The Social Media Awards are happening for the first time in Lebanon and I thought it would be fun to share my nominations for the various categories listed. Before that, here’s how the selection process will occur:

Stage 1: Online Nominations
Members of the online community nominate candidates for different categories via our website www.SMABeirut.com. Users can nominate themselves, friends or an organization on business based on the criteria of each category. Their submission is accompanied by relevant material such as Facebook links, Twitter accounts, blogs and other platforms to support their candidates.

Stage 2: Judges Selection
Based on the nominations received, our team of experienced and celebrity judges from different backgrounds will be narrowing down the nominations in each category to seven (7) nominees within two weeks of closure of nominations. The whole process will be carried out in pure transparency and an announcement event will be held for the press and online community.

Stage 3: Final Vote
Members of the online community are asked to vote for their preference in each category over a period of one month. During this period, nominees will be able to campaign for obtaining votes.

Stage 4: Awards Ceremony
An awards ceremony will be held for over 750 invitees from digital agencies, VIPs and online influencers with entertainment, key guest appearances, and VIP guests bringing Oscar-like award glamour to social media. [SMABeirut]

I took a look at the judges’ list and the ones they chose are more than qualified for this job, with 1 or 2 exceptions which I will not name. One thing that I would have done differently is narrow down the nominations to 4, as I think 7 is too much.

Anyway back to the nominations, here it goes:

Best Blog of the Year
Beirut Spring: I’ve always been astounded by the insights Mustapha provides on the Lebanese society and Lebanon in general despite being abroad. He is concise, convincing, methodical and is among the very few bloggers that I agree with almost always. Oh and he never misses a chance to throw in a new term in every post and make me look for it online.

Best News Blog
Hummus Nation – The good thing about Hummus Nation is that his news are always reliable because he makes them up.

Best Lifestyle Blog
L’armoire De Lana – Lana has been pulling an impressive job ever since she launched her fashion blog. She’s posting daily, tweeting all day long, uploading pictures all the time. She’s doing it right and she totally deserves it.

Best Technology Blog
Tech-Ticker – A website founded by a group of Lebanese Technology enthusiasts covering the latest tech news and reviewing the most recent tech products.

Best Personal Blog
Gino’s Blog – Gino is truly commited to his blog and it shows through his posts. His views on certain topics are as far as they come from the conservative “Lebanese” thinking yet he manages to convince his readers most of the time. Neuromarketing at its best.

Most Engaging Media Personality
Magazine: RagMag’s Editor in Chief Fida Chaaban.
She devotes a lot of times to social media and interacting with readers and that’s not something easy to pull. In fact I don’t think I know any other media personality as devoted as her.

Best Performer
Nemr Abou Nassar: He was funnier when he started and I didn’t like his latest shows but he’s doing a great job online and deserves that award. The problem is here very few performers in Lebanon are active online to begin with.

Best Vocal Artist (Non-Arabic)
Tania Kassis

Most Creative Instagram Account
Mark

Most Viral YouTube Video
I would have loved to say Buzz but it turned out to be a copycat from an old US commercial. I’ll go with LebaneseBrew’s Try Something Brave.

Most Engaging Tweep
TrellaLB

Most Engaging Celebrity on Twitter
Celebrities in Lebanon have no idea how to use Twitter.

Most Engaging Media Personality on Twitter
TV/Journalist: Shada Omar.
Despite having almost 100,000 followers on Twitter, Shada dedicates time to almost everyone that interacts with her and is always interesting to talk to.

Most Engaging Diplomat on Twitter
HMA Tom Fletcher – If you wanna know why, read [this].

Best Business on Twitter
RagMag

Best Organization/NGO on Twitter
Donne Sang Compter

Best Pub/Bar
February30 and The Angry Monkey. The Angry Monkey’s last tweetup was the best I’ve been to in months and the place was packed. Bravo Jessy!

Best Restaurant, Café or Bakery
Roadster Diner and Zaatar W Zeit.

Best Hotel
Phoenicia Beirut.

Best Commercial District Account
LeMall

Best NGO/Community
Donner Sang Compter

Best Startup
Dermandar.

Source

The competition is a bit demanding but totally worth it as you walk out with a 500$ personalized gift.

Here’s what you need to do:
1. Sketch the piece of jewelry that you want to offer to your lover/girlfriend/boyfriend/sister/bestfriend/mother, anyone who means to you.

2.Take a picture with your phone

3.Send it to us on L’Armoire De Lana’s Facebook Page through inbox messages or by email to
lanasahely.fashion@gmail.com

At the end of the competition, Tania and Dima Nawbar will chose their favorite and most touching design and invite the winner to the workshop to have its piece produced on time for Valentines’ day in a budget of $500. Other 4 winners will also be announced and they’ll get the chance to get a 15% off if they ever decide to have their sketches produced by Valentines!

I should ask Lana if we can draw using the Samsung Galaxy Note2 or LG Optimus Vu pen since I never found a use for it.

Read more about it [Here].

Spotted at ABC Achrafieh

I knew Mouawad Jewerly was big but I had no clue it was that famous. In fact, Paris Hilton is one of many who wore their collections, including celebrities such as Heidi Klum, Jennifer Lopez and Angelina Jolie to name few.

Fred and Pascal Mouawad are currently running the multinational jewelry and timepiece company founded back in 1891. Headquarters are not in Beirut but instead in Geneva, Switzerland.

