Irish Blog Awards Podcast Sponsorship Opportunity

The Irish Blog Awards take place this Saturday in Dublin.  I’m sponsoring one of the award categories, and I’ll also be producing the official podcast – if we can find a sponsor.

This will be a 45 – 60 minute audio programme and it will include all of the presentations and speeches as well as interviews with a variety of participants.  The intention is to capture the spirit and flavour of Irish blogging’s big social occasion - the Bloscars!

The show will be published on the Irish Blog Awards site at awards.ie (and feature as an RSS enclosure in that feed and in others as well).  Given that Irish bloggers are the stars of this show, it’s not unreasonable to assume that viral propagation will ensue!

If you’re interested in sponsoring the Irish Blog Awards Podcast 2007, get in touch with me, or with the Awards organiser, Damien Mulley.

Podcasting For Your Business. NSC, Mahon, Cork. Today at 5:30.

I’m hugely flattered that Tom enjoyed my podcast with Michael (more of those coming soon!)  At risk of sounding like a mutual appreciation society, my podcast-listening highlight of the weekend came from Tom’s stable: Eddie Hobbs keynote address to the IT@Cork conference in November.

Eddie specialises in telling people the uncomfortable truth about their finances - he can sniff out self-deception at 20 paces!  Part of his TV-appeal is the entertainment value we get from watching his clients squirm!

But there was very little scope for smugness or schadenfreude when Eddie directed his attention at the national and global economic situation.  There is no surprise in his warning  of our culture’s over-exposure to property investment – we all know there’s only one way that will end (we just don’t want to think about it!)  But his insights on the energy crisis – and it’s implications – were a revelation.

If you only hear one podcast this week …

The title of this post gives details of the seminar I’ll be addressing for IT@Cork this evening.  Brian Greene will be there also.  Tom Raftery will be in the chair.  Michael Byrne is coming.  Damien might make it, and possibly Bernie too.  If you want to see how the podcasting advantage works for business, come to the National Software Centre in Mahon, Cork at 5:30 pm.

“Keep It Up – It’s Working!”

In yesterday’s podcast I alluded to a podcast I had heard about IBM’s podcasting strategy about a year ago.  A quick search on podcasting.ie turned up Inside View #21 (MP3), which I downloaded and listened to on my way to work this morning.

Bernie Goldbach interviews Ben Edwards about IBM’s use of podcasting in their internal and external communications.  This quote stands out, from a listener to an internal weekly bulletin on supply-chain operations:

“You’ve inspired me to try this out for our group.  Keep it up – it’s working!”

Find out more about Podcasting For Business at IT@Cork next Tuesday at 5:30pm.

Michael Byrne on The Customer Experience

 

I mentioned previously that I would ask Michael Byrne of QBC Ltd to provide more details, in a guest post on this site, about the podcast-enhanced Customer Experience training programme which we are collaborating to provide.

Of course, we soon realised that what we really needed to explain ourselves was a podcast!

Here it is: 36MB, 45:31, MP3.

• Michael explains what he means by Customer Experience, and describes the services he provides to companies in order to better understand and serve their customers.
• How he uses blogging and podcasting to improve the effectiveness of traditional training and coaching.
• What happens when a company uses podcasting to capture and share experience throughout the organisation?
• Michael describes the feedback from the first company to participate in this programme.  We’ve provided an extranet website which their mobile salesforce access using a username and password.  Three podcasts a week are published to the site, and the main points are summarised and discussed on the blog.  The podcasts are listened to on PCs, on mobile MP3 players, on mobile phones, while driving …
• How “Cluetrain” is this?
• The importance of Recognition in the workforce and the value of podcasting as a means to deliver Recognition.
• This conversation is an ongoing one.  The next opportunity for discussion is at the “Podcasting For Your Business” seminar organised by IT@Cork next Tuesday.  I’ll be speaking there, together with Brian Greene of Doop Design.  Brian has also been involved in this project as Doop were engaged to build the extranet site.  Michael plans to attend the Cork event as well.

This was one of the most relaxed and enjoyable podcasts I’ve ever participated in.  I hope to extend the idea to a series of conversations with Michael on related ideas.  Watch this space!

On a personal note, after 18 months and more than 230 podcasts, this is my first in the English language!

There’s only one thing better than finding something you are passionate about, and that is: meeting someone with a passion that complements yours.

Old School

Jett Loe’s last two podcasts are well worth a listen.  Letter to America – Chapter 56 – The Airport is Jett at his surreal best!  In Chapter 57, Jett and Erin Parrish turn their attention to their fellow nominees in the Irish Blog Awards, Best Podcast category.

And what a discovery they made in “Old Bones“!  This is gorgeous blogging and podcasting: lovely essays read aloud.  The author is a lady of senior years, and the material is all the better for her experience.  I can hear echoes of activities some say are becoming a lost art in our electronic age, like letter-writing, and reading aloud.

Sometimes, when I flick through the radio channels on a Sunday evening, I come across a radio play on RTE Radio 1.  Monologues are a frequent feature of this kind of disembodied, stageless theatre.  It doesn’t matter what it’s about (and the quality isn’t even always that important) – the change of pace and style from the usual soundbites is what draws me in each and every time.

I wouldn’t be surprised if “Old Bones” has experience of radio drama.  I’d guess she’s a mainstay of her local amateur theatre group, or reads in church, or recites poetry?  Like the Sunday evening radio players, she’s got me hanging on every word.

