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well we were more than present that the Women Mean Business Awards and Conference in the Shelbourne Hotel today Monday sept 29th. MD Helen Shaw chaired the day which featured everest mountaineer Pat Falvey, MD of Birmingham City Karren Brady and Founder of Aisling Foundation (now Kanchi) Caroline Casey. Our AV team led by Chris Clarke and Yvonne Redmond filmed the day with videographer Barry MacNeill - our regular cameraman.
This was the second event in the WMB awards so watch this space for the video.

Athena Media documentary the Last Wake is up for a major national radio award - the PPI radio documentary award - all to be revealed on Oct 10th at the PPI awards in Kilkenny. We’re one of the very very few independent producers to make it through the PPI shortlist and we’re up against RTE Radio 1’s awarding winning documentary in the shake down. So great news for both independent sector and for the BCI Sound and Vision Fund which is the primary force behind the Last Wake which was broadcast on Newstalk 106 last May…..So watch this space and wish the team well………………….

Marie Jones - the last in our featured writers in the Lyric FM series - women and words - goes out this Saturday at 3pm. The six part series draws to a close with the story of the Belfast born playwright. The RTÉ.ie Lyric FM feature on Women and Words may be found at the following link: http://www.rte.ie/lyricfm/features/1222565.html. Women and Words is the second completed Sound and Vision supported radio project by Athena Media and follows ‘the Last Wake’ documentary for newstalk 106 - which was broadcast earlier this year. ‘The Last Wake’ is up for a PPI documentary award on October 10th. We’re now in the final stages of our third Sound and Vision supported radio project ‘Urban Beauty, Urban Blight’ - a 4 part series exploring what makes cities in Ireland and the story behind urban development. This series will be broadcast on Newstalk 106. Earlier this year Athena Media completed a six part documentary Tv series ‘Winning Women’ on young Irish sports stars which was broadcast on Setanta Ireland and part funded by Sound and Vision. Athena Media is one of the few production companies in Ireland to have completed both radio and TV documentaries under Sound and Vision.

Athena Media’s radio documentary ‘ The Last Wake’ presented by Coilín O Scolaí and produced by Helen Shaw has been nominated for a PPI radio award in the documentary category. The programme which featured the work of Seamus Heaney, Anne Enright and Marina Carr, and crossed the island in gathering the changing story of death and dying traditions, is up for the award which takes place in Kilkenny on October 10th. The documentary was broadcast on Newstalk 106 and was funded by the BCI’s Sound and Vision Scheme. It was first broadcast in May and just given a repeat broadcast on Newstalk 106.

Athena Media’s latest feature for RTE TV’s series Capital D,stories about Dublin, goes out on Sept 18th in the 7pm slot. The feature ‘waste.ie’ tells the story of Dublin City’s recycling service waste.ie and the people behind and hears the stories of Dubliners who have found just what they want - for nothing - out of someone else’s unwanted household goods. Things like a piano or a bike. The feature is the latest one shot and produced by Athena Media which has been making content for RTE’s Capital D show for 3 years now.

Athena Media, now one of Ireland’s innovative content creators for TV, radio and online, celebrates five years in business this month. Athena Media was born September 2003 and moved into the Digital Hub digital media cluster in May 2004 and its been home ever since. The company has become well known for its digital media work, consultancy and content creation and includes the Dept of Communications, Justice and Foreign Affairs amongst its client base in its first five year. Athena Media makes broadcasting content for RTE Radio and TV, BBC, Newstalk 206, Setanta Ireland and its corporate clients include ComReg, IBEC, Vhi, 02, Murray Consultants, AMAS, the National Consumers Agency, the Crisis Pregnancy Agency and Calyx. The company has provided digital media future thinking for a range of global clients including RTE News and Current Affairs, EBU (European Broadcasting Union), SABC (South Africa), VRT (Belgium) and Danish Media. The company runs podcastingireland.ie and its podcast channels including 02 Making Waves and Vhi Health Club. The company’s recent achievements include an 8 part TV documentary series for Setanta Ireland ‘Winning Women’ and a six part radio documentary series for RTE Lyric FM ‘women and words’ - both projects were awarded grants from BCI Sound and Vision Scheme. Athena Media is unusual in successfully bidding for grants in both TV and radio under Sound and Vision. The company is currently completing a major series on urban development for Newstalk 106 and its creative documentary ‘The Last Wake’ - on the changing traditions of death and dying in Ireland has just been repeated by Newstalk 106 in a showcase documentary week. Athena Media’s weekly music channel 02 Making Waves is now in its third year and has over 500 unique users every day - the site itself has over 300,000 hits a month. With the company how entering its sixth year new commissions include new radio with BBC World Service and the company is currently completing a 10 part series on young people and mental health called ‘Is it Just Me?’ for RTE 2. Corporate podcasting is growing all the time as part of the company’s activities and new projects with both public and private clients are developing every month. In September Athena Media’s founder Helen Shaw will present on digital radio research at the EBU’s annual digital radio confernence, this time in Sardinia, and Athena Media in collaboration with research colleague Dr Brian O Neill has just won a digital media research project with the BCI. All busy, all good - five years a growing!

Hi
our ten part series Is it Just Me? - stories about teenagers overcoming emotional and mental health problems - from bullying to depression begins filming this week after a long summer of preparation work. We’ve been doing workshops with young people from 15+ all across the country and we’ve found some amazing young people and some inspiring stories. The series of shorts will be broadcast in young peoples programming on RTE 2 TV later this year and our filming will take us right across the country from Galway to Waterford, from Kilkenny to Ennis and here in Dublin we’re Ballymun and Clondalkin. We’re bring you more updates on the 10 episodes as they move towards completion. The researcher is Andrew Clancy and the contact for the office here is Susan Bourke.

The EBI Digital radio conference takes place in lovely sardinia, Italy sept 18-19 - and the DRACE research project will be there in the form of Brian O Neill of DIT and myself. DRACE - a digital radio European research group - has been collaborating since mid 2004 and we’re currently working on a book project for next year. We’re be presenting the book project at the EBU meeting and outlining its focus. I’ll also be providing some over-views on podcasting and radio and what recent research in Europe is telling us about how listeners are shifting their habits to include downloads. We try and trap a lot of podcasting research on our site podcastingireland.ie and its always a good mean of staying on top of whats new and happening in podcasting.