As the fourth annual Irish Blog Awards looms on the horizon, we can look forward to a spectacular night with over 700 submissions and 21 categories in what has been a busy and very successful year for the Irish blogosphere.
This year’s Blog Awards will be held in Cork at the Cork International Airport Hotel with 2FM DJ Rick O’Shea acting as MC for the night.
The entire event is non-commercial and all profits will go to the Rape Crisis Network Ireland and Marymount Hospice Cork.
Among the 21 categories are ‘best popculture’, ‘best blog from a journalist’, ‘best humour blog’ and ‘best use of Irish language in a blog’.
Not only are individuals battling it out on the night (Saturday 21st February) for the Grand Prix, but businesses are increasingly getting in on the act.
“It’s now not unusual to hear about Irish companies having blogs. Other companies and organisations without blogs are working with bloggers, getting their feedback, inviting them to events,” said Irish Blog Awards organiser Damien Mulley.
“There certainly is more mainstreaming of blogging now than there was when we started these awards four years ago. Some day soon, a business or an organisation with a blog might be as normal as a business having a listing in the Golden Pages.”
As a precursor to the Blog Awards ceremony itself, a variety of events this week are celebrating the Irish blogging scene, including an event on Wednesday to celebrate talented bloggers who have won book deals as a result of their blog, and a teen bloggers event on Friday.
Full details for the entire week and the event itself are available at http://awards.ie/blogawards/.
By Marie Boran
