Archive for August, 2008

Day 4: Coverage so far

Sunday, August 17th, 2008

Quite happy with the coverage so far. Irish Times covered the launch of the Awards on Friday and there was a small mention in the Sunday Business Post today too. Then online there’s been massive coverage from at least 15 blogs and websites and probably more we’ve not spotted.

Red Death
Photo owned by txberiu (cc)

People are also asking about ways of contributing a small amount of money towards running the show outside of headline and category sponsorship. Right now there are no other routes to do this and it might stay that way. Instead we’d appreciate you spreading the word via blog, Facebook, Bebo and good ole reliable email. The more people that know about the Awards and submit their work, the more diverse the submissions will be and the better the Awards will be.

Day 3: Nominations are now open

Saturday, August 16th, 2008

You can now nominate your website. Right now only the creators/builders/owners of websites can nominate their own creations. (Depending on feedback we may open it to everyone) If you are a fan of a site then encourage the owner to take pride in their work and nominate themselves. They have 12 days to do so.

Some people are nominating their blogs which is fair enough but please do realise that a blog is at a disadvantage if you look at the scorecard. Fantastic content might win the day though…

When is my wedding

Day 2: This whole transparency thing – Our Costs

Friday, August 15th, 2008

Given the Irish Web Awards are talking about transparency and the like, I thought I’d share some of the cost of running an awards event. These are costs encountered so far and more costs will creep in the closer we get to the event and the fancier we make it.

  • Room and Food Rental of the room that holds around 300 people and some finger food for them costs around 10k.
  • Booze – You have to have some wine or orange juice with the finger food. Still not sure how much that’s going to cost but I’m guessing four figures.
  • MC – I’m not going to disclose what I’m paying Rick but it’s shit to be honest and he’s doing this more as he’s a friend and wants to help out on year one. Honestly, man of the year in my books.
  • Audio/Visual/Graphics/Video – Budgeting about 3k on this at the moment.
  • Bedrooms – About 1k to pay for rooms for the helpers on the night.
  • Advertising – Not a bloody chance. :)
  • They’re most of the costs and that’s not including decorations. So that’s about €20k.

    coins
    Photo owned by tuppus (cc)

    That’s the massively el cheapo version of running an Awards show. Can you imagine the costs of a bigger room, more people and having a sit-down dinner? Throw in providing rooms for ALL your judges and staff. The costs visciously add up.

    If we can keep costs down it means we can pass all those savings on to those entering, sponsoring and attending. Thus free nominations and 30 quid to put your bum on a seat.

    Day 1, Screw up 1 – There is a charge for tickets

    Thursday, August 14th, 2008

    I seem to have cocked up the communications on this one already. There is a charge on the door to get into the Awards on October 11th. A ticket for the event is €30. Apologies for the misconception it was free.

    The tickets are that price for three reasons:
    (i) People attach more value to something that charges them, even if it’s small
    (ii) It prevents messers or others from block booking 100 tickets etc.
    (iii) Headliner and Category sponsorship don’t cover all costs. It had been considered to raise category costs higher (they currently stand at €450) but this is the max we think an SME can and should pay and we want SMEs to be sponsors.

    So sorry to Ken, Michele and everyone else that thought tickets were free. Nominations are free. Your website will be judged without you putting your hand in your pocket. A ticket for the night is also a magnitude less than other award functions but that’s no excuse. We think that 16 year old we keep mentioning should be able to afford 30 quid, sure they’d spend that on fags in a week. ;) If they don’t turn up that’s cool. We’ll post the award to them.

    I think those prices are reasonable. About 8-10 times cheaper for a sponsor and 8-10 times cheaper for those that do wish to attend.

    This is the Blog of the Irish Web Awards

    Wednesday, August 13th, 2008

    Irish Web Awards

    Welcome to the Blog of the Irish Web Awards. We’ll try and update the blog as often as we can and let you know what’s happening with the Awards.