Need To Get Out More
May 27, 2008 at 3:46 pm
There’s a lot of talk going on right now about Ammado and their recent spamming of a number of top bloggers. It seems that they harvested a whole bunch of names and emails and then sent them a mass email asking them to blog about something they’re running relating to UNHCR.
There are a couple of accounts of it here:
Damien’s [parental guidance!! Warning this blog carries strong language]
It looks like there’s one person called Natalia who’s carrying the Ammado torch on Alexia’s blog. Her attitude is ALL WRONG. When the blogosphere turns on you because you have BROKEN THE LAW, this tone of voice just doesn’t cut it:
Oh come on people….Did Ammado hurt you when they sent those e-mails or what????
They made a huge mistake - they sent those e-mails to you as they thought you would be interested in their appeal….. but it seems you only want to make Ammado’s work harder….
Meanwhile, over on Mulley.net, in response to another Ammado person, Anna Kupka, who claimed that they didn’t expect their appeal to be regarded as spam:
What a load of bollox. If you talk yourself up at the IIA Congress and all over the press over the past few months as having a clue about people and the web you have no excuse whatsoever for spamming and for your lack of understanding of one of the most basic tenets of the Internet.
I agree.
I think it’s a case of the Marketing Department being allowed to run wild! Is Ammado full of developers and finance people, with only a tiny team of marketing graduates who don’t have the foggiest about the internet? I’ve never ever met a single Ammado person out and about, which in my opinion shows how cut off they are from the world. Like-minded people (or in this case people who are passionate about the net) tend to bump into each other again and again. The Anna’s and Natalia’s of this world ought to get out more!
Warm & Fuzzy Feeling
March 2, 2008 at 6:15 pm
The 2008 Irish Blog Awards took place last night at the Alexander Hotel and what a great night it was too! Thanks must go out to all the organisers who put so much thought and hard work into making it an amazing event. And as for Mr Mulley, the man should be sainted for his contribution to blogging in Ireland.
Congratulations to all the winners, particularly Kieran Murphy of Ice Cream Ireland who won the Best Business Blog against *stiff competition* for a second year running. He wore the full ice cream man get-up, with white wellies and all. I was also thrilled to see Best Designed Blog go to Sabrina Dent. And the Best Technology Blog go to Robin Blandford. I do love Lexia’s blog also. A hat trick was scored by Twenty Major, 3rd year running that he won Best Blog. Now that he’s got a book out and is in publicity overdrive mode, he revealed himself at the awards. Well, not in the way that some smutty minds might imagine, because that would be quite scandalous, but he was present as himself and was even autographing his book! View Twenty Major here on the left beside Joe Drum-Google!
Before the event took place, 37 women bloggers all met in the Market Bar for the Ladies Tea Party. I didn’t see a whole lot of tea being drunk, but there was plenty of chat, openness and sharing of stories and ideas. It was quite fabulous actually. I reckon I knew 5 women who were there from previous meets. I ‘knew’ about 5 or 10 more from their blogs. But by the end of it though, I felt like I knew everybody and we were all set to whoop each other on at the awards themselves. Special mention of my favourite gimick of the night was Julie-Anne Graham of Curious Tales.com who handed out fake mustaches to everybody to promote her new blog. The blog sounds really interesting; she takes old clothing and re-engineers it with a contemporary look and blogs about the story of the clothes. She also designs a rather fine range of eco T-shirts too. If anyone has any pics of me in the ‘tache, please pass them on!
For me, the Blog Awards confirmed how lucky I am to work in such a open, friendly, supportive, and highly creative, talented, and humourous industry. Everyone was buzzing to be meeting people they chat to daily in the flesh. There was much smiling and congratulating, and of course much flashing of flashes! I was getting a buzz off the fact that my favourite 5 web designers in the whole country were there within 10 metres of each other (in various states of inebriation!). At least 5 of the serious entrepreneurs who I most respect were knocking shoulders too. And it was all good.
I reckon it’s quite unique to work in such a non-hostile, supportive and open industry. Do groups of bankers and doctors all share the same warmth and camaderie at their get-togethers? I wouldn’t think so. Is there such genuine delight in the meet-ups at the Property Awards? I wouldn’t bet on it. Yes. Apart from being able to make my living doing what I love, I am also blessed that I get to it with such great people.
So that marks the end of the warm and fuzzy piece. Normal ranting and giving out service will resume tomorrow.
Couture Client
August 16, 2007 at 7:54 pm
Just back from the launch of Jennifer Rothwell’s amazing autumn/winter collection in BT’s. Jen is a dynamo - an amazing designer who has worked with names we’d all know like DKNY in New York, but also with names most of us would not know - couture designers who Jennifer has obviously learned loads from. If you’re into amazing fabrics, tailoring that makes your body look like a supermodel’s, and awesome creative design, then get your ass into Brown Thomas Dublin from now until 26th August and check out her work.
Jennifer Rothwell, Tim Ryan, and Vivienne Walsh won a competition at last year’s Dublin Fashion Week to show their A/W collections at BT’s. If they go well, who knows? Maybe they’ll be kept on. So go in there and buy up large.
You might notice too that the Jennifer Rothwell site is rather stylish also [ahem!]. An absolute pleasure to create a blog site for her, complete with Flickr feed so Jen can easily update the site with photos of her work - and encourage comments from a worldwide audience who find her on Flickr. View Jennifer Rothwell Fashion Designer site here.
