Recently in events Category

Although the company blog has been shortlisted for a Golden Spider this year I will not be attending the event.

Why?

Put simply the event's organisers appear to have serious communication issues.

To start with we had to be told by a third party that we'd actually made the shortlist.

Seemingly they contacted some of those shortlisted, but not all of them.

Why?

God only knows.

Then I got an email from one of their staff to my personal email address asking me if I would be attending or not. (We're shortlisted for the company blog - not one of my personal ones)

At the same time a different member of their staff was in contact with our offices to offer us a ticket for the night. They then followed up shortly afterwards to say that they had two tickets for us.

Cool!
 
So I then proceeded to organise a "date" for the evening, letting them know that yes we'd go but that we'd confirm the second person's name after the weekend. (Fortunately I hadn't booked hotel rooms etc., at this stage - being a bit disorganised can pay dividends at times!)

So I'm beginning to feel vaguely warm fuzzy feelings towards Golden Spiders at this stage (I've criticised them quite a bit in the past)

With me so far?
It's not particularly complicated.

So when we contacted them to confirm everything today they did an "about turn" and now say that there's only one ticket and there had been a mistake.

I'm sorry, but that's not good enough.

You don't invite people to an event and then uninvite them a couple of days later.

Maybe they screwed up, but they should standover the screw up.

There is no way I am going to bother wasting my time attending an event that is that badly organised.

No way.

You'll have to excuse me for the Net Visionary Awards overload ...

Anyway here's anothere one...

This time it's of the sponsors etc., with me after the presentation of the Internet Marketer award (click to enlarge image):



Caption:
Maeve Kneafsey, MD Elucidate and Chairperson IIA; Michele Neylon Winner of
Internet Marketer; Brendan Fay, Headline Sponsor Enterprise Ireland;
Category Sponsor Lynne Henderson, Digital Development Manager, Irish
Times.com

I went along to the Net Visionary Awards the other evening planning on taking loads of photographs.

Between one thing and another I only took two - one has "lovely" red eye, while the other is terribly out of focus.

Now I could blame my sister, who kidnapped my proper camera a few months ago, but it's really my own fault. I'm simply hopeless at taking photos!

Since I'm still in a bit of shock after the Net Visionary Awards the other evening, I'll keep this short..

On the awards themselves...

I am amazed, stunned and humbled that I actually won two awards on the night. I'm always delighted to be shortlisted for awards, but since I'd never actually won any winning two blew me away.

Being nominated for the Internet Marketer award came as a surprise to me and being shortlisted for it was a big surprise. But to actually win that award blew me away completely! I would never have imagined that I could win, so when they announced it the other evening I was left completely and utterly speechless. I wouldn't consider myself to be a marketer and I'd have expected a professional marketer to win - not me!

It was a fantastic night in a wonderful venue and a great chance to meet up with a bunch of people who I haven't seen in a long time (plus a chance to meet people I'd never actually met in person before)

Congratulations to all the other winners, especially Pat Phelan, who got the overall Net Visionary award.

A sincere thanks to everyone who has helped me and the company over the last few years and to those who voted for me this year - I really really appreciate it.

Now my only problem is where do I put those great big lumps of crystal... It's a nice problem to have!

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IIA and Enterprise Ireland Net Visionary awards Net Visionary Awards Tomorrow Night!

It's that time of the year again.

Web awards season is now open.

So what do we have this year?

Well if you're into commercially run awards ceremonies that require an entrance fee for nominations AND attendance, then there's the Golden Spiders. I've said enough about them in the past, so I won't bother wasting energy on them this year. Suffice to say that charging 150 euro for a nomination and another 290 per seat at an event that is sponsored is sickening.

At the opposite extreme Damien Mulley has launched The Irish Web Awards
Unlike the Golden Spiders you don't have to pay to nominate someone and the tickets for the event are a nominal 30 euro a pop. nor do you have to pay to attend. Yes - there are sponsors, but they're the ones covering the costs. Imagine that!

And then, somewhere in between, lie the IIA Net Visionary Awards. It's free to nominate people, but you have to pay to attend.

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IIA Net Visionary Awards - The Democratic Irish Web Awards

I've been at the ICANN meeting in Paris for the last week and haven't had a chance to post here.

I'll be posting a few followup posts over on my domain blog over the next few days.

Suffice to say that some of the media coverage of the event has been more than a bit sensationalist!

I'm in Paris until Sunday afternoon, so I fully intend to take advantage of my remaining time here to do zero work!

The ICT Excellence awards have been announced.

Unfortunately they have a website. I say unfortunately as it is truly horrendous.

If this is one of Ireland's premier awards I'd hate to see what the bad ones are like....

Roberto Gaetano has just opened the second part of the ICANN board meeting.

Peter Dengate Thrush has been chosen as the new chairman.

ICANN's board meeting is this morning.

Unlike many companies the ICANN board meeting is 100% public.

This is the last board meeting that will be chaired by Vint Cerf, so there is quite a healthy turnout since his successor has not been announced as yet.