Meet the winner of the Icrontic HP EliteBook 8740W Scholarship

Brian Ambrozy 25 Mar, 2011 at 6:57pm ET Article published in Tech

Let me start this announcement by saying that I am so glad I wasn’t a judge.

Last month we announced a scholarship in partnership with HP. We solicited submissions from content creators to convince the judges that they needed an HP EliteBook 8740W mobile workstation.

There were many amazing entries. A panel of judges that included writers, PR pros, marketing experts, and artists viewed each entry and assigned it a score based on creativity and other factors. The only person who had all the scores was me. After all was said and done and all the entries were tallied up, a winner rose to the top.

It was a very, very tight race. The difference between the winner and the second highest scorer was one single point. The entries were that good.

Without further ado, here is the winning entry. Congratulations to Matthew Dibble, who will use the HP EliteBook 8740W for his growing video production business, Final Five Productions. No longer will he have to suffer a spinning beachball while waiting for video to lazily render on his MacBook Pro.

Many thanks to HP for supplying the amazing 8740W mobile workstation for this giveaway. Also, big thanks to our judges: Jacki Halas, Nikki Stephan, Kyle Stuef, CB Droege, Ryan Wilsey, Nicole Lapointe, and Joe Lloyd.

Comments

25 Mar 2011 ~ 7:02pm mertesn Congratulations Matthew!
25 Mar 2011 ~ 7:21pm Fafoutee Hilarious!
25 Mar 2011 ~ 7:39pm ardichoke Very amusing.... but with the new EliteBook how will he have time to eat pizza or lay on that lovely hardwood floor? THINK OF ALL THE LONELY HARDWOOD YOU'RE MAKING BRIAN! (giggity)
25 Mar 2011 ~ 8:27pm Chooch major congrats! funny video!
25 Mar 2011 ~ 10:24pm Tim Thank you, thank you... HEY WAIT A MINUTE! My name isn't Matthew!!!! WTF?

You mean I DIDN'T win? :O

How many entries were there, and where did I come in at on the list? 3rd of 10, 5th of 19, etc.? You can email me that part or announce it here.

If I came in dead last, the judges were clearly insane.
25 Mar 2011 ~ 10:25pm Tim I meant to post the WTF face, not the embarrassed one.
25 Mar 2011 ~ 10:30pm Myrmidon Grats on sweet loot, Matt! Make sure you post a finished product somewhere on the site once you finally get up and running.

Any chance we can get to see some of the other entries, just for funsies?
25 Mar 2011 ~ 10:46pm primesuspect Yeah, I'll post some of the other entries
25 Mar 2011 ~ 11:03pm UPSLynx Awesome entry. The Elitebook will burn holes through that PearBook.

Congrats dude!

(Oh, and my rendering activity of choice is napping. I LOVE the rendertime nap. Perfect for those 4am work sessions)
25 Mar 2011 ~ 11:29pm primesuspect One of the entries:

<object width="629" height="384"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/xoMIgHGmFCo?fs=1&hl=en_US&hd=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/xoMIgHGmFCo?fs=1&hl=en_US&hd=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="629" height="384"></embed></object>
25 Mar 2011 ~ 11:30pm primesuspect Another great entry:

<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" width="630" height="396" id="viddler_68ecae83"><param name="movie" value="http://www.viddler.com/player/68ecae83/" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><embed src="http://www.viddler.com/player/68ecae83/" width="630" height="396" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowScriptAccess="always" allowFullScreen="true" name="viddler_68ecae83"></embed></object>
25 Mar 2011 ~ 11:36pm primesuspect A fantastic drawing and story was one of the entries:
25 Mar 2011 ~ 11:37pm primesuspect Another creative entry:

<object width="630" height="503"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/XxwwFWfdxQo?fs=1&hl=en_US&hd=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/XxwwFWfdxQo?fs=1&hl=en_US&hd=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="630" height="503"></embed></object>
25 Mar 2011 ~ 11:43pm primesuspect Poor Amanda! She's an Icrontic widow. Here's one of the pages of her awesomely creative presentation
26 Mar 2011 ~ 1:12am Matt I would demand a recount if I were some of the other entries. Some really amazing stuff there! How the hell did I win?

Thanks for the congrats and well wishes, everyone. Thank you so much to Brian and Icrontic and the people that judged for choosing me and offering the chance to even get my hands on this thing. I promise I will do it justice.

Side note: there will still be plenty of pizza eating, hardwood laying and naps... they'll just come when the work is done. Hopefully since I finish quicker, there'll be more? Thanks again. This is so huge for me.

A freaking Ocarina solo??? Wow.
26 Mar 2011 ~ 1:37am Tim YEAH! RECOUNT!!! I had CATS in my video!
26 Mar 2011 ~ 11:05am RyanMM Dan's entry was fantastic. If I was a judge, I might've had to give that one the nod. OCARINA SOLO FTMFW.
26 Mar 2011 ~ 12:26pm mertesn

RyanMM wrote:

Dan's entry was fantastic. If I was a judge, I might've had to give that one the nod. OCARINA SOLO FTMFW.

I wasn't eligible to be a judge, but based on the entries that have been posted so far, Dan's definitely would have been one of the top entries.
26 Mar 2011 ~ 1:48pm Red I just came from the hospital after hurting myself badly after finding out I didn't win, hahaaa!

Seriously, congrats Matthew! Use and abuse that machine well. Great luck with the vid prod'n business. And thanks Brian for awesome giveaway!
26 Mar 2011 ~ 3:27pm Myrmidon d'awww, thanks guys.
29 Mar 2011 ~ 1:16am Care Bear I really wanted to win. I really, really NEED a new computer.

Anyway, congrats Matt!

Although now I feel like a sore loser. Matt gave a review of the actual computer. You were technically a part of the "team" then. You shouldn't have been allowed to enter like us mere mortals. :'(
29 Mar 2011 ~ 12:02pm primesuspect Many Icrontic members entered the scholarship. There was nothing in the rules that said Icrontic members aren't eligible.

The entries were judged on their content, not by who submitted them. You'll be hard pressed to say that Matt Dibble's entry doesn't stand on its own as being exceptionally creative.

You won't find any entrant who DIDN'T "really, really NEED a new computer". This wasn't about giving away a new computer. This was about finding someone who would truly use this laptop and its highly specialized parts for their own career or educational development. Lots of people need new computers. Very few people need Quadro 5000M GPUs to do their work.