See photos in this Flickr Set.

Due to a late essay, I never got to write my intended blog post about the Student Media Awards which took place on Thursday April 2nd in the Mansion House in Dublin. Mark Coughlan and Cian Ginty were quick off the mark, and I’ d recommend reading their posts to get a sense of the night. Personally, it was excellent, made even more so by the fact that my friends did particularly well.

It’s also a great way to meet the college media from around the country, but it’s difficult to find the time during the course of the evening. A few more meet-ups might help us all learn from one another and do better. But how to start?

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Recently, I was ensnared one evening by YouTube, and spent far too much of my time watching Steve Jobs’ keynote speeches from every MacWorld Expo I could find.

Now, this might sound like a terrible waste of time, but it was in fact an eye-opening experience as to exactly why Apple is such a strong company despite such a small market share.

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Posted by Dave Molloy in •Business •Tech
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I’ll be attending the Irish Student Media Awards tonight in the mansion house, and in collaboration with @gavreilly and @gearoidorourke, will be on Twitter with results and pics (I’m @davemolloy).

If you’d like to follow along, you can do so by keeping an eye on the #smedias hashtag, using this search link: search.twitter.com feed for #smedias tag.

Best of luck to everyone, should be an excellent night.

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Posted by Dave Molloy in •Journalism
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The biggest social event in the Trinity College calendar, the Trinity Ball, is Europe’s largest private party and is a black tie event. This year, in order to create a buzz around the event leading up to ticket sales, the organisers withheld the last act until today- revealing that it is, in fact, The Script.

Today, Facebook (which holds a massive place in Trinity’s social structure, far more, I think, than other universities) is awash with complaints, dismay, and general name-calling aimed at the Ents office. I think this is a little unfair- The Script, while not my type of music, are generally considered up-and-coming high-profile stuff- but it has to be said that this demonstrates a misunderstanding of how PR works.

If you’re going to keep people in suspense, there needs to be a pay-off of some kind. Deliberately heightening the public’s expectations does not automatically create a positive response- you run the risk, as in this case, of disappointing lots of people. And in the end, it amounts to a simple case of knowing your audience.

The reason that this is frustrating? Because the Ents office at Trinity has recently recognised the fact that the students there have, by and large, a preference for indie and electronica music. So much so, that they’re holding the launch party for the Trinity Ball at a new indie night called NOIZE in Andrew’s Lane Theatre on Wednesday. It should have occured to someone that raising expectations, only to reveal an act that will, by virtue of their genre, disappoint a large number of people (there were rumors of MGMT, for crying out loud) would create negative publicity.

Again, I’ve nothing against The Script myself, and in my opinion, Trinity Ents and MCD (their partners in the ball) have consistently produced good results, and I’m sure it will be a fun night. I’m just agog that the potential backlash for letting the rumour mill turn without actually having a stellar hand didn’t occur to someone.

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Posted by Dave Molloy in •Business
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