. My lovely wife (who I neglected to thank and the podium but will now thank on the internet ‘thank you dear’) said I sounded really good and told a great story of what MVO was and why we made the video. So I was glad about that.

I hope I made clear in my speech not only my appreciation on behalf of all the MVO: The Voice-Over Guys for the honor, but how honored I am to be a part of this marketing collective of amazing voice talents who, individually, represent some of the best voice actors in the industry. Collectively, we are a voice-over powerhouse.

Today, to a man, we are all award winning voice talents. It’s truly not a big deal but it is a nice feeling.

Boy, am I glad we found that babysitter.