The Blog Awards Rocked. Fact

At last year’s Blog Awards (2007), myself and the rest of the KKM crew had to cut the night short just after the awards ceremony to cover a few gigs in Dublin. This year, the crew was cut in half, there were no gigs to cover so myself and Ross found ourselves immersed in the 2008 Blog Awards at the Alexander Hotel in Dublin last night. Early in the door (my raffle ticket was 1-5!) and late back to the hotel (some time around 3am possibly?).

While I’ve already posted the list of winners from last night, I did want to flag a few things - mainly being the people I ran into on the night.

The Irish Blog Awards was full of legends. A huge room packed wall to wall with legends. The people in the room are the reason you don’t have to read the newspapers. They are the technology writers, photographers, musicians, food critics, fashion divas, arts lovers, business gurus, political thinkers, sporting enthusiasts and so much more. One cannot get over the sheer power of the Irish blogging community and the respect in which everyone is held amongst their blogging peers.

After missing out on RedMum’s photo walk around Dublin, and failing to hook up with Phil and Andy in Wagamama (due to getting in late, trying to find the hotel and getting ready for the Awards) we did eventually arrive at the Alexander bang on 6:30pm.

Who did I get to talk to?

Paul Browne for a start. About bloody time as well, having missed out on a chat and pint at last year’s Awards. That can of Guinness is still in my filing cabinet and I swear I’ll remember the name of that river! Talk of the night ahead and kayaking over the west was had before being introduced to the first round of beers for the night with Darren Byne and Darragh Doyle - two of the soundest guys you could meet.

After scoffing a few Black Jacks courtesy of the LouderVoice.com sweet bag, I finally managed to shake hands with Conor O’Neill. It’s been too long a time coming! It wasn’t long too before running into David Maybury. Having first met in Kilkenny late last year, I’ve to thank David and Deborah for the aftershow party in Burger King somewhere in Dublin around 2:30am. I say “somewhere” as there was a lot of walking, plenty of joking, and next thing you know I’m sitting down to a burger of some description.

There was chat with RedMum, Phil O’Kane and Andy GoodOnPaper.

Johnny Beirne is a man I’ve to catch up with again and finish the conversation that never really got off the ground - we’ll do it again. I also decided that Marcus Mac Innes is a legend as well. Some mad conversation at the end of the night I’m having trouble piecing together. Needless to say there was a lot of laughing. Plus, I gave him one of the 5 mustaches I won which can be here.

I got to catch up with Nialler9 (who did the double on the Best Music Blog) who capped off what’s been a terrific week, all things considered. AoifeMc bagged herself a gun on the night courtesy and it was nice to make the introduction before the night ran out. The same too goes for Sinead Gleeson, twitter / sunday cooking 2.0 cohort Alexia Golez (who is even nicer in real life as much as she in online, plus she had a kick-ass Thundercats tee on) and Paul Walsh.

I managed to snap Ina on video rummaging for a holiday break… How did that work out in the end? Went looking for Sabrina Dent before the night was out - mission accomplished too. There was some strange tattoo checking with The Humble Housewife? After that, things get a little bit hazy.

I can go on, but in fairness I think I wound up talking to an absolute ton of people there on the night. God, I even made the dance floor for the last part of the night - big thanks to Brian Greene for the absolutely solid music through the night. No thanks to whoever kept laying on the tequila…

Mr Mulley certainly throws a solid bash, but it’s the Irish blogging community on a whole that make it happen and make every second worthwhile on nights like last night.

You can catch a selection of pictures I took on the night here on Flickr (will get them on Pix.ie shortly, I was told I’d be killed otherwise).

For the moment, it’s onward towards CreativeCamp this coming Saturday.

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Those Irish Blog Awards Winners

Partly for my own reference for later on, and to give some link love to the winners, here’s the list of those who walked away with the trophies last night.

