We held the 2007 Excellence.Gov Awards luncheon today at the quite-wonderful Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington, DC, and announced the top 5 awardees. They are:

• Disaster Management from DHS
• E‑Rulemaking’s Docket Management System from EPA
• Justice Information Sharing (JUSTIS) from the Government of the District of Columbia
• Knowledge Services Network from the DOT/FAA
• My HealtheVet from the VA/VHA

Clay Johnson of OMB gave a very interesting speech, paraphrasing Abraham Lincoln to press home the point that all 20 of the finalists have made significant, lasting achievements in bettering American government and society. He was assisted in handing out awards by Venkatapathi Puvvada (known as “PV” to all and sundry), incoming Executive Chair of IAC and senior dude at Unisys.

It all seemed to go very well, including some rousing background music courtesy of Josh Groban (selected by ACT’s inimitable Danielle Germain) which received many compliments for setting the right emotional tone. Hamid Moinamin of Inserso, who stepped in to MC the event with me in the absence of the unfortunately-and-very-badly-timed-sick Warren Ellmore of Everware-CBDI, assures me that Josh Groban will be “our tune” hereon out. I’m not sure I like that idea, but we’ll see what comes of it.

Thanks to everyone who came along! We had a record-breaking attendance of around 350 people, with over 200 government staff helping honor the 20 finalists. Andy Lieber of Grant Thornton will be leading the 2008 awards, and he’s already scheming ways to outdo me, the cheeky monkey. Look out for the 2008 nomination form sometime this fall!