Prepare your entries today Insider is proud to sponsor this year’s Big Chip Awards and the deadline is fast approaching for the biggest and best digital awards outside London. With a closing date of 16 March, entries are invited from the North West in 13 categories, while there is also a pan-northern award – Game of the North – and an International Award for Innovation, for a project from anywhere in the world. Click here to enter. Now in their 11th year, the awards are organised by Manchester Digital, the independent trade association, and Insider is acting as media partner alongside trade publication New Media Age. Organised by and for the industry, the Big Chips are judged by a distinguished panel of experts and this year's awards are still seeking further sponsors. For further details and to enter before the 16 March deadline visit the Big Chip website. The winners will be announced at a black-tie dinner in Manchester on 18 June, which will this year again be hosted by radio and TV presenter Terry Christian.

Choose your award

The coveted Grand Prix Award returns to Big Chip in 2009, which selects a winner from the shortlisted entries for the other North West categories. Manchester-based animation company The Neighbourhood has been victorious for the past two years and will be hoping to repeat the feat for a third year in a row. Other awards up for grabs include: Best E-business Project; Best E-Learning Project; Best Use of Visual Design; Best Application of Technology; Best Use of Animation; Best Use of Search; Big Green Chip Award; and Best Freelancer/Micro Enterprise. There will also be an award for the Best New Media Agency, while the Anthony Wilson Original Modern Award will recognise work that is considered to be truly original and modern.

New categories for 2009

After debuting four new awards at last year’s ceremony, the Big Chip Awards will be even bigger in 2009 with a further four awards up for grabs. The new categories on offer include Best Online Brand Development, which is open to entrants that have used online media to develop or build a brand, and the Best Digital Marketing Campaign, which includes online advertising, viral marketing, email marketing, SMS campaigns and integrated on and offline campaigns. There will also be an award for the Best Newcomer, open to any freelancer/contractor or enterprise that has started in business since March 2008, and the Tasty Website award, voted for by SMS on the night of the awards.

In the public eye

Two categories at the Big Chip Awards 2009 will recognise work done in the public and not-for-profit sectors. The award for Best Public Sector Project is open to any digital project commissioned by, or executed by, a public sector agency, demonstrating how the project has achieved objectives for the public sector in a cost-effective way. The Best Not for Profit Project award will also celebrate work that achieves a positive social objective for third-sector organisations.

Are you game for it?

The north of England is home to a multitude of games developers that have been busy producing market-leading titles for years. Levels of activity are feverish and the Game of the North Award seeks to recognise some of the excellent work done by the talented businesses across the region. The award is open to developers of stand-alone electronic games working on any platform from the North East, North West and Yorkshire and Humberside. The winning entry at last year’s ceremony came from PiEye Games in Lincoln for its web-based game DarkSide, which the judges praised for its addictiveness, style and cost effectiveness. The judges will again be looking for such high levels of innovation, outstanding design and playability.

In international waters

Now in its second year, the International Award for Innovation is a truly global affair, open to any project from anywhere in the world. The category, which was launched last year to celebrate ten years of the ceremony and 60 years since the invention of the first stored program computer in Manchester, is open to projects that demonstrate exceptional innovation in digital media or digital technology. Example projects might be a new online service, a new use of digital technology in a product or service, or a new internet business model. Fittingly, a Manchester-based company scooped the inaugural award, with PhoneFromHere.com wowing the judges for the simplicity of its idea and execution.

Your judges this evening

The Big Chip awards are judged by a distinguished panel of experts chaired by Michael Nutley, editor of Insider’s fellow media partner New Media Age. This year Big Chip has secured the services of Ian Livingstone OBE, one the UK’s founding fathers of interactive games and fiction, as a judge in the Game of the North Award. Also on the panel are: Gavin Ailes of The Search Works; Katz Kiely of Just-b. Productions; Dr David Kreps from Salford University; Channel 4’s Matt Locke; Alasdair Rawsthorne from the University of Manchester; Steve Smith of Merseyside ICT; Alasdair Scott of Filter Worldwide and Gill Shaw, who has 15 years’ experience of creating and implementing business development and commercial strategies for small to medium-sized businesses. Other panel members will be announced shortly.