by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua Frankfurt is a destination in a neutral grey Hugo Boss suit that waits patiently at the side of a traffic-free road rather than cross the street when there’s a red light. It’s laid out on both banks of the broad Main River, the two sides linked by bridges of… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua As a professional in the meetings industry I get to go nice places, stay in nice hotels, eat in nice restaurants and drink nice cocktails that someone else is often paying for. At least that’s they way it often appears to my family and friends and, frankly, I’ve long… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua The more I travel the more I realise how much a nation’s past constantly informs its present. Some countries more than others – either out of economic necessity, human curiosity, plain colonial greed or evangelical zeal – have tended to look beyond their own borders and set sail for… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua Sunset in the desert I was caught in the gaping gap between deep philosophical ponderings, practical commercial considerations and the overwhelming beauty of the moment. I couldn’t get W.B. Yeats’s apocalyptic poem out of my mind as I watched the bearded falconer spin his bait with ever-increasing speed in… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua Perfect for Culturally Curious + Social Energisers During the MCI / Ovation years Patrick and I were privileged to work on the annual conference of a Professional Association in Ireland. We helped to stage this event all over Europe but usually in tier two or tier three destinations like… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua Under the gloomy skies of a stormy January I was thinking about Louis MacNeice’s poem “Dublin”. Written in 1939, with Europe on the brink of war and Ireland as a nation barely standing on its hind legs, it’s not surprising that MacNeice saw Ireland’s capital shrouded in grey: Grey… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua Travelling but not visiting I was miles away. “Sounds of Silence” kept playing on my mental jukebox. I thought how powerful it is as a portrayal of our contemporary culture, plunging headlong into a sort of individualist nihilism: People talking without speaking People hearing without listening People writing songs… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua Reputation, Reputation, Reputation I haven’t seen the movie “Hostel” (2005) but it does for the reputation of Slovakia and its capital what “Midnight Express” (1978) does for Turkey. To add insult to injury not a single frame of the movie was actually shot in Slovakia but in the neighbouring… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua The end of austerity In early 2014 following 4 successive years of severe belt tightening and austerity Ireland officially exited the bailout programme imposed by our masters in Europe. The years of hardship were not good for the hospitality sector in Ireland with many hotels re-possessed by the banks,… Read more »
by Padraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua 4th city in North America Toronto has recently overtaken Chicago to become the fourth largest city in North America after Mexico City, New York and LA. Yet when you mosey down Queen Street West or gaze at Lake Ontario from your eleventh floor room at the Westin Harbour Castle… Read more »