Browsing “Old Bones” blog, I found references to “Grandad“.  He’s another senior blogger, and a nominee in 4 categories at the Irish Blog Awards.  Irish blogs are looking better and better!

Voting on the Irish Blog Awards closes today at 5pm.  I’m nominated in 4 categories and you’ll find my entry at the top of the Best Podcast list, titled An Lionra – 06 12 06.

Irish Blogs Awards Voting Commences

Over at Awards.ie, Damien and Jason have opened the voting on the nominees for this years Irish Blog Awards.

I’m sponsoring the award for the Best Use Of The Irish Language In A Blog.  This is the award I won last year, and I couldn’t be happier with quality and variety of entries for the category.

I’m also delighted to see that Irish language blogs have been nominated in other categories also, as I had hoped they would be in my acceptance speech last year.  This year sees Irish language (and bilingual) blogs nominated in 14 other categories besides.

I measca na blaganna Gaeilge (agus breac-Ghaeilge) atá ainmnithe tá: An Spailpín Fánach, An tImeall, Ach go hÁirithe, An Cainteoir Dóchais, Chetwynde Downs, Léigh Ar Mo T-Léine É, An Caomhach, An Saol, Cumann Carad na Gaeilge, Faoi Dhéin An Dorais, Spudshow, Arm Runda na Gaeilge, Blag Shomhairle, Hilary NY, MH Wombat, nobyegarawn, Roinnt Smaointe, Seo Panu ag labhairt agus Smaointe Fanacha Aonghusa.  Má tá éinne in easnamh anseo, abair liom é!

I hope to see as many of these as possible make it through the voting stages to the final shortlist, and I look forward to meeting them at the awards event.  Go n-éirí libh!

It’s all down to the voting then!  It’s been open since Friday, and it will close next Friday.  Go here to vote!

I’ve been nominated in a number of categories.  If you would like to support me, they are as follows: Best Blog (An tImeall), Best Contribution to the Irish Bloggersphere, Best Podcaster (Edgecast Media – Conn O Muineachain), Best Podcast (An Líonra 06 12 06 – Episode 11.3 – MP3)

BarCamping

Imeall #173 suffers from a little overmodulation.  I was trying out a new setup.  If you’re here for the podcasting tips, it’s an example of what not to do.  (See here for my Barcamp talk on audio quality.)

It’s listenable though and, as usual, it includes this week’s Lá Nua column.  This week I’m talking about blogger meetups, Barcamps, Geek Dinners and the Irish Blog Awards.  It seems as if these have gathered pace in the past few months.  Right now we are spoiled for choice.

Since the column went to press, there’s been a BarCamp explosion, with plans being discussed for meetings in Cork, Dublin and Galway.  Bring it on, I say!   My only problem with Barcamp Waterford was that there were too many things and I couldn’t get to attend everything I wanted.  There is more than enough BarCamp fodder to sustain Dublin, Cork and Galway gatherings – and Limerick, Sligo and Athlone as well!

I like Damien’s idea of themed BarCamps.  That said, I have a new BarCamping strategy.  I’m going to concentrate more on meeting people rather than rushing off to attend the next session.  The only way this works for me is if I know that all the sessions are being podcast – so I can get them later.  All the sessions in Waterford were videoed, but I haven’t seen those published anywhere yet.  The only podcasts I’ve heard so far were the two that Bernie and I did, plus Donncha Ó Caoimh’s (which was fascinating!)  Does anybody know if the video is going to be published from BarCamp Waterford?

Edgecast Media partners with QBC for Customer Experience podcast

On the phone, the client sounds excited: “I only got about 30% of the conversation when I took part in it.  Now I’m hearing the rest of it!”

She is reacting after hearing her own voice and those of her colleagues on their first podcast, recorded on a conference call yesterday, and published this morning on an internal company blog.

It’s an exciting step for them - and I’m excited too, to see another application of podcasting in action.

I’m especially excited to finally get the opportunity to work with Michael Byrne of QBC.  Michael and I have been talking about podcasting for well over a year now, and his business insights have changed the way I think.  In particular, he has strong ideas about podcasting as a tool in coaching and personal development.

Michael’s started a proto-blog at his own website, and I’m going to help him set up a more full-featured version with permalinks and comments.  In the meantime I’ll be inviting him to guest-blog here, on the subject of podcasting and the Customer Experience.
 
I have a special focus on Podcasting for Business this month.  On 27th February, I’ll be speaking at a seminar organised by it@cork on the subject, along with Brian Greene and Tom Raftery.  I’d love to hear your thoughts about it.  Leave a comment or send me a mail.  Thanks!

Pioneering Podcast wins Grand Prix

A pioneering Irish-language project won the top award last night at the Digital Media Awards held in Dublin’s Burlington Hotel.

The Irish-language podcast An tImeall won the award for the Best Independent Podcast, and then went on to receive the Grand Prix for the top marks received among the 22 category winners.

The Minister for Communications, Noel Dempsey, presented the award to Conn Ó Muíneacháin from County Clare based company Edgecast Media. Conn launched An tImeall in 2005. It was the first podcast in the Irish language.

An tImeall is an internet radio show. Sound files are published to the website imeall.com and listeners can play them on their computer, or copy them to a mobile MP3 device.