By Padraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua I like the way your sparkling ear rings lay Against your skin so brown And I want to sleep with you in the desert tonight With a billion stars all around I got a peaceful easy feeling I know you won’t let me down … Written by Jack Tempkin… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua [THIS IS PART 2 OF A TWO PART DESTINATION BLOG ON BELFAST] When Patrick and I started Delaney Marketing Consultants back in the early 90s our sales trips to the US usually involved a tale or two. One story, which became our unique selling proposition, involved our 10 children:… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua [THIS IS PART ONE OF A TWO PART BLOG ON BELFAST] Throughout our years with Ovation and MCI and now with SoolNua, Patrick and I have spoken at MICE events about destination selection or why certain destinations are so popular for meetings, incentives, conferences and events. While random subjectivity… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua O wad some Power the giftie gie us To see oursels as ithers see us! Robert Burns “To a Louse” The sayings of my late mother have featured previously in this blog. This time I lead with one of her favourites, from Robbie Burns, written originally in 1785, but… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua Westport was recently voted the best place to live in Ireland, an accolade that has nothing to do with the clemency of the weather there as the town is right on the Wild Atlantic Way where the weather is as unpredictable as the moody Atlantic itself. I’ve experienced blistering… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua I remember that Summer in Dublin … It was a warm 22 degrees and the mid morning streets of Dublin were bathed in bright July sunshine. Our pop-up café culture was already in full swing, the pavements crammed with cool people drinking all sorts of coffees and coloured juices… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua Frisson of Excitement The French Quarter was largely unaffected when Hurricane Katrina caused Armageddon-like devastation in New Orleans in 2005. So on the first morning, as my colleague Aoife and I ambled around on a jet-lagged pre-dawn stroll, it was just as I remembered it from way back. The… Read more »
by Padraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua I felt sorry for our hosts. Two years working on an event to bring some of the most powerful Professional Conference Organisers in the world to your city and there’s a deluge that wouldn’t look out of place in the recent Hollywood blockbuster, Noah. What’s generally an idyllic alpine… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua For 50 years Avis, the car rental company, used “We try harder” as its tagline. It was a piece of brilliant disruptive marketing, fashioned under the leadership of CEO Robert Townsend, aimed at taking down Hertz, the dominant market player at the time. Instead of bland, vacuous hyperbole laying… Read more »
by Padraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua Collective Confusion Ireland’s historical relationship with food has tended to be problematical. Our DNA has tended to be encoded with vague, indistinct memories of famine and fasting leaving us collectively confused about the purpose and meaning of food in our lives. We were less unsure, mind you, about our… Read more »