Despite recent industry woes, the interactive sector honored itself at the second annual Canadian New Media Awards at CBC’s Glenn Gould Studio May 28 in Toronto. Produced by strategic interactive brand solutions company Delvinia, this year’s CNMA fielded 560 nominations from producers of websites, CD-ROMs and video games across Canada. One hundred and twenty professionals from the public and private sectors voted online for the winners in a dozen categories.

Presenters joked about life after the dot-com stock crash, and in that ‘hard times’ spirit the show did not even have a human host. The MCs were puppets – specifically The Grogs, including Warren, Gidian, Philippe Cesare and Swami Jeff.

LearnStream, out of Fredericton, NB, was named company of the year. LearnStream, which says to have generated more than $7 million in revenue in the past year, designs new media courseware for Fortune 500 companies including IBM, Royal Bank, Sybase and Nortel Networks.

Producer of the year was won by Fiorella Grossi, of Alliance Atlantis Communications’ U8TV. Launched earlier this year, U8TV represents a large-scale step towards entertainment convergence. Twenty-one webcams capture the 24/7 goings-on of eight young adults who have agreed to cohabit in a downtown Toronto loft for one year. They host three hours daily of new programming covering a variety of topics, presented on the U8TV website. A pared-down 30-minute version is broadcast six nights a week on AAC’s Life Network.

Julian Wharton, founder of Toronto’s GigaThon, was recognized as volunteer of the year. GigaThon endeavors to showcase Canadian technology innovation and its inherent challenges and supports reBOOT Canada, an organization that supplies used computers to charitable agencies and schools.

Most of Canada was well represented among the list of nominees, with the notable exception of la belle province. In fact, the only Quebec nominee was Montreal’s Paul Allard, who took home the prize for industry advocate of the year. Allard is president and CEO of interactive marketing company ZAQ Interactive Solutions, as well as president of the Interactive Multimedia Producers Association of Canada.

‘I feel like I’m representing 300 companies and the 100,000 workers in the new media industry in Quebec,’ Allard told the crowd. ‘We will try to join the Canadian industry coast-to-coast. We still have a long way to go.’

Perhaps the most coveted of the night’s awards, most promising new company of the year, was presented to Workopolis, the 14-month-old company that provides recruiting software, applications, products and services. Bolstered by a slick TV ad featuring Sam, a dog who ‘dares to dream’ of landing a gig as a law enforcer, the Toronto-based company’s rise has been meteoric.

Each winner was presented a glass ‘Pixel’ award, designed and created by Jason Cornish and Daniel Crichton from Sheridan College.

Other winners include:

* New media visionary: Paul Hoffert (Toronto)

* Lifetime achievement: Robin King (Oakville, Ont.)

* Educator of the year: Maria Klawe (Vancouver)

* Graduate of the year: David Gratton (Vancouver)

* Designer of the year: Sara Bailey (Vancouver)

* Employer of the year: Critical Mass (Calgary)

* Programmer of the year: Stephen Balousek (Windsor, Ont.) *

-www.cnma.ca