You can read more about them [Here], and their unique diamonds collection [Here].

Spotted at ABC Achrafieh

After closing down its branch on Charles Malek’s Avenue, Bulgari opened its first boutique in Beirut around two weeks ago. The newly open boutique is on 140 El Moutrane Street Downtown Beirut and sells Bulgari watches, fragances, eyewear, jewelry and sunglasses.

I once visited Bulgari’s boutique in Achrafieh to get a handbag for my gf but I changed my mind after I was told it costed some 1300$.

Lana from L’armoire de Lana and Beiruting were at the opening.

Top 10 pictures of 2012. Picture taken by Goran Tomasevic. Azaz, Syria. Aug. 15, 2012.

I always enjoy reading Time’s Top 10 lists from year to year. Check out the 55 wide-ranging lists [Here].

The HuffingtonPost has a bigger album of 2012′s best pictures that you can check [Here].

When someone mentions fashion in Lebanon, first thing that comes to my mind is the Lingerie show in Faraya

Someone pointed out to me the other day that she loved BlogBaladi because I talked about all sorts of topics, including Fashion. I was a bit surprised at first because I couldn’t remember writing fashion posts, or at least it’s been a long while since I ever wrote one. In fact it’s been almost 10 months since I came up that “Zuhair Mrad: Like a Boss” post.

Nevertheless, even though I am not really interested in fashion, I’ve been following up closely on a Lebanese fashion blogger who’s been doing a great job ever since she launched her blog and that I believe is worth a mention. She posts regularly, passionately in a professional manner and is one of the most active fashion bloggers in Lebanon.

To be honest, some of the posts/reviews she writes don’t really interest me but others are fun to read and could prove helpful when you need to buy your gf/fiancee/wife a gift. She always tries to have the scoop on upcoming fashion events/openings/shows and posts tons of pictures of herself or others trying out new outfits. Plus she’s posting about men fashion lately so that ought to teach us men a few things, such as how to dress for work for example.

I am talking about L’armoire de Lana of course, which you can visit by clicking [Here].

Jennifer Lopez: I want your most expensive and unique dress for the American Music Awards. Don’t disappoint me Zuhair!
Zuhair Murad: Don’t worry Jenn! You will be the only one to wear this dress in 2011.

Hayfa Wehbe: Badde dress ma byefham lal NYE party Ok Zuz?
Zuhair Murad: Don’t worry Hayoufti! You’ll be the first to wear this dress in 2012.

A week after NYE 2011

Haifa Wehbe started 2012 in a grand ceremony in Biel downtown Beirut; the star looked sexier than ever in a Zuhair Murad dress similar to the one previously worn by Latin bombshell Jennifer Lopez. [Link]

Haifa Fans: Jennifer lopez wore the same dress as Haifa Wehbe. [Link]

[Jennifer Lopez] [Haifa Wehbe]

[Photo Courtesy of BeirutDrive-by]

This is even worse than Moukarzel’s “Mon Bijou, Mon Droit” ad.

Lebanon World Supermodel- Danielle Salamouny and Pacific Islands Miss Teen Supermodel- Mickaela Swamy were crowned the winners of this year’s Miss Teen Supermodel and World Supermodel Pageant at the Amanuca Island Resort yesterday. [Link]

This is the first time a Lebanese woman wins an international beauty contest ever since Georgina Rizk. Read more about it [here].

You gotta adapt… Horses can’t play polo in the sand! You gotta use camels for that!

Spotted at Jeddah airport in Saudi Arabia

Christian Louboutin was in Beirut for his Beirut store’s 1 year anniversary. Elissa was also there looking hot along with a ton of fans. You can check out more pictures and details on Confashions [Here]

BeirutNightLife have posted pictures of my favorite event of the year, actually my second favorite since my first favorite is the K-lynn lingerie fashion show in Faraya. You can visit their site to check out the pictures and read the article [Here]

Or because I am super nice, I’ve put all 217 photos in one 20MB zip file and you can download that from [Here]

I was tempted few days before Valentine to approach some of the jewelry shops in ABC dbayyeh and see what they got to offer. Aside from the incredibly unrealistic prices they had for the tiniest of items, what caught my attention and made me laugh were the discounts the sales people gave me.

One diamond bracelet caught my attention at the first place I checked so I asked the guy there how much it cost and he answered me: 9700$ is its original price (then he starting typing some random numbers on his old fashioned calculator) and told me price after discount is 4500$ and we can still negotiate the price if you are serious about buying it.

Another place I checked had a pendant for around 14,000$ which becomes for ONLY 8000$ after discount. Of course I got the “akeed messieur hayda mich ekhir se3er” response after the 7000$ drop in price.

And it was the same for almost all shops except one or two who gave only a 10-15% discount.

I ask here: Why would they price it this high and then discount that much? No one is that stupid to think they are doing him a great discount because they apparently do this for everyone, so why can’t they price it reasonably?

Pardon me, ladies. Have you seen my poles? A bunny sloper “accidentally” skis into a photo shoot featuring Miss World Top Model 2010 Luna Ramos of Venezuela (left) and Miss Venezuela 2007 Adriana Pena at the Lebanese ski resort of Kfardebian. [Day in pictures]

Venezuela Top Model 2010 and Miss Venezuela 2007 Adriana Pena were performing a photo shoot at Faraya Mzar yesterday. Click here for more pictures.

Apparently it is made out of snake leather!