LOS ANGELES — Media personality and technology maven Shefik (https://shefik.info) returns as an official judge for the 8th Annual Shorty Impact Awards (https://shortyawards.com), where he served alongside a panel of esteemed judges (https://shortyawards.com/8th-impact/jury/). Shefik has served as a judge for the competition across multiple years.
Winners of this year's Shorty Impact Awards include major brands, agencies, and non-profits, such as Comic Relief US, UNICEF, Edelman, MTV, VCCP, ICG, Barbie, Spike DDB, GoFundMe, Participant, McKinsey & Company, TAAF, Smile Train, Sid Lee & The Nation of Artists, Delta Air Lines, Mastercard, Al Jazeera Media Network, Zeno Group, PopShorts, MONO, Cartoon Network, Herd MSL, Hello Monday/DEPT, EssenceMediacom, Vita Coco, McKinney, JUV Consulting, dentsu, WWE, theGrio, Max, Brady, and more.
Shorty Impact Awards is an international awards program dedicated to honoring the most purposeful and impactful work organizations are doing to make the world a better place. This includes work on social and digital media to raise awareness for a cause, as well as offline work done internally or externally to advance our society. Winners and honorees were selected by members of the Real Time Academy of Short Form Arts & Sciences, a diverse group of luminaries in the Internet, advertising, media, and entertainment industries, of which Shefik is also an official member of the Academy (https://rtacademy.org/member/shefik/). The Academy plays a vital role in recognizing the top content creators, influencers, and organizations on social media, and the Academy is responsible for shaping the criteria and rules of the Shorty Impact Awards.
"Shorty Impact Awards not only celebrate excellence in purpose-driven work and meaningful storytelling, but also elevate and give back to the community of diverse creative talent behind the world-changing work," said Junmian Sun, Managing Director of the Shorty Awards. "Congratulations to our winners, honorees, and finalists on their outstanding work. Thank you to the members of the Real Time Academy — particularly the over 200 judges who participated in this season's judging, our partners Wave, Adobe, Advertising Week, Muck Rack, and the broader Shorty community for your support."
"I am once again honored to be selected as a judge for the 8th Annual Shorty Impact Awards," adds Shefik.
Rapper Kodie Shane and pop singer Meredith O'Connor performed at the live event (held on Monday, November 13, 2023, at historic theater The Belasco, in Los Angeles, California), alongside the a cappella group Vermillion Vocalists, from University of California, Irvine. They premiered an anti-bullying and mental health awareness music video compilation, created by prominent artists from around the world, such as K-pop idol Minzy, Afropop star Reekado Banks, Latin pop star RUGGERO, and others.
Recipients of the Inaugural Elevate Creatives Fund were also celebrated on-stage. The Elevate Creatives Fund is a grant program jointly presented by Wave, the one-stop money management solution for small business owners, and the Shorty Awards. Designed to fuel creative entrepreneurship, this program saw so many high-caliber entries that it added an additional recipient. The 6 recipients of this inaugural grant, totaling $120,000, were announced at the live event, with each recipient to receive $20,000 alongside personalized bookkeeping and accounting coaching from Wave's in-house experts to help take their business to the next level.
The recipients are:
- Joseph Arujo: Latinx LGBTQ+ mental-health activist and content creator working on a debut children's book.
- Jamie Feldman: Journalist, essayist, and content creator developing a podcast tackling debt and financial literacy.
- Kirby Porter: Former Harvard University women's basketball player and founder of New Game Labs, a media firm for the athlete economy.
- Alyson Stoner: Actor, author, digital creator, and the founder of Movement Genius, a platform making mental well-being affordable, accessible, and culturally relevant.
- Rollie Williams: Creator and host of "Climate Town", a docu-comedy video series focused on demystifying the climate crisis.
- Tiffany Yu: Content creator, speaker, CEO and Founder of Diversability, an award-winning and entirely disabled-run and led social enterprise to elevate disability pride.
"The 6 recipients of the Elevate Creatives Fund are a truly inspiring representation of the creative small business community, and their success is critical to economic growth, job creation and the livelihood of the creator economy," says Zahir Khoja, CEO at Wave. "From cash flow to funding, balancing competing priorities, and managing every aspect of their business, solopreneurs face a number of challenges yet remain vastly underserved by financial systems. We're thrilled to do our part to support their success and enable them to make an even greater social and cultural impact in their respective communities."
About Shefik
Celebrating over 25 years in the entertainment and technology industries, Shefik (https://shefik.info) is an accomplished industry insider, who has appeared on MTV, SiriusXM, PBS, BET, network television, and in print media, as well as internationally on TRT World (Turkey). He has held senior-level positions at many Fortune 500 companies and celebrated brands, including IBM, NBCUniversal, MTV World, Merck, Merriam-Webster, and Wolters Kluwer. A seasoned pro in social media with a career background as a Lead Architect and Senior Web Developer, Shefik is on the cutting edge of new media. As a videographer and producer, his work has been featured in television broadcasts and video productions for NBC's "3rd Hour of TODAY", TIME magazine, The Washington Center, TV One's "Unsung", and Broadway World. Additionally, his photography has been featured in print and online publications, such as The Independent (United Kingdom), Daily Mail (United Kingdom), Harvard Kennedy School Magazine, Playbill, and China Press, as well as around 100 television and radio outlets owned by Cox Media Group. He is currently the Executive Producer and Host of the nationally syndicated radio show "Shefik presents Invocation" (https://invocation.co), which is broadcast on 23 terrestrial radio stations and frequencies throughout the United States, as well as the internationally syndicated video series of the same name, via Amazon and other notable outlets.
Last Updated: November 25, 2023
