At a packed (400+ attendees) cocktail reception that the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Interactive Media Peer Group held on Wednesday evening to honor the nominees for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Creative Achievement in Interactive Media, IMPG co-governor Geoff Katz was–to his great surprise–presented with the IMPG’s inaugural Digerati Award.

“We wanted to recognize Geoff publicly for all the great work he’s done in really helping to grow our Peer Group over the last four years from a funky group of misfits to a powerful lobby for digital media at the Academy and in the industry–so why not create an award that allows us to recognize folks like Geoff every year?” IMPG co-governor, Lori Schwartz, told [itvt]. “Many of our colleagues have helped get us here, so it’s time we started recognizing them.”

According to Schwartz, the winner of the Digerati Award is to be selected on the basis of both “internal” and “external” criteria. [itvt] asked her to explain further: “[The internal criteria include] helping to drive thought leadership within our Peer Group; driving executive leadership within the Peer Group Executive Committee; and helping to raise our voice at the Academy proper,” she told us. “[The external criteria include] helping to drive senior leaders in our business into the Peer Group; creating dialog and sponsorship opportunities that allow important companies exposure to our Peer Group; and finally, creating events and activities that facilitate all the conversations that help drive the industry forward.”

Congratulations, Geoff, on  a very well-deserved honor!