Shortlisted sites, judges, sponsors, internet entrepreneurs gathered at The Royal Institution on Monday 17th November to hear the results of this year's GWG Awards. Xenios Thrasyvoulou of PeoplePerHour announced the winners.

Arabella Dymoke welcomed guests, saying "Each year bring triumphs in the digital world and this year's entries are no different, and with a first for us, a mother and daughter going head to head." Special mention was given to one of the shortlisted sites, Visit Nunney, with Arabella saying, "There are websites with limitless resources and access to the best digital brains but small websites can make waves too. As the founder, Adrie van der Luijt said about our Awards, 'It's been a real eye opener. Even if we don't win, the Awards have already been really useful for us.'" Arabella concluded, "It's not only about winning, it's about the journey."
And who would have thought that WH Auden would be quoted at an Awards ceremony but Alice Kahrmann, The GWG's editor, cited Mastery with the opening lines, 'You have only to watch his eyes; a cook mixing a sauce, a surgeon making a primary incision, a clerk completing a bill of lading, wear the same rapt expression, forgetting themselves in a function.' Alice continued, "This poem speaks to me because when you look at a website, you're not just looking at the vocation of the founder, but the coder who built it, the designer who created a plethora of iterations before alighting on the final one... The uploader hyper linking and metatagging for hours on end. The editor musing on the perfect shade of red to match the image beside. Because behind every founder, there's a great team. These Awards are for you."

WEBSITE OF THE YEAR

www.nutmeg.com gives investors a new way to invest - one that is fair on cost, high-performing and accessible.

Xenios Thrasyvoulou commented, "It's great to see Nutmeg win, Nick and the team have impressive investment and a clear vision. They've obviously looked at what's wrong with the investment world and found a way to make investment accessible, fair as well as high-performing and I know they will continue their success and growth over the coming years."

Co-founder of Nutmeg, Nick Hungerford commented, "It’s wonderful to be recognised for all the hard work you put in, but especially so when it’s an award that spans all categories and genres, not just the finance industry, like The Good Web Guide Website of the Year Award. It's an honour to be the 2014 winner and a fantastic achievement by my diligent and creative team at Nutmeg who constantly push the boundaries to deliver a world-class customer experience and bring innovative new ideas to the fore."

Arabella Dymoke added, “Nutmeg shows consistency on all levels as well as being a game changer in the world of personal investment.”Xenios Thrasyvoulou, John Carroll and Steve Desmond

PEOPLE'S CHOICE

This part of the Awards played out on Twitter to great effect, with three sites in the running, but it was www.shootgardening.co.uk who won. Shoot is a unique website for amateur and professional gardeners to design, manage, care for and share their gardens online. Founder, Nicola Gammon, commented, "I am thrilled to win both The Good Web Guide's Gardening category award and the overall People's Choice award. The People's Choice award means the most to me as it illustrates the close relationship we have built with our community."Nicola Gammon being interviewed

Arabella Dymoke added, "We are delighted that Shoot won the People's Choice. Each time they sent out a mailer or tweeted, we watched the numbers shoot up. It's clear they have a devoted and highly engaged community."

CATEGORY WINNERS

RETAIL

WOLF & BADGER
www.wolfandbadger.com

Wolf & Badger has become the leading destination to discover and buy direct from independent designer brands.

HOME

KELLY HOPPEN
www.kellyhoppen.com

Interior designer, Dragon, author and proprietor of Kelly Hoppen Interiors, Kellyhoppen.com was her first online store. Crafted to guide, the site reads like a magazine, curating product stories and concepts, immersing visitors in The Art of Home at every stage of their shopping experience.

GARDENING

SHOOT
www.shootgardening.co.uk

Shoot is a unique website for amateur and professional gardeners to design, manage, care for and share their gardens online.

FOOD & DRINK

YUMBLES
www.yumbles.com

A marketplace connecting food lovers with the UK's best independent food and drink producers, with a mission to enable everyone to discover and enjoy the abundance of innovative and delicious foods produced by passionate, talented people.

BEST OF BRITISH

BOB BOOKS
www.bobbooks.co.uk

Combines digital photos and your text to make one-off beautifully bound books. Starting from £15.99, these photo books can commemorate weddings, anniversaries, a special occasion, your children (the list is endless), whilst making the most perfect present and personal keepsake.