• Best Pop Culture Blog: Rick O’Shea
• Best Blog from a Journalist: Present Tense
• Best Food/Drink Blog: Italian Foodies
• Best Crafts Blog: A Simple Yarn
• Best Arts and Culture Blog: Sinead Gleeson: The Sigla Blog
• Best Political Blog: Irish Election
• Best Group Blog: Beaut.ie
• Best Use Of Irish Language In A Blog: Blag Ghael gan Náire
• Best Technology Blog: Bytesurgery
• Best Designed Blog: Sabrina Dent
• Best Sports and Recreation Blog: ArseBlog
• Best News/Current Affairs Blog: The Limerick Blog and Maman Poulet
• Best Specialist Blog: The Voyage
• Best Newcomer: John Braine
• Best Business Blog: Ice Cream Ireland
• Best Music Blog: Nialler9
• Best Personal Blog: Head Rambles, Grannymar
• Most Humorous Post: Twenty Major
• Best Photo Blog: GingerPixel
• Best Blog Post: Fat Mammy Cat
• Best Blog: Twenty Major
• Special Recognition: Simon McGarr, Rymus, Rick O’Shea

I had been featured under Best Technology Blog for kenmc.com while KilkennyMusic.com was included in the Best Music Blog, those categories going to Robin and Nialler9 respectively. Couldn’t go to two nicer lads! Fair play!

I’m currently shaking off a hangover, getting sorted with some photos from last night as well as the list of names of people I spoke to - yes, I saved them to my phone “just in case” the pints kept flowing. The pints, and shots, flowed until we were pretty much the last ones out the door so I’m glad I kept that list!

Full flashback / summary later this evening…

There Was Blogging, There Was Drinking, There Were Cheers…

That’s how I imagine tonight will run, but not exactly in that order.

The 2008 Irish Blog Awards are taking place tonight in the Alexander Hotel, Dublin with kick off scheduled for 7:30pm. Having been to the Awards last year I can say that the Alexander is a great venue and anyone going is bound to run into some fantastic people.

The blog finds itself nominated for in the Best Technology Blog category amongst the likes of Tom Raftery’s Social Media, Donncha O’Caoimh, Alexia Golez, Michele Neylon’s Pensieri, Michelle Gallen, Dave Northey, Inside View from Ireland, Robin Blandford’s ByteSurgery, James Corbett and Chris Horn.

Word has that list gets shorter again tonight before the awards are announced but it’s been a pleasure to have kenmc.com nominated for the very first time. I’ll also be there with Ross as KilkennyMusic.com found it’s way on the music shortlist though a betting man would put money on Nialler9 doing the double. Not a bad way to round out a week with Super Extra Bonus Party bagging the Choice Music Prize too.

According to Ross…

Ken will be the guy to talk to if you basically want to talk about anything from music to technology, sport, you name it. I’ll be standing beside him, the guy with the mohawk, consuming copious amounts of free alcohol and saying things like “what the hell is a blog anyway!?”

Says he leading the way for staff bloggers at KKM. Either way, we’re going to go and have a bit of craic, wind down after a few hectic weeks on all fronts and mingle with the very best the Irish blogosphere has to offer.

While having two phones might make me a terrorist, I’ll also be concealing my new Nikon Coolpix S200 so if you’re talking to me, jump in for a picture, sure why not!

See all y’all tonight.

Irish Blog Awards Shortlists Announced

The shortlists for the third annual Irish Blog Awards have been announced. The lists in full are available here.

Kilkenny bloggers are shortlisted in four categories - myself under Best Technology Blog, Ross Costigan for Best Photo Blog, Keith Bohanna for Best Business Blog and KilkennyMusic.com in Best Music Blog.

Some of the shortlists aren’t all too short but it’s nice to be included amongst some of Ireland’s top blogs for the second year running.

The awards this year will be held once again in the Alexander Hotel in Dublin on Saturday March 1st. If you’re planning on going along, get your registration shoes on pronto as about half the spots are already gone. There’s a 10 euro entrance fee on the night with all proceeds raised going to three nominated Irish charities - Brainwave (the Irish Epilepsy Association,) St. Francis Hospice and The Multiple Sclerosis Society of Ireland.

Four of us went up to the awards last year (2007 saw KilkennyMusic.com shortlisted in Best Music Blog), a night which was a first for me in putting many faces to names. The funny thing is, on walking in the door a lot of people (including myself) are on first name terms with other attendees, everyone you would know from the world of blogging, podcasting, Twitter and over 2007 the addition of Jaiku.

