A noobie’s guide to surviving Ireland’s summits, expos, and awards

This winter is expected to be a cold one but doesn’t mean it is going to be boring. If you are in any way a geek or a techie you’re going to be kept entertained with the various awards ceremonies and events taking place over the next six weeks alone.

This year we have the Nokia Digital Media Awards, The Irish Web Awards, The seventh Dublin Web Summit, The Irish Internet Association Awards, and the eircom Spiders (and those are just to ones I can think of at the minute).

Some shamless self promotion

The Irish Internet Association Awards
First up are the Irish Internet Association’s Net Visionary Awards (@IIA | facebook.com/IrishInternetAssociation). The Daddy of Irish media and technology awards the IIAs are now in their 13th year and are still going strong (over 62 entries making the shortlist this year). As we reported at the time of the shortlist announcement Joan Mulvihill, the IIA CEO said, “The sheer number of entrants was overwhelming. It’s a great sign of the positivity, determination and creativity of the sector. Our panel of judges had the tough job of shortlisting and a few admitted to getting lost in some great websites in the process!”

The IIA Award’s shortlist is already online and includes many names you’ll recognise.

This year’s sponsors are,

IEDR

Matheson Ormsby Prentice

Grant Thornton

Mason Hayes+Curran

Realex Payments

TelecityGroup

Microsoft

Go Ireland

RSM Farrell Grant Sparks

Elucidate

Sunguard

Accreate

Nokia

The Digital Hub Development Agency

Blacknight

PayPal

ReachOut.com

This is the big one, and it’s a simi-formal affair, so look smart but no need to make a stop by Black Tie in the morning.

Nokia Digital Media Awards – October 3 (Nomination open)
Next are the Nokia sponsored Digital Media Awards (@digitalmedia_ie | facebook.com/DigitalMediaAwards), which launched in Dublin’s Trinity College Science Gallery last night. Thanks to their long standing in the industry (now in their eight year) the awards have attracted some heavy hitters, including The Irish Times, RT?, O2, and the Irish Film Board.

The organisers say, “The Awards are open to all organizations, businesses, and individuals within the sector – from app/game developers and digital/integrated media marketers, to students, educational/financial companies, SME’s and more! Our categories are tailored to include anyone and everyone who wishes to enter the Awards, and our talented category winners are truly at the pinnacle of the industry.”

There are 23 categories this year, including ten new ones marked in bold.

Best Charity / Non-Profit Use of Digital Media

Best SME Using Digital/Integrated Media

Best Online News Delivery

Best Agency

Best Mobile Website

Best in e-Learning

Best in Social Media

B2B Innovation

Best Digital Design

Online Entertainment/Music Award

The User Experience Award

Best in Financial Services

Best Digital Game

Best Use of Digital for Marketing Overseas

Best Digital Marketing Campaign by an Agency

Best Digital Marketing Campaign by an Irish Business

Best Integrated Media Campaign

Best Use of Animation in a Campaign

Government to Consumer Innovation

Best App for an Event

Best App for a Business/Brand

Most Useful App

The Student Digital Award

Nominations for the awards open on October 3 and close on November 21 but don’t take your monkey suit out just yet; although the nominations are open the awards don’t take place until March 30 2012 and will happen in the Convention Centre.

The Irish Web Awards – October 22
As the Nokia DMA awards open the nominations for The Irish Web Awards (@irishwebawards | facebook.com/webawards) close. Damien Mulley again promotes the Irish media and technology industry with this year’s Irish Web Awards. Always informal and all the better for it the IWA, and their sister awards the Irish Social Media Awards, are always a great night out.

There are seven main categories for the IWAs with 25 sub-categories available

1. News and Media

Best Online Publication

Best Web Only Publication

Best Radio Website

Best Independent Podcaster

2. Entertainment and Arts

Best Sports Site

Best Music Site – sponsored by Poll Daddy

Best Entertainment Website – Sponsored by Entertainment.ie

Best Arts Website

3. Technology and Social

Best Technology Site – Sponsored by BH Consulting

Best Political Web Campaign – 2011 Election (Party or individual candidate)

Best New Web Application/Service – Sponsored by Red Cardinal

Most Innovative Website – Sponsored by ESOF2012, Dublin City of Science

4. Government, Education and Community

Best Discussion forum

Best Government and Council Website – Sponsored by Exigent Networks

Best Education and Third Level Website

An Suíomh Gaeilge is Fearr

Best Microsite

5. Commerce and Mobile

Best eCommerce / Services Website – sponsored by OnlineAdvertising.ie

Best SME/Small Business Website – sponsored by Pivotal Communications

Best Mobile Site – sponsored by iQ Content

6. Technical Awards

Best Practice – Sponsored by Surveys.ie

Most Beautiful Website in Ireland – Sponsored by Kooba

Most Useful Website in Ireland – Sponsored by DoneDeal.ie

Web Agency of the Year (Open to sole traders too)

7. Grand Prix

Best Website in Ireland – Sponsored by Realex Payments

No posh garb is needed for the IWAs, just look presentable and bring a good sense of humour. In true Sociable style we’ll be live tweeting/blogging these, so come back here on October 22.

