It was a hub of excitement and innovation at the two-day event organised by locally founded company Hotjar, held at Villa Rosa. Over 100 guests were flown in from 19 countries thanks to enterprising David Darmanin and Marc von Brockdorff, two of the founders of Hotjar, who came up with the idea of holding the ‘Oscars for Best Digital Experiences at the Early Startup stage’ in Malta for the first time this year.

“We organised the XAwards primarily to recognise great new digital experiences,” David Darmanin, CEO of Hotjar, said.

“Hotjar is entirely bootstrapped, so we felt that targeting early-stage start-ups is our own way of ‘giving back’. Moreover, we are always on the look-out for amazing talent and the event was a great way to make new contacts and create ambassadors for Hotjar.”

At the event, there were the 10 finalist teams who were chosen out of over 640 teams originating from 63 countries who originally submitted their application to participate in the Hotjar XAwards.

The 10 finalists had a chance to make their final pitch to the guests present and to the judges, made up of David Darmanin, Marc Von Brockdorff and Christian Thaler-Wolski (Saas start-Up advisor) on why they deserve to win the coveted €20,000.

Before the final pitches, Dr Darmanin took to the stage to thank all those attending and those involved in making the event happen, including their advisor Christian Thaler-Wolski, all his co-founders, Jonathan Vella, Johan Malmberg, Eric Naslund and Marc von Brockdorff, Ilona Busby from YPA and Ryan from Jugs.

“I would also like to say a special thank you to our guest speakers for sharing amazing ‘hair-blown backwards’ wisdom. This is where the ‘power of asking’ comes into play. Who would have thought that someone like Ryan Singer from Basecamp would accept to join us in this tiny intimate global event?”

Dr Darmanin also thanked his wife and family and the Hotjar team who are now close to 40 people working remotely all over the world. “We are very selective in our recruitment process and each and every member of our team is valuable,” he said.

The excitement was palpable as the 10 teams who flew in from seven countries (including France, the UK, Serbia, the Netherlands, Poland, Bulgaria and Israel) took to the stage, one by one, to make their final three-minute pitch.

Marc Von Brockdorff and David Darmanin.

From virtual personal assistants and digital website builders to holiday planning apps and customised music solutions, each team’s idea catered to a user’s need which, in the team’s opinion, has not yet been successfully fulfilled.

Following the final pitches, the judges deliberated for 15 minutes and then gave their final verdicts.

Best Tech Achievement Award and a cash prize of €5,000 went to the Polish team behind ‘Real Eye’, the first webcam eye-tracking software to be made accessible and affordable. Launched three months ago, ‘Real Eye’ allows a website owner to see what its users see on its website, thus revealing their unconscious behaviour and providing valuable insights into reasons for lower conversion rates.

Best Mobile App Experience Award and a cash prize of €5,000 went to the French team who developed ‘SoundR’, a novel way of discovering ‘the right music at the right time’ by converting feelings into playlists.

Best Overall Experience Award and the grand prize of €20,000 went to ‘Crisp IM’ from France. The concept behind ‘Crisp’ is built on the premise that more than 50 per cent of business people prefer instant messaging as a communication tool to e-mail or phone calls. The team created a one-stop-solution for a company’s employees to communicate with each other and to all customers via a collaborative inbox.

A reception was held at Villa Rosa where all guests and participants could finally relax and let their hair down to the sound of local band The Travellers.

Dr Darmanin revealed that Hotjar will most probably hold the event again next year.

“We feel the event was a huge success. We achieved our goals and are excited to hear our participants’ feedback which will help us fine-tune the XAwards to be an even bigger success next year.”