As much as you can trade comments back and forth on various platforms, I still feel it’s really important to meet people face to face, shake someone’s hand, have a yarn about something random over a pint.

Besides, this year there’s so much more - photo meets, tea parties, gourmet brunches…. it’s all go.

Irish Blog Week? It’s A Busy One

The first week of March is being considered “Irish Blog Week”. Though unofficial by nature, the scheduling of some of the country’s biggest web and technology events for bloggers and podcasters alike have created one very busy week for the start of March.

Kicking things off on the first of March is the third annual Irish Blog Awards. Damien Mulley is in the driving seat again on this year’s awards show to be held in the Alexander Hotel in Dublin. The Alexander was a great venue for the awards last year and whether you’re nominated for a category or not, it makes for a great social and networking occasion. Let the hair down, have a few drinks and mark a date in the calendar that recognises the quality of bloggers of all genres in the country.

Also on the day there’s a “Ladies Tea Party” being organised by Sabrina Dent and Ina O’Murchu. This takes place in The Market Bar, about a 12 minute walk from the Alexander and is an open invite to all female bloggers in Ireland to have a gathering pre-awards show. Drop in for a few hours from 4:30pm on March 1st.

Not only is there a tea party on the day, but Red Mum is organising a meetup for photo bloggers as well, something I might try and get along to, depending on how early I can get out of Kilkenny.

On Sunday March 2nd you’ve got the third WebCamp event, to be held in Cork at the Kingsley Hotel. With talks in the morning and breakout sessions in the afternoon, the topic for the day is social network portability. Workshop fee is €50 for early bird registrations and €60 at regular cost. Full details can be found here.

If you’re hanging around Dublin after the Blog Awards then you might be interested in a gourmet brunch being organised by Deborah a.k.a. The Humble Housewife. Starting from 1pm in the Ely Wine Bar on Custom House Quay, the event is for food bloggers, fans and readers of food blogs and friends. RSVP by February 1st to lay claim to a place at the brunch.

The week continues over Monday and Tuesday as BlogTalk 2008 hits Cork, the fifth international conference on social software. Speakers include John Breslin, Gabriela Avram, Anna Rogozinska, David Cushman, Salim Ismail, Rashmi Sinha and many more.

Forward to the end of the week (Saturday March 8th) and CreativeCamp takes place in Kilkenny. Following the success of PodCamp in Kilkenny last September, it’s nice to see another event on my home soil, and another event I’m directly involved in organising alongside Keith Bohanna and Tom Corcoran. Two of the talks on the day have been confirmed so far and registration is open. You can sign up to attend here (free) and sign up to talk here (we’d love to hear you).

There’s also rumour of a bloggers’ dinner taking place in Kilkenny on Friday 7th, more on this as and when it is revealed.

Track it on Jaiku or keep up with all the links above!

Casting My Vote

Having been away all over Christmas, then scooting off to Germany last week I’d almost forgotten to cast my votes for the 3rd annual Irish Blog Awards - almost.

Sure who could forget to do that?

2007 was another great year for Irish blogging, although some of my regular reads dropped off or finished writing, there was plenty on offer in the world of technology, sport, music, business, the arts and so much more - all from Irish bloggers.

I’m currently in the process of filling out my nomination form, if you haven’t done so yet then get yourself along to awards.ie/nominations and cast your vote. You’ve got until 9pm Friday.

In a change to proceedings this year there will be no public vote, the nominees instead being judged on quality amongst other traits. Damien is asking nicely for judges for the blog awards, something I would do if I honestly felt I could commit more time in the week but I’ll have to pass on this twist with everything else going on. If you would like to volunteer your services as a judge then drop by awards.ie for the low-down.

Of course, if you fancy nominating any of my own blogs (kenmc.com, playlistmix.com kilkennymusic.com, liverpoolaccess.com to name four out of a dozen or so) then be my guest. I was at the blog awards last year where I got to put so many faces to names for the first time. If you’re not nominated, or not voting, it’s still a great night out with a terrific bunch of people.

Do I owe Paul a pint? I owe somebody a pint!