It’s that time of year again – the 2011 Irish Blog Awards held next weekend in Belfast are nearly upon us, and with that begins a round of social events for the biggest night on the Irish blogging calendar! Get your date books iPhones out – here’s what has been announced and I will add to this list as more events are finalised!

The IBA Belfast Photowalk organised by Davy McDonald kicks off at noon and is a great way to tour Belfast while meeting new people and taking your camera for a spin. Don’t be inimidated – you can shoot using anything from your in-pocket iPhone to your huge DSLR!
Saturday, 19 March, 11:45 am – Belfast City Hall
Info | Signup

Walter Higgens is organising a pre-event meal called Blog Awards Bites with an open table booked for 12 at paul Rankin’s Cayenne. Meal price is £18.50 and you can sign up online; everyone’s welcome!
Saturday, 19 March, 5 pm – Cayenne Restaurant
Info | Signup

The ever-fabulous Ladies Tea Party (where by “tea” we mean “wine, and lots of it”) is all set to go and includes food, drink, dessert and swanky swag bags at £20 per head. Its open to all bloggers, wanna be bloggers and dedicated blog readers and draws a friendly, welcoming crowd!
Saturday, 19 March, 5 pm – Harlem Cafe
Info | Signup

I’m delighted to announce that the 2011 Ladies’ Tea Party is a go! We’ve secured a sponsor and a venue and we are ready to make a serious dent in Belfast’s wine supply in the hours before the Irish Blog Awards!

What: The BAGglitz Ladies Tea Party
When: Saturday, 19 March 2011, 5 – 8 PM
Where: The Harlem Cafe, 34 Bedford Street, BT2 7FF
Where: The Piano Bar, Europa Hotel, Belfast
Who: You! A pre-Blog-Awards mixer for Ireland’s women bloggers
Tickets: Now available; limited to 40.

This event is now in its fourth year so I figured it was time to give it a dedicated website. I also figured that the ability to brand an event site for a sponsor would make it easier to attract one, and that it was going to be harder for me to do that this year since I’m not well-networked with any businesses in the north.

In the end, it turned out that I had the perfect client for this party: the recently launched BAGglitz.com is an Irish online retailer of handbag hangers, purse clips and charms with free international shipping so you can send swanky, snazzy, glitzy gifts to your girlfriends anywhere. It’s a great match and now I’m really looking forward to the gift bags! Many thanks to BAGglitz for sponsoring – sponsors make this event happen every year for a fabulous collection of women bloggers.

The Irish Blog Awards are my favourite event on the Irish Internet social calendar, partly because they’re huge fun and partly because the Ladies Tea Party beforehand is always such a friendly, fun warm-up for them. (One bottle of wine per person does tend to do that…) I’m really excited and looking forward to catching up with everyone from last year and meeting loads of new people this year. TEA PARTY YAY!

Note: In previous years, organisation, ticketing and question-answering for this event has taken place here on my blog. This year, please post comments, woots, yays and oh my God what do I wear? over at the Ladies’ Tea Party website. Thank you!