Shortlists announced for the IIA & Enterprise Ireland Net Visionary Awards

The Irish Internet Association are delighted to announce the 15 shortlists for the 2009 IIA & Enterprise Ireland Net Visionary Awards. The awards will take place on May 21st 2009 in the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Santry, Dublin. The Net Visionary Awards are an annual awards ceremony that celebrate the best in online business in Ireland. On the night of the awards, an overall Net Visionary is announced. Previous overall Net Visionary award winners include most recently Pat Phelan, MAXRoam, Fergus Burns, Nooked.com, and Ray Nolan of Hostelworld.com.

Fergal O'Byrne, commenting on this year's shortlist, said, "This year's shortlist covers a broad range of businesses from a variety of sectors. It includes gardeners, car maintenance companies, companies in the media and hospitality sectors, financial services, educators and communicators. This wide range of companies, small and large, demonstrates that more and more business people are turning to the internet as a cost effective, easy to use and measurable resource. All of these elements are key to maintaining a profit in difficult times. Awards like the Net Visionary Awards highlight the very best of the best, inspiring other Irish businesses and demonstrating the potential of moving your business online."

Nominations were accepted online from the public between February 23rd and March 27th 2009. Over 350 valid nominations were received, more than any previous year. Each of these nominations were assessed by a panel of judges who whittled them down to 15 shortlists of 5 each. The public are now invited to vote in each category until May 1st 2009.

Tickets for the awards can be booked online at www.netvisionary.ie. The awards are preceded this year by the IIA National Congress: Better Business Online in a Tough Economy: Money, Marketing, Monitoring & Mobile which continues until Friday May 22nd 2009 in the same venue.

More information and previous winners lists

There are 15 categories. This year's supported charity is the Irish Multiple Births Association.

1. Best Business Blogger
2. Best Business Podcaster
3. Best Online Financial Service sponsored by Data Electronics
4. Best Online Trader sponsored by Realex Payments
5. Best Use of Social Media
6. e-Government Award sponsored by AIB Merchant Services
7. Innovation Award sponsored by Microsoft
8. Internet Entrpreneur sponsored by The Digital Marketing Institute
9. Internet Marketer
10. Journalist Award sponsored by Elucidate
11. Mobile Internet Innovation
12. Online Tourism Award sponsored by Fáilte Ireland
13. Social Contribution
14. Web Designer Excellence
15. Web Developer Excellence sponsored by dotMobi

Please click here to see all those shortlisted