I’m not going to go and list everyone I met at the awards, but I have to give a special mention to Caroline and her friend Tríona, who makes yummy cakes in Athy. Oh - and David and Deborah who introduced me to them, and Ken who I was takling to in the line before I met them, and John and Tommy who shared my taxi from Heuston, and Peter D, and Aido and Dusty and Rick and Brian and Roseanne and Maryrose, and Joe and Darren and Darragh and Walter (Congrats!) and ConorO, and Cathal from Focal.ie who won the award we sponsored, and Jason and Robin and Elly and Marie and John macawilliams, and Eoghan and Gordon and John and Sabrina - who was the design genius behind two winners on the night (congrats also to Debz who I didn’t meet, and to Pat who twittered and Qik’d from JFK!)

So I’m not going to list everyone. That would be silly - and I’d be sure to leave someone out.

… like Damien, maybe? Well done once again, Mr. Mulley.

Here’s a Qik video of our new studio fit-out in progress.

Thursday night’s TechLudd event was a great success. Well done to all concerned!

It occurs to me that leadership has little to do with ability or experience. Children want someone to care for them and fix things. What a society of adults needs is someone to inspire them, collectively, to fix it themselves.

Maybe MC Hammer is onto something with his web startup?

Anyway, here’s what I love about web culture. Not only can Sowra/Sophie/Groovy express her talent by making and posting videos like this …

… but others can mash them up in tribute, like this:

Groovy!

From TechLudd.com:

TechLudd is a free monthly social networking event for Irish start-ups and those interested in them, from founders to funders to fans.

TechLudd was founded on the idea of nurturing a network around start-ups, building the same kind of ecosystem that the Paddy’s Valley crew discovered helped nurture entrepreneurs with access, funding, contacts and communication on their trip to Silicon Valley in December 07.

For our inaugural get together, we’re hosting a non-event: no speakers, no panels, no presentations - just some of the crew from Paddy’s Valley, who we’ll anchor to the bar so you can ask them about their experiences; an open demo table if you want to show off your stuff; and Irish start-up funders, founders and fans.

I wish I could make it, but unfortunately I’m going to have to skip this one. However, over a hundred people have signed up so I don’t think I’ll be missed. See you at TechLudd 2!

First order of business? Distinguish between his company and personal brand. Segala will continue to benefit from Paul’s profile, but not everything Paul blogs about is relevant to the company.

The amazing thing about blogs that still surprises me is how truly they represent their author. Again and again, my real-world encounters with people whose blogs I’ve followed rarely involve surprises. When I met Paul for the first time at Le Web 3, he was exactly the same person whose tweets I’ve followed for the past year.

Which is why I think the elevator pitch on his new blog is perfect:

“Serial entrepreneur is last season. I’m an Irish Opportunist who loves to connect likeminded people.”

Go maire tú do bhlag nua Paul!

• March 1st: Irish Blog Awards, Dublin
• March 2nd: WebCamp - Social Network Portability, Cork
• March 3rd, 4th: BlogTalk 2008 Conference, Cork
• March 8th: Creative Camp, Kilkenny

I hope to attend most if not all of these. I’ll definitely be at the Irish Blog Awards. I think it’s the social highlight of the blog calendar, and once again I’m sponsoring the award category for Best Use of the Irish Language. (Nominations close tomorrow!)

My itinerary since November 1st: Galway, Dublin, Dublin, Dublin, Dublin, Mayo, Cork, Galway. I’m pleased that there was only 1 night away from home (Mayo!) I’ve got another trip to Dublin later this week (and maybe Clonmel) before heading to Paris on Monday for Le Web 3.

I want to mention last week’s visit to Cork, and CIX. Along with Michael and Simon from Tipperary Institute,we brought Intruders.TV to the open day for Cork’s first professional datacentre. We’ll have more about CIX on Intruders.TV Ireland shortly, but I wanted to take this opportunity to thank Tom, Adam and Jerry for their hospitality and for sharing their enthusiasm for this very cool project.

Speaking of cool projects (and speaking of Tipperary Institute) … watch this space for an announcement before Christmas, and there’s more stuff in incubation for the new year.

Finally, I mentioned Galway was the latest touchdown on the Edgecast Media tour. That was last Sunday when Margaret and I were guests at two Irish language events. The weekly newspaper Foinse presented the Gael na Bliana awards, honouring Irish speakers from various spheres. I had been honoured earlier this year to be named as a recipient for my work with An tImeall. It was wonderful to meet the other recipients of the monthly awards - agus comhgháirdeachas ó chroí le Joe Steve Ó Neachtain a fuair an gradam Gael na Bliana, agus é tuillte go maith aige as ucht a chuid oibre.

Later we were among 300 guests at a black-tie event, Gradam Gnó na Gaeltachta - the Gaeltacht Business Awards. I love entrepreneur’s stories - that’s why I started Intruders.TV Ireland. As an Irish speaker I’m concerned about sustaining and developing the Gaeltacht communities - in fact I’m interested in issues affecting all rural communities, so this was a very inspiring occasion for me.

The awards were organised and sponsored by Udarás na Gaeltachta and TG4, with support from KPMG. A series of 5 programmes profiling the finalists was broadcast over the previous week, and the awards ceremony itself was broadcast live from Galway’s Radisson Hotel.

That was the most impressive part of the evening for me. EO Teilfís made the challenges of a live outside broadcast look like a walk in the park! Well done to everyone involved.