But decide they did! From the stage, host Matt Beadle presented the awards to great cheers and applause from the audience. Website of the Year, the most coveted prize of all, went to Women for Women France by French agency Talan Solutions.

“We are so proud to have won the Website of the Year Award for our Multilingual Online Resource Centre for victims of domestic abuse in France,” the prize-winning NGO wrote on X/Twitter.

This year’s awards were no traditional trophies or plaques. We tried a new approach and minted NFTs (non-fungible tokens) on the SafeCoin blockchain. Each NFT references a unique video file, an animation brought to life by 3D artist Danial Ghods from Open Studio with technical assistance from SafeCoin community developer Jonathan Wright.

Heartwarming moments

Two additional, surprise website awards were presented at this year’s gala. The Accessibility Award went to Earlybird for the Elisabethinen Hospital Graz and The Brettinghams won the Performance Award for the German IT Council.

The most touching moment of the night was when Abdulhamid Kwieder received the Personality of the Year Award. A Syrian TYPO3 developer working at Earlybird in Vienna, Austria, Abdulhamid has completed the enormous task of translating the entire TYPO3 Core — more than 70,000 words — into his native Arabic. 

“The process took him three years,” says event organizer Luisa Fassbender. “It’s amazing! He didn’t know he was going to get that award, and he cried when he won. It made me teary-eyed too.”

International prestige and climate-friendly websites

Some of the category winners also deserve a special mention, such as visionbites GmbH — the only agency to create two award-winning websites: www.sport-bittl.com, a large-scale custom-built headless TYPO3-based e-commerce platform, and www.uk-augsburg.de, a hospital’s comprehensive multisite TYPO3 installation featuring thousands of pages.

Both France and Austria were well-represented in this year’s TYPO3 Awards. GAYA manufacture digitale walked away with the Best Government Website Award for nothing less than the prestigious official website of the French Senate, a large multi-lingual TYPO3 website built for the upper house of the French Parliament.

Danish TypoConsult A/S — and anyone looking to make climate-friendly websites — also had a reason to celebrate. The winner of the Campaign category was energyfriendlyweb.com, a free service allowing website owners to test if their website can reduce its carbon footprint. The TYPO3-based service analyzes a web page and suggests improvements. It doesn’t just look at data transfer, but also tells you if the site is hosted using green energy.

A community connected, energized, and ready to contribute

Many attendees cited the TYPO3 Awards as their favorite part of T3CON. Daniel Fau, CEO of the TYPO3 GmbH, summarized its impact, saying, “This has been an emotional gala, striking the perfect balance between technology and social engagement. The generous spirit of the TYPO3 community made the event into a heartwarming occasion, filled with tears, hugs, and renewed motivation to continue contributing.”

In the end, the award gala was not only a celebration of websites, but of community and cooperation. As jury member and Drupal Association chair Baddý Sonja Breidert said on stage: “We’re all here for the same reason: to promote open-source technology.”

The TYPO3 Awards celebrate your contributions to TYPO3. We hope this year’s awards inspire you to attend next year’s T3CON and to submit your own project.

The winners in the 13 industry categories:

• Campaign:  www.energyfriendlyweb.com – TypoConsult A/S
• Culture:  www.museen-in-bayern.de ­– cosmoblonde GmbH
• E-Commerce:  www.sport-bittl.com – visionbites GmbH
• Education:  www.oth-regensburg.de – in2code GmbH
• Enterprise:  www.arvato.com – u+i interact GmbH
• Finance:  www.icon.at – SIWA Online GmbH
• Government:  www.senat.fr – GAYA manufacture digitale
• Health:  www.uk-augsburg.de – visionbites GmbH 
• Industry:  www.bartec.com – dkd Internet Service GmbH
• NGO:  www.womenforwomenfrance.org – Talan Solutions
• SMB:  www.communardo.de – webit! Gesellschaft für neue Medien mbH
• Sport:  www.ktm-bikes.at – cyberhouse GmbH & Co. KG
• Tourism:  www.familotel.com – JANDA+ROSCHER Die WerbeBotschafter

The winners of the special awards:

• Personality of the Year: Abdulhamid Kwieder
• Website of the Year: www.womenforwomenfrance.org – Talan Solutions
• Accessibility: www.elisabethinen.at – Earlybird GmbH
• Performance: www.it-planungsrat.de – THE BRETTINGHAMS GmbH

“An unforgettable evening at the TYPO3 Gala Awards in Düsseldorf,” wrote Indian TYPO3 entrepreneur Nitin Chauhan. “Cheers to the power of open source, friendship, and unforgettable experiences.”