And they're off …
February 6, 2007 2 Comments
Irish Blog Awards and Kick.ie – A marriage made in Heaven?
January 17, 2007 4 Comments
Update: Gavin is up for this (see comments). Will Damien say yes?
(Kick this post)
Had a bit of inspiration about the Irish Blog Awards involving Kick.ie.
Anyway, the idea is this. After the nominations for the Irish Blog Awards are finished, it goes through a first round of voting to shortlist the 5 top nominations in each category. It struck me that (something like) kick.ie would be an ideal mechanism to do this.
In my ignorance this appears easy : just have a new kick.ie subsite (like has been done before e.g. dotnetkicks.com) and allow people to vote (kick) a site but not add new links. Kick.ie only allows one kick per site. Top 5 scores in each category make the shortlist.
What’s in it for both sites?
- Kick.ie get a lot of new traffic.
- Awards.ie/blogwards get an easier /slicker way to manage the shortlist.
So , Damien/ Gavin , Any thoughts / comments / suggestions?
Just to be clear , I have no connection with either site, apart from being 1 sponsor (as FirstPartners.net) of the Irish blog awards, and a user of Kick.ie.
Alternative nominations – 2007 Irish Blog Awards
January 16, 2007 12 Comments
For the consideration of the Academy , here are our Irish Blog Award nominations. We may or may not vote for them (!), but I’d like the Irish Blogging public to consider some of the alternatives to the usual big A-List bloggers (who are fairly safe to get nominated anyway 
. Also pretty sure to be nominated are last years award winners. Now , if only I can figure out how to work the award nomination form ….
- Best Blog Post – David McWilliams on something even more important than blogging (!) the impending property market crash.
- Most Humorous Post – Bifsnif. For having the best cartoons available on the web , of which this is only one sample.
- Best Photo Blog - Ireland from a Polish perspective. Not a dedicated photo blog, but the images are as good as any that I’ve seen on the web.
- Best Blog – Red Cardinal. He’s angling for the ‘Best Newcomer’ spot, but I think he’s worthy of ‘Best Blog’ consideration (a) Because he’s got good content and style and (b) He blogs about something relevant to all bloggers – how to get noticed by Google.
- Best Political Blog – Dominic Hannigan. You may or may not agree with his politics (Labour), but he’s one of earliest politicians to blog, and deserves kudos for his suggestion to mail dog s**t to the Meath county manager.
- Best Group Blog – IQ content who have just been accepted into the 9Rules network (a sure sign of blog quality if ever there was one)
- Best Personal Blog – The Swearing Lady. But only because I’m afraid of her.
Best Use of the Irish Language in a Blog – 2 Years in a row for Conn? , even if an lionra has just ended. Damien has just told me that you can’t both sponsor and be up to win the award. I suppose it would be a bit awkward for the photo’s.- Best Contribution to the Irish Bloggersphere – Damien Mulley. He stuck his neck out and organised the 2006 Irish blog awards when nobody was sure it was going to take off. Despite the huge increase in workload, He’s organising the 2007 awards.
- Best Technology Blog/Blogger (you mean, apart from ourselves Justin Mason. A one man anti-Spam fighting machine. Kudos for his work on Spam Assasin ,but he’s also quite a good technical writer.
- Best Designed Blog – Ken McGuire(Creative Imaginations). A very visually appealing blog, andmanages to get a lot of information and content across without appearing cluttered. AFAIK Ken doesn’t do freelance word press work , but if he did , you’d want him to design your blog for you.
- Best Specialist Blog – Brian Honan, Security Watch. You mightn’t know it from his blog, but Brian does have a personality . A single minded dedication to security makes his blog a ‘must read’ for anybody who uses a PC.
- Best Newcomer – A lot of the people that are newcomers , don’t look like newcomers (i.e. the quality of the blog is so good you thing they’ve been blogging forever). Perhaps this list might give you a few suggestions. My vote goes to Pat at Roam4Free.
- Best Business Blog – McGarr Solicitors. Maybe not the best business blog, but worthy of your consideration as one of the first traditional (i.e. non tech business) bloggers out there.
We’re not nominating Best Music / Best Podcast / Best Podcaster / Best Videocast / Best Arts and Culture blogs. Maybe we should get out more.
More Posts on the Irish Blog Awards.
