One Night in Manhattan at the One Show

Jamie Standen and Mark Forgan, Creative Directors at Rosapark Paris, popped over to New York to attend the One Show ceremony. The two give us a run down of their time at the show.

6:30pm

Arrive at Gotham Theatre and evaluate the scene. Pros: they’re all over the place, you can’t take a step without bumping into advertising royalty. Cons: if this is the theatre of Gotham, where’s Batman ?

6:45pm

Still no Batman. But at three champagnes deep, he might arrive soon.

6:51pm

The organisers hand out lapel pins in the shape of One Show pencils. One for every award you will pick up. Guests don’t hesitate to wear them - some have more metal on their chest than a North Korean General.

8:45pm

The Japanese people at our table are pretending to understand our vowel-starved kiwi accents. That’s forty-five minutes of intense politeness so far.

9pm

And the award ceremony begins!

9:09pm

Alarmed to discover that all the winners are doing the 6 second speech. Begin brainstorming ideas for aforementioned 6 second speech.

9:21pm

Mark Twain once wrote, sorry to write a long letter, I didn’t have the time to write a short one. He should have tried 6 seconds!

9:29pm

We’re on the stage. It’s a gold, for Thalys Sounds of the City! Deliver garbled 6 second speech, receive golf clap.

9:30pm

It’s a bronze too! But the pencil is nowhere to be found. We hunt for it backstage, deep in in the One Show matrix. Unclaimed pencils cover a table, waiting forlornly for their masters like dogs at the pound.

9:58pm

Stephane Xiberras makes his speech in French, receives rousing applause. Mental note: making speeches in French, c’est cool.

10:15pm

In testament to the difficulty of the One Show, the Grand Prix Print campaign from Cannes picks up a bronze. And as the CD reminds all of us, his brother was on the One Show print jury! That’s tough.

10:46

After party. There’s more networking going on here than a Google server farm. 

11:30

And that’s a wrap. For us, anyway - the jet lag’s kicking in and it’s time to head out and have a second dinner. Thanks to the One Club for a great night!