Pictured: Paul Dunne, head of Business Development, Realex Fire, and Damien Mulley, founder and organiser of the Realex Fire Web Awards
So far, more than 150 nominations have been logged for the Realex Fire Web Awards, which include a new category for Daily Web Publication to recognise the thriving news content industry in Ireland today. There’s another new category, too: Ugliest Website, which will come with €4,500 in web development funds for the hapless site owners.
This year’s Realex Fire Web Awards will have 29 categories recognising websites in News and Media; Entertainment and Arts; Technology and Social; Government, Education and Community; and Commerce and Mobile.
The awards are free to enter and there were in excess of 600 nominations last year.
Referring to the Ugliest Website category, awards founder Damien Mulley said that because of Ireland’s outmoded defamation laws, only website owners can nominate their sites. “That hasn’t stopped many submitting their least favourite sites to the category, though.”
He added: “The category stemmed from training sessions I give where people when discussing their digital strategy are embarrassed to look at their website or even recognise that it exists.”
Another new category, Website of a Start-up, has also been added.
“I think 2013 is the year of Irish start-ups. So many, and the quality is going way up,” Mulley added.
Nominations close for the awards on 12 September. Finalists will be announced in October and the awards themselves will take place at the Four Seasons in Dublin in November.
