We’ve been testing the nomination system informally for the past week and have most of the issues sorted now. So the curtain is up and we’re ready to use another cliché to end this sentence. Nominations will close on the 5th of February at 3pm.

Some points to note:

• Anyone can nominate a blog from Ireland/an Irish blog. You can nominate your own if you wish.
• We need contact details for the blogs you nominate. We’ll be contacting nominees to ask them to verify their blog and to choose a category if they are moved into the next judging stage.
• Every blog will be judged in round 1, some will make it through to a second round of judging, will be shortlisted and category winners will be announced on the night of the Blog Awards. There is no public vote.
• There is already a category for you. New ones will not be created for you.
• Actively blogging means the blog was in use at points between the date stamps mentioned.
• We are happy for you to use your own judgment for any other queries about the nomination system.

Just to let you know a few things about the 2010 Blog Awards:

• They will be in Galway
• We are looking at a March date
• Nominations will be opening on the first week of January for 2 weeks
• There are going to be new categories as well as old ones that will go
• There will be changes to the way nominations happen

And they’re like, it’s better than yours. Good post from Lottie on body image and self-confidence.

I may not have Elle’s legs, but I will wear a skirt if I want. I will also walk around naked if I like – no more turning off lights of shying away – I’m pretty sure my elderly neighbours won’t appreciate this but screw em – they’ll be dead soon. Mavis, Denis, live a little.

Congrats! And then this is Lottie getting clotheslined by someone at the Blog Awards. Ouch.

The 2009 Blog Awards with 300+ people attending have definitely had the most positive feedback publicly and privately. Each year we get better at this lark where we try and mix a sense of fun and good organisation. When everything comes off perfectly, then we may retire. And we also have our own Builidng 7 conspiracies too, that’s when you know you’re bigtime. Thanks!

There are a huge amount of people that need to be thanked for their help with this. While it may seem to have run smoothly on the night there was a lot of stress and turmoil and shouting happening behind the scenes. Like the kitchen run by that foul-mouthed ginger fella.

Firstly thank you to the very gracious sponsors who decided to invest in an event that is not very commercial and where the list of what you can’t get is longer than the list of what you will get. The sponsors invest in a community event and all take part in the community by promoting the longlistees, the shortlistees and the winners with many sponsors traveling on the day to mix with those that attend. It’s not really traditional sponsorship as these sponsors work a bit more than those that just throw money in return for seeing their logo on a trophy and in some leaflets. In return though they build good personal relationships with what is a huge community of bloggers now.

Thanks to the 70+ judges this year too who really worked hard to judge some great blogs.

The videos and intros this year have set a standard that probably will not get matched and will be futile to do so. Thanks to John Williams and scriptwriter Twenty Major for the intro, intermission and end video as well as the category introductions. A huge thanks to Darragh Doyle, Darren Byrne, Anthony McGuinness and an army of people who made widly funny and entertaining videos. Seriously, have a look at the videos and realise that people took time off work to put this together and put in weeks of work. The only motivation was to give something back to their peers. It’s humbling and there’s a definite future in video for many of these folks. Some are saying this is what upped the game this year and it’s hard to argue against it.

And then there’s the photos. The brilliant photos by Ryan once again. And the hundreds of other photos taken by everyone else that attended.

A big thank you to Ciara, our Venue Finder for recommending the Cork Airport International Hotel and to Carmel Lonergan and the hotel staff who were amazingly helpful and made this the easiest event to organise so far. I’ve never met a hotel so eager to help an event along. Even the staff were contributing to the stage on the night and draggning out extra lights to add a bit of colour. What other hotel volunteers to take their own paintings off their walls so we can run an art exhbition? Speaking of which, thank you to Eolai for bringing down and showing off his art. He’s also got a charity auction going for one of his paintings.

Did you like the speech bubbles? Fran made all those and he’s got a caption competition for the best caption.

Thanks to Steven Day for being the ref for the game of Twister:

Thanks to Radio Friendly Brian Greene for the sound. Vote for him!

Thanks as well to Klara and specially Alexia for all the hard work they put into this. And to the many many more people who got missed in this first draft but will get added over time. Edit: See, I forgot a hugely important person:

Thanks to John Blackbourn, the web god who built and admined the nomination and judging system. Cheers John!

Thanks to Sarah and Nigel in Murray Consultants and Heineken Ireland for supplying the free beer at the start of the night. A lot of free beer. Also thanks to Heineken for those fantastic magnums of Heineken.

Of course then thanks to everyone that blogs and supports blogging and has encouraged blogging.

Lastly and most importantly, thanks to this wonderful man who turns it up to 11 when it comes to being an MC. I really wonder why Rick doesn’t get asked to do more MCing events, though it’s nice that he’s ours:

So this is our thank you but please do thank those sponsors and the hotel and your MC for their work. It takes dozens to put an event like this together and very understanding companies to sponsor it. See you somewhere in Ireland for the Blog Awards 2010

Full Winners List.