Update: With Conn out of the way perhaps Blunt Cogs could be the surprise Entrant. No, somebody else is going to have to nominate them.
Irish Blog Awards – Blogs of the Sponsors
January 12, 2007 7 Comments
I was curious about who the other sponsors are of the Irish Blog Awards. There’s no list of the ‘sponsors blogs’ , so I did a bit of investigation. The links below are either the Sponsoring companies blogs, or people that (I think) work for them. If I got something wrong, leave a comment.
- Best Blog Post - sponsored by Hosting365 (Blog)
- Most Humorous Post – sponsored by Beecher Networks (blog)
- Best Photo Blog – sponsored by pixenate.com – The online photo editor (blog)
- Best Arts and Culture Blog – sponsored by Poetry Ireland. Related Blog: www.petersirr.blogspot.com
- Best Political Blog – sponsored by Technofutures no blog!!
- Best Group Blog - sponsored by PutPlace. Joe Drumgooles Blog.
- Best Personal Blog – sponsored by Interactions (blog)
- Best Use of the Irish Language in a Blog – sponsored by Edgecast Media (blog)
- Best Contribution to the Irish Bloggersphere – sponsored by FirstPartners.net (that’s us!).
- Best Technology Blog/Blogger – sponsored by Bitzbuzz. Am guessing that this is bitbuzz - Alex French Blog (guess!)
- Best Designed Blog – sponsored by Equisoft No Blog!!
- Best Sport & Recreation Blog – sponsored by Boards.ie – John Breslin.
- Best News/Current Affairs Blog – sponsored by the Sunday Tribune- blog of Richard Delevan
- Best Specialist Blog – sponsored by iQ Content (Blog)
- Best Newcomer – sponsored by Edelman (link to Piaras Kelly’s Blog)
- Best Business Blog – sponsored by logic+intuition (blog)
- Best Music Blog - sponsored by Clubbing.ie – No Blog!!
- Best Podcast - reserved
- Best Podcaster – sponsored by Microsoft. Bill’s blog , but more likely the sponsorship came from Clare Dillon , who’s been Microsoft’s Representative
on earthin the blogging community for some time. - Best Videocast - reserved
Update 1: Edelman link corrected.
Irish Blog Awards – What do we do?
January 11, 2007 1 Comment
A a sponsor of the ‘Irish Blog Awards‘ Damien has asked us to give a short piece on what exactly we do. After much thought, we’ve come up with the following:
FirstPartners.net take people’s brains and shove them into PC’s. By using Web and Java technology they make sure that your most previous asset (knowledge) does not walk out of the building every night. FirstPartners.net have been blogging since 2004 and are proud to sponsor the Irish Blog awards for the 2nd year in a row.
It might be a bit pulp fiction, but at least my Mum will understand it!
What Irish IT Buyers really want – Dublin Event
January 10, 2007 Leave a comment
From the ICS Newsletter:
Sales people or managers responsible for selling or marketing IT solutions at the “C” level are strongly encouraged to attend this wine and cheese evening event. IT buyers from Ireland ’s top organisations including Dunnes, AXA, AIB, and Vhi will provide insight into their decision-making criteria.
Date: Thursday January 25th
Time: 6 pm
Venue: ICS, Cresent Hall, Mount St. Crescent,Dublin 2
Cost: Free to members of ICS and the Sales Institute
€25 to all others
To register: Contact Edwina Fogarty, events@ics.ie or phone: 01 6447820
Attendees will:
- Listen to and meet IT buyers with a combined IT budget in excess of €1billion
- Understand what solutions these key decision making executives are really looking for.
- Get an insight into what decision criteria they will use before purchase.
- Learn how to get in front of these people and how they will look to you to add value to them.
- Meet other IT Sales people who may have a complimentary offering to your own, whom you can partner effectively with.
Format of the evening
- 6.00pm – Each executive will speak for about 7 minutes on what they are looking to achieve with their IT purchases and what they are looking for from sales people.
- 6.30pm – There will then be a question and answer session, chaired by Peter Lawless, where you can pose your questions directly to the speakers.
- 7.00pm – The formal part of the evening will then be followed by a wine and cheese reception where you will have an opportunity to network and follow up on the advice you have just been given by the speakers.
