Photo by Nicole Hofer

Best Bets Contest

New Look, Same Great Contest—New format for Best Bets will make choosing your favorites a breeze.
HPR Best Bets

By John Strand
Staff Writer

On your mark, get set, vote. HPR’s annual Best Bets contest starts with today’s paper, March 31. Like last year, the contest has two phases, early nominations first, and then a finalist showdown.

It’s one of the highlights of our year. And, as HPR readers know, it’s the original best bets contest, flatteringly mimicked by other media. And we change it up some every year.

This year’s contest will be predominately online. Our readers can go to our home page online at hpr1.com beginning today and can vote their nominees for the various Best Bets categories. Last year, nearly 2,000 HPR readers participated in the nominating process.

Phase I is open to your imagination. You get to nominate anyone you choose, as long as there is some local connection to your nominee. We will eliminate any ballots that reflect attempts to spam the contest, as each reader only gets one nomination ballot.

We’ve implemented significant changes in some of the categories to be voted on for 2011. Mostly, we cut the total number down nearly a third, eliminating nearly 30 categories from last year’s ballot. That is based on feedback from readers. The remaining 53 categories reflect the highest listings engaging the highest number of voters last year. Though a few of you may be disappointed, some of the races simply do not exist this year.

The 2011 ballot will have two groupings: People and Places. Under People, you will find 19 different contests: best artists, musicians, bands, chef, tattoist, drag king or queen, bartenders, hair stylist, and the likes. Under Places, you’ll find all the various restaurants and bars, with major focus on food and entertainment, and with particular focus on types of food, and venues for fun and frolic, things like best open mic, karaoke, place to dance, live music venue, and best event or festival.

Yes, there are some awards eliminated from the 2011 ballot. In some cases, there were just no contests, as in a very limited selection of choices, like best sports teams, or museum and galleries, or boutiques. In other instances, we combined them, like best drag queen and best drag king. With over 80 categories last year, there was a certain fatigue that came with voting and by the end of the ballot, where some of the best categories were listed, people were just plain tired.

This year’s contest will take but a few minutes to complete.

Here is the link to the contest:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/bestbetnoms2011

So, that’s Phase I. Phase II will follow with a listing of finalists in each of the 53 Best Bets categories. Then, when all is said and done, HPR will announce a big party whereby winners get to party down with their fans who voted for them. Details on Phase II and the Best Bets awards party will follow. Follow us on Facebook for updates.

Some obvious mentions or simple house keeping notes: Vote only once. Vote for local people and places only. Write names of individuals or business as accurately and completely as possible. Vote for at least 15 categories. And fill out your demographic info at the onset, so we can tally basic information about HPR’s reading audience.

Of course, food and entertainment ranks high on our list of what to measure in the Best Bets of 2011 contest. The best ethnic food, the best music venues, the best places to do things. We even acknowledge best new restaurant as well as best fine dining. But the real fun is in contest like best original band, or best musicians, or best artists. This contest each year provides a definitive guide of what to do, where to go, in the greater Fargo region. It helps discover new talent while celebrating existing greatness. It is the one primary time each year where literally thousands of you get to decide what’s good, who’s the best.

All that said, let the voting begin. Go to our website beginning today, click on the contest icon, and then proceed to give us your best.

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