The BIC Awards.

Yeah I know it has been a while since this event and I have been always meaning to upload photos from it when I finished college but I got distracted. The BICs stands for the Boards of Irish College Societies. Giving Eirtakon won best event at the DCU clubs and societies awards we were nominated for best event for the BIC awards which means you win the best in the country. The BICs were held in the Hudson Bay hotel which is a Spa hotel and was very nice. You had Lough Rea as your view. The hotel is just located outside Athlone.



Here is a picture of the outside of the hotel.

This event took place around the end of April, me thinks... So Stephen, Sean who is on the committee and I went to Athlone to represent Eirtakon. We went very early, got the train to Athlone around after 7am and the trip took nearly 2 hours. I was really tired when I got down there and there was a lot going on. There was also a lot of standing around. We realised that we could of gotten a later train as we got down too early, awh well. It was all go, go, go when we got there, no time for sleep but it was a great experience and I met a lot of people, surprisingly enough many of them were anime fans and Eirtakon attendees. We were surprised to learn that an art society were at the con. Thinking about it now, I guess that is no surprise as anime does have that artistic element to it.



So later more people arrived and on the table on the right was where we had to register.



Spot Stephen ahead in the suit and Sean on the right with his folder. This was when we were heading into the opening ceremony.



Stephen and Sean waiting for the ceremony. The ceremony was pretty much just an introduction and telling us what was in store for us ahead.



Ah yeah the queue. I just sat there while Stephen and Sean had to wait in that big queue to get the keys to our room. The guy's hoodie saying, "come and play" is a little interesting.



And they are still waiting....

After we dropped our stuff in the hotel room we headed for the restaurant for free tea and sandwiches which was really nice.



Stephen and I.



Sean looking chippy.

This was just before going into the interview. We went into this room and sat at a table. Three people at the other end of the table just asked us questions about Eirtakon and how it benefited the college. We kinda didn't know what to say there as Eirtakon to be honest didn't really benefit DCU but it was nicely covered up as Stephen and Sean both explained that Eirtakon has been a great benefit to the Irish anime, manga community by encouraging other anime events in the country and bringing the niche community together. One of the guys who asked the questions was very interested in the cosplay. After the interview we had to do a visual presentation on our event in front of people who we were competing against in the best events category.



Us doing our presentation. I think I am yawning or something. The presentations were really interesting. Many of them were fashion shows but there was one I really liked and it was a photography exhibition called, "look up". The point of the event was to display photographic images on the ceiling and that people will walk by an image everyday and never notice it. It was about observing simple things. The girl giving the talk seemed really passionate about it. Oh Do you remember this guy?



Yeah Pedo Bear. We actually met him at the presentations. He recognised us and asked us were we from Eirtakon, we replied yeah and he said that he was the famous Pedo Bear. How odd, the guy behind Pedo Bear turned out to be the chair of the Maynooth fashion show. The final presentations were from Trinity who done the Fringe Festival. Their event seemed very impressive as they put alot of work into it and had big guests. After the presentations we all knew who the winner will be.



I like these posters. There were under the best society poster category. The DCU Zombie week poster on the top left won in this category. It is a very good poster, imo the best one there.

Later on in the night was good fun and games. We were all dressed up. I wore my fancy black and white lolita dress with tights and my black heals with the bows. We all sat in the ball room eating a delicious meal and then the awards began. Well we didn't win best event, the Trinity crowd did but they really deserved it so we were happy for them. It was great that the Anime and Manga society from the University of Limerick won best new society. After the awards we chatted and hung out with the UL Anime and Manga society who were a nice bunch. Stephen and I agreed to be their staff for Brocon. Hey we get in for free. ;-) I tried to enjoy the night and chat to people but I was just way too tired and felt very anti-sociable. I really was wrecked. I ended up just going to bed. The sleep did me good. We got home early the next day. I really enjoyed the experience and was a highlight of the year for me. It was a wonderful thing to expereince as it was a one off opportunity and I met nice people. Again the hotel we stayed in was so luxurious, I love it.

Listening to: NIN - A Warm Place