Speakers
Vincent Nolan, CIO, Dunnes Stores
Padraic Mills, CIO, AXA
Paul Williams, Head of Procurement, AIB
Gerry Quinn, IT Director, Eircom
Mick Furlong, IT Director, VHI
Leo Lundy, Chief Technical Officer, Imagine Group
Peter Lawless, Chairman IT Sales Network and Founder 3R Sales & Marketing
Peter Lawless, is the founder of 3R Sales and Marketing, an Irish Business development consultancy. Peter Lawless is a proven business growth guru, with over 20 years in industry. Hundreds of owners of small and medium businesses, both national and international, have benefited from his advice and expertise.
Serving as a mentor of Enterprise Ireland and an external examiner for Dublin Insitutute of Technology, Peter is also on the boards of a number of other companies. A fellow of the Sales Institute and The Irish Computer Society, Peter is a member of the Marketing Institute, the Irish Internet Association, the Irish Software Association and the Chamber of Commerce.
Update: It has just been pointed out to me that the Irish computer society do not have an RSS feed on their website.
You , Paris Hilton and the value of your Personal Brand
January 3, 2007 3 Comments
What do you , Paris Hilton , Jade Goody and the contestants on Celebrity Big Brother have in common? No, it’s not some sort of bizarre male fantasy, but the value of your personal brand. These are all people , who may or may not be talented, but have transformed themselves into household names.
Wait a minute you say – I’m a (delete as appropriate) :
- Accountant, who thinks grey suits make people strangely attractive.
- Banker , who plays the financial markets but only relates to people as costs on a balance sheet.
- IT Geek and proud of it , even if I’ve nothing to do but blog on a Friday night.
What’s a personal brand got to do with me? I’m (thankfully) not about to release a fitness video or a perfume. That’s only for A, B or C list celebrities. Down here in the Z-List of Technology Blogging , you get draft Web 2.0 books , and you will enjoy them!
Maybe instead of brand , I said ‘reputation’ or ‘recommendations’ you would understand better – the notion that people know of your work , and are happy to employ you on that basis. Previously , this was by word of mouth. Now , with blogging , everybody can be a minor celebrity in their own niche. We’ve written about this before (‘are blogs the new CV‘), but with tools like LinkedIn, the trend is really taking off.
Two Irish people who understand the value of a ‘personal brand’ very well are David McWilliams and Sheila o’Flanagan. Both have taken what could be mundane jobs (Economist, Writing) and turned themselves into Stars. OK , Enterprise Technology is never going to have same mass market appeal, but just as David and Sheila are well known in our own little Irish pond, perhaps someday I could be the Jade Goody of the technology world.
Update:To show the power of blogging , when I did a search for David McWilliams site, despite his massive RTE exposure , it was Joe Drumgooles blog that came up first.
Update 2: In response to a question, the use of Paris Hilton in this blog post has nothing to do with Damiens infamous ‘how to use google to get a girl and get laid‘ blogpost. Nothing at all. It has nothing to do with Britney Spears either.
Irish Blog Awards March 3rd 2007
January 3, 2007 1 Comment
Damien has just announced that the 2007 Irish Blog Awards will be held on the 3rd March 2007. I might even last until the end of the night this year.
Update: Nominations are now open.
Irish Blog Awards Sponsor 2007
December 23, 2006 2 Comments
We sponsored them in 2006 , before they were famous. For 50 Quid we ended up in the Irish Times (I’m the one at the front wondering what’s going on behind me). Not a bad return on investment.
This time around it’s a bit more expensive , but it’s good to give something back to the Irish Blogosphere. We’re not well versed on the black arts of public relations (most of our marketing spend goes to Google Adwords, plus the blood sweat and tears of 1 to 1 communication), but we’ll probably do some sort of tie in promotion for Irish bloggers.
Any suggestions?
2000 Euro worth of Design work , just to get Free Beer at the Irish Blog Awards.
February 8, 2007 4 Comments
I think he’s mad. But mad in a genius, Picasso, come and design my website for me kind of way. Which is exacty what Eoghan McCabe is offering to do to win a Free Beer at the Irish Blog Awards.
Now , he may be a competitor in our ‘who can get the most readers on Feedburner‘ competition, but even if I have to respect the sheer audacity of the move.
Filed under awards, blog, blogging, blogs, comment, Irish, IrishBlogAwards