Two videos produced in the last year by the Delaware County Commissioners’ Office have taken home a number of national awards. A two-minute video entitled “Delaware County: It’s Still Where You Should Be” took top honors in the Short-Form Video Category at the Government Social Media Organization’s national conference on March 30 in Dallas, Texas, while a “guided tour” of Delaware County’s Historic Courthouse was a finalist in the Long-Form Video Category.

Those results were reversed at the City-County Communications and Marketing Association’s national conference in St. Louis, Missouri, last September, when the guided tour video took first place and the shorter video took second. Both conferences bring together government communications professionals from federal, state and local jurisdictions in the U.S., Canada, Australia and Europe.

The videos, explained the Commissioners’ Director of Communications Jane Hawes, were produced for and debuted at last year’s State of the County event. The county’s communications team worked with Outsider Video + Motion Graphics, a video-production firm based in Columbus, to create them.

“Two years ago, we began working on video projects with Outsider,” Hawes said. “We recognized, as Delaware County’s profile has risen on the national and even international level, we needed new tools to communicate about ourselves with, and video was definitely one of them.”

Based on feedback received from judges and colleagues at these conferences, Hawes said the videos have done an effective job raising awareness about Delaware County and all that it has to offer residents, businesses and tourists.

“A lot of eyes are on us now,” Hawes said, “especially with the arrival of Intel in the region. And it’s been great to have these videos that show people exactly why this is such a great community.”

A new batch of videos will debut at the 2022 State of the County event on April 19, including one profiling the All Horse Parade.

“We try to always emphasize what makes us unique,” Hawes said, “and I think people are going to love what we captured with the horse parade.”

To see the award-winning videos, go to http://co.delaware.oh.us/2021-state-of-the-county/.