Not a post about the Irish Blog Awards

If you haven’t already read a post about the Irish Blog Awards, you’ve either been a coma for the last month, or lost your internet connection for a very long time. Either way , you missed a very good evening in the Alexender Hotel in Dublin. We (FirstPartners.net) were sponsoring one of the awards (Best Contribution to the Irish Bloggersphere). At least I can say ‘I was there’ , which will either seem very far sighted or as strange as sponsoring ‘The Irish email awards’ as blogging goes mainstream. Either way , I doubt if blogging will fall into the ‘no-one will care’ category.

Despite the lead-in , this is not a post about blogging. In fact despite the evidence in front of your very eyes, I (Paul Browne) am not really a blogger in the real, hip and trendy sense of the medium. Compared to some of the characters I met there, I’m just somebody how likes getting things done , and happy to talk about one of things that interests me (Technology). Blogging is (currently) the best way I find to do it.

Talking of the people that I met there , here are some (and I’m still playing the game of ‘connect the people to the blogs’). Apologies if I’ve missed you (leave a comment)

• Gavin’s Blog. Gavin’s been blogging 6 years. Put me and my ’15 months Blogging’ in my place. 🙂
• Letter From America – Jeff. One of the real (good) characters of the evening , but not somebody that I’d recommend to my (single) sister in law , despite both of them living in Belfast 🙂
• Red Mum. A real star – Have been following her blog for a while and had almost ‘can I have your autograph’ moment when meeting her.
• That Girl – also in the Irish Times picture. A very welcoming presence at the pre-awards drinks when I was wandering the cellar bar wandering where all the bloggers where (Duh! in the corner drinking cocktails of course!)
• Bonhom.ie (Dermot) – very interesting guy, moving back to Ireland from Italy , although to hear his current location , you’d have to question his sanity!
• irelanddigital.blogspot.com and culturesluts.podcast.com. Both by Stephen and Jesse. Encouraged me to dip a toe into podcasting, even if I’ll never reach the dizzy heights of those guys.
• Brian Greene – wxtc.net / BrianGreene.com – another podcaster who I wished I had got talking to in more depth.
• Technolotics – Trinity Students , podcasting on technology and politics. If you met them, keep their autograph. I expect they will do big things in a ‘Zig and Zag meets Google’ kind of way. (That’s a compliment 🙂
• John – faxYourTD.ie . Sometimes it takes a new faceto shake things up. John’s work to bring ‘faxyourMP.com’ to our shores is a lot of hard work and is one of the first ways that Web 2.0 will begin to affect our sceloritic polical system.
• Bernie Goldbach. Back in Techcamp , Bernie had encouraged me to to take this blogging thing seriously. Good thing that he did.
• Tom Raftery- TomRaftery.net / Podleaders / IT@Cork. Didn’t get talking to Tom this time around as he had to hurry to a podcast interview. Along with Bernie, his presentation on Blogging at Techcamp last year pushed me to take the potential of blogs seriously.
• James Corbett – Eireprenuer , also speaking about about OPML. Anybody who
• Colin O’Munieachan – an T-imeall. His hosting and technical setup of the pre awards podcasting event would put commercial radio to shame.
• Piaras – PR Supremo , who took the endless questions of ‘when are we doing the next techcamp’ with good grace.
• Ed Byrne – who confessed to not having blogged for a full 2 months. Security!
  Update – Ed Byrne is now back blogging due to unprecedented public demand!
• Michele – penseiri / Blacknight hosting , who has (finally) convinced me to try out Ubantu, as well as getting a few digs in about my current hosting issues.
• Rick O’Shea. Didn’t actually get to meet the guy person, but is that what he really looks like? How much longer before RTE are actively recruiting bloggers the way ZDnet magazines and O’Reilly books are?
• Fergal Breen – IrishDev.com. Co host of the IIA Web 2.0 presentation and good to see that he is finally coming out of his shell (that’s a joke, for anybody who doesn’t know him)
• Damien Mulley – major kudos to the man for organising the whole thing. Nerves of steel as he actually looked like he was enjoying all the pressure on the night!
• Alison? – Will go now and search for your blog again! A real ‘fit the blog to the person’ moment as I realised we’d both worked toghether in a previous life!

Just found out that I’ve also managed to get my picture in the Irish Times. Surreal – I’m writing this on the Train and have seen it by looking over a fellow passengers shoulder .. I’m the one standing in front of Bernie Goldbach on the right. What are the rules for linking to this picture online?

On my todo list after the events are 1) Get a Podcast out 2) Check out Odeo.com for hosting the content 3) Check out Tredia 4)Do a google for people writing about ‘The Irish Blog Awards’ 5) Check out Jeff’s Podcast for the people that I’ve missed.