Awards shows are always about the great or the best or the most popular — especially in the creative industries.
But what about the mediocre or the simply meh or the shrug-worthy?
What about the just OK?
Shouldn’t that be celebrated with the same aplomb?
It should and it is, thanks to the OK Social’s OK Social Awards, which are dubbed the Mediocre Awards for Good Creatives.
And it’s why, should you head to the HiFi Club Thursday, May 30, you’ll see the celebration of such things as the OK Use of a Free Font, OK Rejected Logo, OK Notebook Doodle, OK Social Post (Or Account), and, my favourite, the OK Office Dog (note: I know who wins, and I concur).
Prior to the show, theYYSCENE spoke with Jessica Seymour, freelance producer at OK Social, about the event and the organization.
Q: What are the OK Awards?
A: We wanted to create a really laid-back version of the typical award show. So it has to do with the creative industry, which is what OK Social is for. But ours are basically awards that no one cares about winning. So there’s 15 categories that people have been entering all month, things like Behind the Scenes Shot or Office Perk or Personal Brand — the things that never really get represented at the bigger awards shows but we still think are important parts of working as a creative.
Q: How long has this been going on?
A: This is the first annual awards show, but OK Social itself has been around for just over four years. It started in Calgary and it really hasn’t changed its shape at all. It’s an after-work hangout for people in creative industries, it’s a really laid-back event where people come and they get free a beer, it’s meant to get people to collaborate and talk to each other, and build around the creative — see if they have another project going forward. We don’t usually put ourselves out there as a networking event. We recently moved to Vancouver as well, so that’s our next step in developing more of what OK Social is to support the creative community.
Q: How many people come out to the events and who can come?
A: It’s open to anyone and our translation of “creative” is really loose, so we have everyone from advertisers and marketers to graphic designers to filmmakers, but then we also have hairstylists and chefs — anybody who considers what they do to be creative in some way, even social media marketers. There’s such a gamut of people that come out to these. They are free and they’re open … the one caveat is that if they want a free beer then they have to RSVP on our site — that’s the only rule. In Calgary it’s become really developed … we usually have about 150 people to 200 people after four years now come to our summer party.
Q: So the best way to get involved is to go to oksocial.ca?
A: Yes, on there you’d be able to sign up for our mailing list to get all of the information, or follow our social media as well — everything that we do, we have a very good social media manager that makes sure everything is always out there.
Q: How many events do you have during the year?
A: Between Vancouver and Calgary we host one between every four to six months, so about three to four every year. We just had one in April in Vancouver, and then we have this one, and then we have one in June (tentatively June 26) in Calgary. It’s our hot dog social.
Q: I’m sure it’s self-explanatory, but for clarification, what is your hot dog social?
A: The hot dog social is our most popular party. It’s the very first party that we ever held on the rooftop patio of Broken City. Broken City donates hot dogs, and everyone comes out and they get a free beer and they get a hot dog, and all proceeds are in support of the Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society — each one of our events has a charitable aspect to it. So usually once everyone’s had a couple of beers (AARCS) bring around puppies … So that’s exciting, about 150 people and a bunch of puppies and a free hot dog.
The OK Awards take place Thursday, May 30 at the HiFi Club. Doors are at 5 p.m., the awards run from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. For more information go to oksocial.ca.