Dublin Web Summit 7 – October 27 and 28
From Damien Mulley to his fellow industry leader Paddy Cosgrave. Consgrave’s seventh Dublin Web Summit (@dublinwebsummit | facebook.com/DublinWebSummit) will take place a week after the Irish Web Awards. So far (and we have a month to go at this point) The Dublin Web Summit has confirmed some amazing speakers for the two day event, these are;

Jawed Karim – YouTube

Eric Ly – LinkedIn

Michael Birch – Bebo

Liam Casey – PCH International

Chris Horn – Iona

Werner Vogels – Amazon

Niall McEntegart – Yahoo!

Christian Belady – Microsoft

Eachan Fletcher – Expedia Affiliate Network

Colm Lyon – Realex

Maz Nadjm – Ogilvy Group UK

Cindy Gallop – IfWeRanTheWorld

Ben Parr – Mashable

Ethan Beard – Facebook

Mikael Hed – Rovio

Chris Poole – Canv.as

Tristan Nitot – Mozilla

Michael O’Toole – Morgan Stanley

David Shing – AOL

And those are not the only big names, DWS7 will be brought to you by;

Microsoft

KPMG

Maples

Invest Northern Ireland

Realex

ESB Electric Ireland

Innovation Ireland

Bloomberg

Wired

Tech Crunch

Done Deal

Dublin Chamber of Commerce

Innovation Dublin 2011

RT?

Dog Patch Labs

All of which is pretty nice. The Web Summit is a smart-casual event, but definitely wear something comfortable because you’re either going to be standing around playing with Microsoft’s latest technologies (which we did a lot last time) or sitting listing to some fascinating speakers (which we also did a lot last time).

eircom Spiders – November 10
And finally the eircom Spider Awards (or the Golden Spiders to those of a certain generation) (@eircomspiders | facebook.com/Eircom-Spiders) return this year in the Convention Centre on November 10. If you want in on these awards you better hurry, the closing date is September 23 having already been extended a week.

There are 20 categories this year,

Financial Services – Sponsored by CMC Markets

Travel, Tourism & Hospitality

Charitable & Non-Profit Organisations

Retail Excellence

E business – Sponsored by Webfactory

Campaign – Sponsored by Ad2One

News – Sponsored by Adtech

Education – Sponsored by IEDR

Web Design & Development Agency – Sponsored by IEDR

Entertainment – Sponsored by Intel

Sports – Sponsored by News Access

Listings – Sponsored by Circulator

Big Mouth (People’s Choice) – Sponsored by Rabodirect.ie

Community (People’s choice)

The Graduate

Digital Editor

Mobile App – Sponsored by eMobile

One to Watch – Sponsored by CarTrawler

Internet hero – Sponsored by Leo Burnett

Grand Prix – Sponsored by eircom

These categories will be judged by some big names in the industry, such as,

Stephen Beynon Group MD, Consumer and Small Business, eircom (Chairman of the judging panel)

Paddy Cosgrave Tech Entrepreneur and Organiser of Dublin Web Summit

John Montayne Lecturer in Digital Media Design at the Institute of Art, Design and Technology.

Margaret E Ward Journalist

Gary Conroy COO, Realex Payments

Barry Rhodes CEO, INEX

Antoin O’Lachtain MD, Digital Messenger

Cathy Grieve Owner of Red Diamond Media

Dylan Collins Jolt Gaming

Anthony QuigleyDigital Marketing Institute

Paul Lynch MD, Network Recovery

NCBI Centre for Inclusive Technology (CFIT) Standards conformance analysis

The Spiders, like the IIA Awards, are a more formal affair but there will be time to let your hair down afterwards (as the photographs of past events show).

And that’s about it, from September 30 to November 10, the next few weeks are going to be busy for Ireland’s technology gurus, and also us. If you see us lurking around these, say hi.