Paul Walsh, the Irish Opportunist

The categories for the BIMAs Awards have completely changed this year. As well as staying true to our core vision of ‘Working to support the creative excellence and craftsmanship within digital media’, we’ve also decided to inject a bit of life into the awards, making them even more relevant to industry.

This basically means focusing on all aspects of digital, ranging from the traditional executions of design teams, right through to innovative craftsmanship, which often results in those awesome little gems of wickedness.

Therefore we think you’ll find the categories a lot wider and more general, allowing for a greater variety of submissions from more areas of our industry.

So, as well as celebrating traditional creative, we’ll also be recognising a few unsung heroes.

Read my full post on the BIMA blog and get the run-down on all the categories. We’ve introduced social networking stuff too, so you can enter the best blog or the best social networking application awards.

I’m delighted to announce June 12th as the date for the next gathering of Top Cats. We’re testing out Adam Street private members club for the next gathering - One Alfred Place was good, but a 21:30 finish is a little early.

If you’re a Top Cat, pencil it in now. Please don’t register your interest just yet - I just wanted to give you a heads up. I received a response from 70 Top Cats within 24 hours of sending out the invite for May. So, make sure you’ve got your finger on the ’send’ button.

Sponsored by

Our thanks for June’s sponsorship goes to TH_NK

How to become a Top Cat

The purpose of the event is to forge greater collaboration between London’s Internet startup, Web design, interactive marketing, mobile, TV and advertising communities at the highest level.

Top Cats are now permitted to recommend up to 2 new members each month. To become a member of this exclusive club, you’ll need to be recommended by another Top Cat. Less than 20% of recommendations make it however, so please don’t be offended if you don’t get accepted

Sponsorship opportunity for future gatherings

Get in touch if you’d like to sponsor a future Top Cat event. Email paul@segala.com

BIMA, the industry association which I Chair, is now calling for judges for the BIMAs 2008. Head over to the BIMA blog to learn more.

I’ll update you with a post about the AGM Party shortly. I need to wade through a mass of unread email first.

Join us for complimentary cocktails and buffet on May 20th in Soho, London. This is a Pre BIMA Party meetup but attendance to the party isn’t essential for this gathering.

We’re limited this little meetup to 50, so please join the Facebook event now. Alternatively you can leave a comment to register your interest.

Sponsored by Propel - Recruiters from digital, recruiting for digital

Hope to see you there!

Do you want to make a difference to the interactive industry in the UK? Do you want to raise your profile and that of your company?

The British Interactive Media Association (BIMA) is now seeking 7 new Executives to join the Board. Please read my post on the BIMA blog for more information. Closing date is May 16th, so there’s isn’t much time left.

Please leave a comment (on the BIMA blog) if you’d like to learn more. That way, others get to read the responses.