Padraic Gilligan, VP Ovation Global DMC and VP Industry Relations, MCI Behind me a guitar was being tuned. The tuner then addressed the crowd and launched into the Rod Stewart version of “Sailing”. He was truly terrible and gave the lie to Tanenbaum’s thesis that music on the underground leads to a decrease in crime…. Read more »
by Padraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua Heavy showers quickly clear to reveal a bright blue early autumn sky as you arrive at Connemara Regional Airport. There are no lines at the airport, no endless security queues, no loudspeaker announcements, no numbered boarding gates. Instead you’re subjected to a “weigh in”, the results from which determine… Read more »
Five Key Ingredients for a Successful Incentive Travel Programme Padraic Gilligan, Managing Director, Ovation Global DMC For the past five days I assisted my colleagues at Ovation Switzerland in the operation of an incentive travel programme for a US based Finance & Insurance customer. On departure day I listened with great interest as the Incentive… Read more »
“Munich: a world of its own” by Padraic Gilligan, VP Ovation Global DMC He wanted a regular soak in hot suds and, lacking the facilities under his own roof, His Majesty Ludwig I of Baveria decreed that a luxury guesthouse be built. Thus over 170 years ago the Bayerischer Hof opened its doors offering a… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Director, Ovation Global DMC There’s so much more to Malaysia than Nasi Goreng, Langkawi, Proton cars and politicians wearing funny hats. A week in Kuala Lumpur on Peninsular Malaysia and Kuching in Sarawak, East Malaysia leaves you feeling you’re only scratching the surface of this fascinating territory which, incredibly, traces its… Read more »
“Flash mobs in Bangkok: is this Thailand ?” by Padraic Gilligan, Managing Director, MCI Dublin and VP Ovation Global DMC I thought I was in the middle of a Flash Mob. It was evening rush hour and I had just gotten off the Skytrain. I could hear music playing all over the station and people… Read more »
“Prague and the Road not Taken” by Padraic Gilligan If ever there was a place to follow Robert Frost’s advice and take “the road less travelled” it’s Prague. If you do you’ll discover an achingly beautiful city, natural and unspoilt, charmingly unselfconscious, wearing no make-up. To do this you’ve got to move quickly beyond the… Read more »
“Budapest is knocking on heaven’s door” by Padraic Gilligan When the long haired buskers in the underpass are playing complex counterpoints by Bartok and Bernstein rather than “Knocking on Heaven’s Door” by Bob Dylan then you know you’re in Budapest. This is a city with a profound intellectual and cultural DNA which it carries naturally,… Read more »
Rooms with a View – private venues in Florence by Padraic Gilligan Italian cities, in general, don’t carry their illustrious past as a burden that prevents them from getting on with 21st century living. The past is integrated into the present sometimes seamlessly, sometimes not but, either way, contemporary life simply carries on, regardless, amidst… Read more »
My abiding memory of Las Vegas rotates around Moon Civetz’s company, Maverick Aviation Group. It was during the last Incentive Research Foundation (IRF) Invitational in 1995 when the IRF was still the Site Foundation and I was on the Site Board. Site CEO Brenda Anderson had persuaded me to accompany her on a helicopter ride… Read more »