Fathers nearly doubled their number of nominations in the second year of the annual Iris Awards for parent bloggers, which were announced today. Of the 60 nominations in 12 categories, 19 are dad-related – including Dads 4 Change in Philanthropic Work.
Last year, fathers were represented with 10 nominations in 12 categories. The awards will be announced and presented May 1 at the Mom 2.0 Summit in Scottsdale, Ariz.
The Iris Awards were created by the Mom 2.0 Summit organizers in 2014 as a way to recognize “individual achievements, collective creativity, and impactful work that comes from [the parent blogging] community.”
Oren Miller, founder of the Dad Bloggers group on Facebook and a Dads 4 Change contributor, was nominated in three categories: Web Personality of the Year, Game Changer and Most Thought-Provoking Content. The campaign to raise money for Oren’s family through an online fundraiser, which became known through the hashtag #Dads4Oren, was nominated for Philanthropic Work, with Brent Almond of Designer Daddy and John Kinnear of Ask Your Dad Blog representing the Dad Bloggers group.
Oren passed away in February after a nine-month battle with stage 4 lung cancer. The announcement of the multiple Iris nominations comes five weeks after the Dad 2.0 Summit’s attendee scholarship program was renamed the Oren Miller Dad 2.0 Scholarship Fund.
Dads 4 Change co-founder Whit Honea joined Oren and the co-founders of How to Be a Dad, Charlie Capen and Andy Herald, as triple nominees. Honea was nominated for Writing and Most Thought-Provoking Content, as well as for his role with Dads 4 Change, which launched in September. (Disclosure: This news item is written by Dads 4 Change co-founder Carter Gaddis, who also was named in the nomination.)
Regarding the nomination for Dads 4 Change, Whit said:
“People always say that it is an honor just to be nominated, and most of the time we tend to think they are just being polite, but when you find yourself listed among this kind of company: Dads4Oren (Brent Almond and John Kinnear), Every Mother Counts (Heather Armstrong and Christy Turlington), ONE Girls and Women (Jeannine Atalay Harvey and Ginny Wolfe), and The Red Pump Project (Luvvie Ajayi and Karyn Brianne Lee), well, nothing could be truer. It is a humbling and amazing honor, and, if we’re being honest, one that we’re not quite ready to accept. The other people nominated in the Iris Awards category of Philanthropic Work have done things and they have the collective scars of action. We are just getting started, and we have stories still to write. Please look at what they have done and support the wonderful work they do.”
Capen and Herald were nominated for Most Entertaining Content, Best Sponsored Content and Web Personality of the Year. Thom Hoffman, a San Diego-based writer, was nominated for Best Writing and Breakout of the Year.
Doug French and John Pacini, co-founders of the Dad 2.0 Summit, were nominated for Game Changer. The Life of Dad crew (Tommy Riles, David Guest, Ryan Hamilton, Patrick Quinn) was nominated for Best Sponsored Content for their #LatteRomeo campaign on behalf of Starbucks.
Dad 2.0 Summit title sponsor Dove Men+Care received recognition for its #RealStrength advertising campaign, which featured dads from all over the country and included a well-received commercial that ran during the Super Bowl broadcast.
Other fathers included among the nominees are Mike Spohr, co-editor of the Buzzfeed Parents section along with Morgan Shanahan (Most Entertaining); Simon Isaacs and Mike Rothman of the website Fatherly (Breakout); the four producers of Bored Shorts TV (Best Video); and Matthew Clarke of Conversations with My 2-Year-Old (Best Video).
Open nominations for the Iris Awards were made by the general public Feb. 12-March 5. A nominating committee, using a secure online ballot, selected the five finalists for each of the 12 categories.
A New Media Council, consisting of attendees at Mom 2.0 Summits and/or Dad 2.0 Summits held 2009-2015, will select the winners by electronic ballot.
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