PROPERTY

HOUSEKEEP
www.housekeep.com

Housekeep.com is the award-winning online booking platform for professional home cleaning. The website has a simple user journey, with customers able to book a professional home clean in only 60 seconds! Housekeepers go through rigorous training, are background-checked and are insured. The site also showcases 5 star reviews, and housekeeper profiles so customers can get to know their housekeepers that little bit better.

POSITIVE SOCIAL & ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

ORIGINAL BEANS
www.originalbeans.com

Original Beans produces one of the world's best chocolate, with the aim to protect biodiversity and to support poor cocoa farmers. Both Michelin starred chefs and environmentally conscious consumers value its pure chocolate, made from the rarest, most flavourful cocoa beans and a little cane sugar. For every bar sold a local farmer plants a new tree, which benefits both the forest and his family.

ARTS/CULTURE

THE CULTURE TRIP
www.theculturetrip.com

Founded in 2011, The Culture Trip is a global platform that showcases the best of art, culture and travel for every single country in the world. With a community of passionate contributors and readers that stretches from L.A. to Hong Kong, and from Twitter to Instagram, it's bringing global cultures together - on a single, beautiful platform.

TRAVEL & LEISURE

WINERIST
www.winerist.com

Winerist’s motto is to make wine and food travel simple, authentic and booked online. Winerist has a large community of local wine experts who have created free travel guides and best tips on where to go and why. It has over 1000 authentic experiences in 75 destinations.

STARTUPS

TAXICODE
www.taxicode.com

Taxicode is a taxi/private hire lead generator and online booking system. It’s one of the first companies in the UK to realise the benefits of using the internet to generate business for the taxi industry. Its system was designed from the ground up in collaboration with taxi drivers, taxi companies and genuine customers booking tens of thousands of journeys using the system each year.

BUSINESS

SMART FOCUS
www.smartfocus.com

SmartFocus is a company that provides software and professional services to marketers to interact in a one-to-one and personal way with customers, and ensure the customer journey is seamless across every platform.

EDUCATION

MY PHOTO SCHOOL
www.my-photo-school.com

Online photography courses that offer excellent value for money with the first and only online photography school to offer a classroom learning experience from the comfort of your own home.

INFORMATION/NEWS

THE WORLD WEEKLY
theworldweekly.com

The World Weekly aims to be the first truly international current affairs magazine, bringing together some of the world's best journalism for free. This disruptive news magazine is designed to help you better understand the most important international events of the week, in a balanced and insightful way.

FINANCE

NUTMEG
www.nutmeg.com

Nutmeg gives investors a new way to invest - one that is fair on cost, high-performing and accessible.

SOCIAL/COMMUNITY

CHILDCARE.CO.UK
www.childcare.co.uk

The UK's largest childcare and tutors search site, helping connect parents with local childcare providers and tutors. Over 1,000,000 people have used the service.

CHARITY

HEALTH TALK
www.healthtalk.org

Reliable health information from patients for patients. Listening to people with the same problems as you can help you feel less alone. Finding that person isn’t always easy. This charity has interviewed thousands of people about what it’s really like to have a condition such as cancer, arthritis or depression.

HEALTH/BEAUTY

HONESTLY HEALTHY
honestlyhealthyfood.com

Natasha Corrett is a self-taught chef with a passion for delicious, healthy alkaline food. Honestly Healthy was founded in 2010 and has gone from strength to strength following the success of the first book Honestly Healthy Eat With Your Body In Mind The Alkaline Way. The site is a useful resource with recipes, a helping hand and an inspiration to people who are struggling with everything from motivation, to weight problems to cancer.

YOUTH

NATURALLY SASSY
www.naturallysassy.co.uk

Naturally Sassy is a web space to inspire the next generation of young men and women to lead a healthy and happy lifestyle. The stigma with healthy eating is that it can be bland, boring and really hard to maintain. All the recipes on the website are simple, making healthy eating attainable to even the busiest of people.

EXCELLENCE IN CUSTOMER SERVICE

SHROPSHIRE PETALS
www.shropshirepetals.com

Suppliers of biodegradable natural petal confetti for weddings and special occasions, all handpicked from the company's farm set in the rolling fields of Shropshire, along with wheat sheaves and lavender bundles, adding a touch of country chic.

Photography by Steve Moulin. For more information, visit: www.stevemoulin.com and on Facebook.

18 November 2014