Winners of the second annual Shorty Awards were announced Thursday night at TheTimesCenter in New York. CNN’s Rick Sanchez (@richsanchezcnn) hosted the ceremony, which featured acceptance speeches by Cory Booker, Suze Orman and Rachel Maddow, as well as an appearance by Sesame Street’s Grover.

The Shorties honor the best in real-time short form content, and in keeping with this theme, acceptance speeches were limited to 140 characters. William Shatner congratulated winners via video and read some of his favorite tweets from @shitmydadsays (the popular Twitter account which is being turned into a TV pilot by CBS with Shatner in the lead role).

This year’s winners demonstrated the varied uses of Twitter: Newark Mayor Cory Booker (@CoryBooker), who won a Shorty Award in the government category, used his account to help constituents with timely snow removal. Brazilian pop superstar Ivete Sangalo (@ivetesangalo), a winner in the music category, stays connected to her fans through Twitter. Writer Arjun Basu (@arjunbasu) won in literature for his self-contained stories on Twitter, and travel category winner Paul Miller (@twitchhitcher) was able to make his way around the world through his followers’ generosity.

Nominations were open in January, and all Twitter users were invited to cast their vote in 27 official categories. The Real-Time Academy of Short Form Arts & Sciences selected winners from the top five finalists in each category. The academy included leaders in technology, journalism, business and culture, including Knight Foundation President and CEO Alberto Ibarügen.

The awards were created by Sawhorse Media and made possible with support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

“The Shorty Award winners show that you can make a big impact with few characters,” said Gregory Galant, the CEO of Sawhorse Media, which created the Shorty Awards. “We’re thrilled to see so many concise communicators fly in from around the world to accept their awards.”

For a full listing of winners, visit ShortyAwards.com.