While Australia won the trophy (well done Codaroos!), all the teams were bloody champions, as were the clients who were the recipients of three beautiful, fully functional sites. And the volunteers – indescribably awesome.

What was evident from the get-go, was that the teams and the volunteers really embodied the ethos of FullCodePress. They were 110% committed yet didn’t take it all too seriously; they were composed and calm, yet up for an action-packed, fun-orama!

The fact that this was meant to be a competition between the teams seemed insignificant. What each of these teams did was bigger than “who won”. If they were competing with anyone, I guess they were competing with themselves – to create something they were proud of; to work in unfamiliar surroundings in unnatural circumstances in a freaky-short timeframe; to not let tiredness get to them; to do something they as web professionals could be proud of. The important thing here was not who “came first”, but that they were giving their client a product that met their needs, and they were doing some awesome.

And by jove, they did it.

For those of us lucky enough to be at the venue throughout, we saw something that possibly wasn’t fully captured in the judges’ decision. While it was exciting to see how the sites were developing over time, and obviously the end results, it was just as exciting to pop into the rooms and see how teams of people, who, on the whole, had never worked together, were working together so naturally. This was true amongst the volunteers – Team Awesome – as well. There was true comradery. There was a strong sense of team spirit, and of mutual respect. Things didn’t need to be asked of people; they were just done, and done well.

It really was a beautiful, beautiful thing.

As well as the teams’ awe-inspiring performances and Voltron-esque* abilities, there were individuals who stood out for random acts of awesomeness. We’d like to publicly recognise them:

The he’s-so-cool-he-can-produce-ponies-out-of-thin-air award:
Keith Bolland

Most calm in the face of server adversity:
Shared between Sam Minnee and John Ford

Best find award:
Greg and Chris at wheresmyserver

Most likely to have his own talkshow:
Ludwig Wendzich

The made-the-most-effort-to-be-a-part-of-it award:
Team USA who each travelled around 30 hours to be a part of this competition, stayed for a couple of days and then flew another 30+ hours home. Now that is commitment, people.

The award for grammatical excellence:
Jo McLeod

The still-looking-hot-after-24-hours-straight award:
Shared equally by Liz Danzico, Amanda Dorrell , Matthew Buchanan and Adam Schilling

The most-promising-new-werewolf-player award:
Matthew Magain

Mr Photogenic award:


Most stylishly dressed award:
Jason Santa Maria

Bjarni Wark’s style was also noted:


The award for most awesome volunteer is shared between
Mike Forbes, Ludwig Wendzich, Amanda Dorrell, Keith Bolland, Jo McLeod, Aleah Stantiall, Darren Wood, Dan Evans and James Everett.

Best cinematography:
Dan Evans

Best photography:
James Everett

Most amusing person award:
Darren Wood

NZ’s top baker award:
John Clegg.

Arm-wrestling champion of the world award:
John Ford, with respect to Mike Harding and Bjarni Wark

Best dance moves:
Amanda Wood

Best display of team unity:
Team USA’s midnight parade


Best public displays of affection and support for a team:
Swiss Miss for this (which features a guest appearance by Webstock ‘10 superstar, Chris Shiflett!)

And the final award, the big kahuna, the man who should be president award goes to Mike Forbes. Where there is Mike, there is hope – and server stability.

Some good people have written up their own accounts of the event:

Amanda Wood, Code Blacks Project Manager: FCP in review

Jason Santa Maria, Team USA Designer: FullCodePress 2010

Xero, FullCodePress sponsor: Aussies take the trophy

Liz Danzico, Team USA User Advocate: Behind FullCodePress

Dan Mall, Team USA Marker Upper: FullCodePress

Hadyn Green, Code Black wordsmith: The Geek Tri Nations

Matt Magain, FCP Sponsor: 99 Designs Champions Win Gold for Australia

Last word:

On behalf of the organisers we’d like to give huge and sincere thanks to everyone involved in this year’s FullCodePress.
Thank you teams USA, NZ and Australia. Thank you volunteers. It was a privilege to work with you.

Thank you to our sponsors. We could not have done it without you.
Thank you to everyone who supported the teams and followed along. You rule!

Thank you all. And see you here again next year!

*Voltron is a word describing a situation where two or more beings combine efforts to become mightier than a very very mighty thing.

The experience of being a judge at FullCodePress has been a really wonderful and rare opportunity to observe how some of the best talents in the business practice their craft.

