For my weekend blog I needed to check on the winners of the aforesaid Golden Spiders so I googled Golden Spider Winners 2008 and was delighted to see John Breslin’s blog as the only available source of this info. Checked again today and yes the Golden spiders site has been updated…..but only a small text link to the results – according to the landing page you can still enter for 2008, according to the linked page they will be announcing the winners shortly. And the Google listing has been joined by John Breslin on Twitter.

Is this not just the antethisis of a dynamic web presence! Does anyone else think it rather odd that the venerable organisation making awards to the industry is not even able to keep its own website up to date.  A good argument guys for ditching it and blogging or twittering instead!

Moved to Days Inn Dublin this week – just worked out if I avoided three long car commutes I saved the planet and found the extra hours I needed to keep up. Plus taking the train gave me an extra hour on 3g which is not half bad on the Kildare to Heuston route. Did not however appreciate that the hotel was advertised as 3 star on late rooms and is pretty much unclassified. Tiny rooms but the great Days bed about which I have blogged before. But there is more than a subtle difference between a Days Inn and a Days Hotel! Why do so many hotels devalue branding like that? Hilton being the classic college case history.

Thursday night was my first ever attendance at the Golden Spiders as the guests of Hibernian Health Insurance – many thanks guys for the company on the table was just brilliant (and we give all staff their insurance as we think it is the best value out there and we need to keep ‘em well!) and I had the chance to meet Aodhan of Statcounter who is a personal hero (we have at least 500 clients on their free level of stats and although Google analytics have made some progress in our stable of sites I really do not think they need to have complete world dominance yet)

As for the Spiders. Well, was I alone in feeling the party spirit was a little strained? What with all the controversy on criteria and transparency for judging I just knew our shortlisted client PrivateSeller.ie had not a prayer – (not with a guy from Daft on the panel!). I liked that many of the winners were cited as having simple easy to use navigation and I loved it that Aodhan got an award.  But did I really need to be greeted by a bevy of blank faced bewigged blondes wearing skimpy elongated gold sequinned boob tubes pinned to black bras? It may be a male dominated event but frankly I thought that stopped back in the 70′s when every sales conference in my then employer started with girls in can-can gear.

On the other hand I was  really glad to make it to the Irish Internet Association AGM this year.  Fergal O’Byrne and his team have done a great job of turning round what used to be a real old boys club – and I was amazed to learn how cost effectively.  Involvement in crafting the standards for schemes like the Fáilte Ireland Web Check and Web Build (for which we are delighted to be suppliers) have boosted the credibility of the organisation big time.  Watch this space. Those guys are going places.

Running a training day for Westmeath County Enterprise Board in Athlone today and decided to give the guys the chance to respond to the new challenges that the new interactive ‘read and write’ web environment poses.  Those in the accommodation sector are well aware of Trip Advisor et al but its a new concept to many and ewe are spending the afternoon exploring new channels and their relevance for businesses present

Halloween has always been one of my least favourite days in Ireland. Partly because it seems to be the day that my neighbour’s kids have license to scare the wits out of every animal in the place with (illegal – excuse me!) fireworks – but also it’s the day that every other year the post box gets bombed. Yes thats the day the bangers hit the plastic “an post” post box that houses the cash flow cheques that keep this show on the road. If we don’t pick up the post by 4pm it will be incinerated. For sure. Hey, who cares about the economy – it could be 5 grand up in smoke to keep the kids happy!

This week it took on a new dimension of horrors. Out of about 600 clients, we have maybe 6 who don’t understand the conventions of politeness. Half of them called on Halloween. And all hit the same support person.

The guys who run the support desk are our best asset. Forget the rest of us these are the guys (well ladies actually!) who make the web sing for our clients, sort (and explain)the small things and the large things and keep stuff running smoothly. And they are NOT responsible for the recession.

Now if there is one thing makes me see red its those 6 clients who reckon the recession entitles them to abuse the support desk. Curse them and shout at them. Whatever. Not acceptable under any circumstances and technically bullying or harassment. A competitor came to me once with his ‘relegation list’ consisting of more of these guys….. apparently we all have them. I turned him down.

Well guys – watch out for the relegation list because in our business the customer is always right until they cross the line between politeness and bombing the post box.