Building on the success of last year's awards, The Good Web Guide held its award reception once more at The Royal Institution of Great Britain on Wednesday 16th November, during Global Entrepreneurship Week. Web movers and shakers gathered to hear the legendary Jo Malone announce the winner and runners up.

WEBSITE OF THE YEAR: WEFUND

WeFund scooped the top prize, the judges recognising its harnessing of social media with its crowd funding platform, benefiting cultural projects around the globe. Its founder, Michael Troughton expressed delight and surprise at winning the award, commenting:

"We're so happy to win this award. Wefund.com only launched a year ago and so to be recognised in this way is a real boost for us. The site was designed and built by the extraordinarily talented team at thegreatweb.co, who have worked tirelessly on the site from the beginning. It owes its success, however, to the hundreds of artists, musicians, actors, film makers and designers who have got the word out there and used it to finance their projects. We're starting year 2 full of confidence! Thank you!"

Launched in October 2010 by former lawyer and internet entrepreneur, Michael Troughton, WeFund was set up in response to public funding cuts to the arts sector. Its goal is to create lots of mini-patrons and, through their collective power, get new creative projects off the ground.

RUNNERS-UP

This year’s awards were opened up to include two runners-up, which were also announced by Jo Malone at last night’s reception. Designer dress rental service, Girl Meets Dress came in second place while rare tea specialist, The Rare Tea Company was placed third in the awards.

Xavier de Lecaros-Aquise commented:

"With the appeal that The Good Web Guide has, being recognised by the site is a great way to celebrate the consistent hard work our team has been doing this year."

Henrietta Lovell (a.k.a ‘The Rare Tea Lady’) commented:

"If you put your personality and enthusiasm into your website, your customers will be as excited and passionate as you are about the products. We're delighted that this has been recognised by The Good Web Guide."

THE PEOPLE'S CHOICE

Parcel Monkey's engaged customer base ensured that this website won the People's Choice, receiving the most votes from the public.

Lee McCoy, marketing manager, commented:

"There’s nothing greater than being valued by your customers, and winning The Good Web Guide People’s Choice gives us great satisfaction that the extreme effort we have put into customer service over the past few years is being appreciated by the wonderful people that use Parcel Monkey."

Parcel Monkey gives users access to cheap courier services for parcel delivery in the UK, Europe and over 250 international destinations, working with key service providers, enabling it to offer cheaper deals.

16 November 2011