As judges, we had a special opportunity to interact directly with the teams and their clients, to learn about their process and the thinking that led to the final results.

It was extremely fun having this behind-the-scenes perspective, but it was unexpectedly unpleasant having to pass judgement on peers that you admire.

We thought it’s worth sharing the thinking that led to our decision. As someone who has been judged in the past and even as a bystander, I often wonder how these decisions are made.

All of the sites were designed and built to the highest standard. That’s clear to anybody, and a major achievement in and of itself. All of the sites excelled in some areas and the winning site isn’t flawless. None of the sites are, nor can anybody expect them to be. It’s the overall package that put the Aussies over the top.

Although we didn’t formally discuss our judging criteria in these terms, this is essentially the criteria we used:

• Does the site serve the needs of the audience?
• Does the site serve the needs of the client?
• Is it crafted to a high standard: aesthetically and functionally?
• Is the content appropriate, compelling and accessible?
• Will the site endure: can it be easily maintained without significant effort and with limited resources?

Here’s a breakdown of the key factors that made the Lions Hearing Dogs site so exceptional:

• The site content and design is perfectly aligned with the target audience and the brand, plus it’s very approachable and very compelling to a broader audience.
• From the homepage you instantly know exactly what it’s about, why you should care and you learn a lot about the organisation and the people it serves.
• The content draws you in, you start reading and you can’t stop. It’s emotionally engaging, sincere and personable. It tells great stories.
• The navigation anticipates and addresses the primary questions people are likely to want answered in a simple and engaging way.
• The site is very basic: it’s only two levels deep. This makes it easy to get around and easy to maintain.
• Audience participation is encouraged with features like user stories, name our dogs and online donations.
• The functionality to submit content is a very simple form, which is easy to use for both the audience and the site adminstrators.
• The underpinning technology is relatively stock standard, making it easy to update and maintain.
• The technology is robust and relatively future proof. Careful attention was given to the longevity and sustainability of the site.

As we were interviewing the teams and their clients it became clear that a contributing factor to the Australian’s success, the thing that probably made their site so cohesive and compelling, was the close collaboration between the client and team. In fact, the client was essentially a full fledged member of the team for the full 24+ hours duration.

That’s not to suggest the other client-team relationships were anything but awesome – it was clear, from all accounts, they also had great relationships. Nor are we suggesting therein lies a secret formula: force your client to be a working member of your team. That’s just as likely to result in a painful mess.

However, the close collaboration clearly paid off

• The team originally planned to build a blog, a calendar, and a forum. But the client felt that wasn’t a good match for their audience, so the team wisely abandoned those plans.
• The client didn’t have much content prepared. But the team was able to extract amazing stories throughout the night and weave them into the fabric of the site.
• Through the long hours of discussion, revelations were made that were turned into nice features like name our dogs.

The key to success, comes back to that old chestnut: keep it simple, focus on the basics:

• Tell a good story
• Help people understand what’s important and why
• Build on a strong foundation

That might sound like a formula for mediocrity, play it safe, avoid risks. Not true. You can be innovative within the constraints of simplicity. Look at Apple. Sometimes innovation is so simple you don’t even notice

Judging aside, something far more important was achieved: all of the charities now have a site that will serve them extremely well and that they can be extraordinarily proud of.

As well as handing out lifelong subscriptions for Xero to the three non-profits, and year-long subscriptions to the Codaroos, judge Phillip Fierlinger had surprises for the teams in the form of badges.

The ‘WHAT COULD GO WRONG’ award for ambition went to the Code Blacks for their integration of a Facebook login. They also got the ‘B1NARY SOLO’ award for most l337 syntax.

Team USA took the ‘!IMPORTANT’ award for “Most awesome in IE6″ which will no doubt help them sleep at night.

Meanwhile, the Codaroos also scooped the ‘I MADE IT LICKABLE’ for the most gratuitous use of flair (drop-shadows and rounded corners were cited), the ‘CLICK OKAY TO CANCEL’ award for the most empathetic design, and finally the (painful to write) ‘ITS YOU’RE AWARD’ for most anal content.

At the end of the day, it was a victory not only for Australasia, but also for everyone involved. Three worthwhile organisations now have brilliant websites that will have a huge impact on how they operate, 18 people got to hone their skills in a super high pressure environment, and now the organisers and volunteers can go home and sleep. Everybody wins this year, and we’ll see you all again next year.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Next up, facing the judging panel!