The Beginning and Growth of Splash Awards with Bert Boerland

The presentation of the Splash Awards 2024 is an extra festive occasion this year. It has been 10 years since the renowned prize was first awarded. The reason remains unchanged: to put Drupal agencies and users who are doing extraordinary things in the field of Drupal in the spotlight. We look back with Bert Boerland, Chairman of the Drupal Netherlands Foundation (SDN), who has also been involved in the organization of the Splash Awards from the start.

The Origins of the Splash Awards and the First Edition

As a foundation board, we had a wild idea to promote Drupal more. The plan was to create an industry award to spotlight the best Drupal implementations and to present them during a kind of gala in 2014. By creating different categories there would be more entries and more winners.

The first edition immediately had beautiful artwork and was presented by 'Jam', a big name in the international Drupal community. At the time we rented a small cinema room in the heart of Amsterdam. After a number of years we changed the logo, but the event retained its value; namely celebrating the best Drupal implementations by agencies with customers.

“Our dream is to grow into a kind of Eurosplash Awards with the best European entries!"

The Biggest Obstacle in the Early Days

One of the challenges was and is selecting a jury with expert knowledge and no connection to any of the submitted projects. We have always been strict about this. If there was any possible mixing, the juror in question could not judge the case. Also complicated the first time—and the times after—was looking for sponsors.

A Special Moment That Stayed with Bert

During the Corona period, we once organized the Splash Awards together with the online Drupaljam. Steven Kazàn would present this, the son of Dutch magician Hans Kazàn and a gifted magician himself. His father had already presented the event on location once before, and thanks to Steven's increased popularity, it was logical to ask him to present for this edition.

However, on the day of the event, there was a problem. Steven was stuck in a traffic jam. We had a lot of contact with his wife, Jamie, but in the end, Steven would not arrive on time. That's why we had to improvise, and I presented this edition. He only came in after the announcement of the Website of the Year. Steven then completely spontaneously did a number of magic tricks.

The planned development of the Splash Awards over the next 10 years

Drupal has already been used in many ways, from embedded in set-top boxes to showing the TV guide to large community sites. I think it would be great if Drupal were used more on the edge of the online—not in a central website but in the decentralized collection and enrichment of information. Consider, for example, feedback columns, narrowcasting, or other places where you would not expect a website to be used so quickly.

The further growth of the Splash Awards

In line with the open-source idea, we have shared all the material to organize a Splash Award with the Drupal community. As a result, in addition to international awards, Splash Awards have already been organized in 14 countries. A long-cherished dream is that the event will grow into a kind of Euro Splash Awards – in the spirit of the Eurovision Song Contest – with the best entry per country.

About web agencies that doubt whether their case has enough impact for the Splash Awards

“Every case is worth submitting. Do this in time and read the conditions.”