by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua September is back to school time across the Western hemisphere and, for former teachers like me, has a kind of “new beginnings” feel to it, the sense of a new year starting even though, calendar-wise, we’re only three quarters through the year. It’s not dissimilar in the Events Industry… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua Event of the Future In February this year I was invited to moderate at a conference in New York. If a weekend in New York wasn’t sufficient to tempt me out of hibernation and onto a plane in the depths of winter then the title of the conference –… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua Marketing Ltd Inspiring venues – it starts at school! The learning environment in our schools all over the world has changed significantly over the decades with new thinking on how children learn impacting how classrooms are laid out and how children interact with teachers, each other and with the… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua With the generous support of Fáilte Ireland, Ireland’s National Tourism Development Authority, the Association of Irish Professional Conference Organisers (AIPCO) has been running a pan-industry Business Tourism Conference each year for the past 5 years. Rotating around Ireland’s regions, this annual occurrence attracts over 200 meetings and events professionals to an… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua Immersion, Connections, Conversations The Event of the Future was co-hosted last week in New York City by Livestream, Sli.do and Convene, three relatively new arrivals onto the meetings industry scene. Leaders from each of the 3 companies looked into their crystal balls and gave TED-style presentations on “the event… Read more »
by Padraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua SITE in Ireland The leadership of the Society of Incentive Travel Excellence – better known as SITE – staged its annual Executive Summit in Ireland recently thanks to the support of Fáilte Ireland and drew 250 meetings and incentive professionals to the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham Dublin for a day of… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua Exclusively Corporate at IMEX @Supergreybeard and I worked with our friends at IMEX on the previous 4 editions of Exclusively Corporate at IMEX and are now actively involved in the planning of the 5th anniversary edition, due to take place in Frankfurt on 14 – 16 May 2017. Hosted at… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua Social Media – no brainer! Social Media is a no brainer for destination marketing organisers (DMOs). Folks visit destinations all over the globe and spontaneously post and boast on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter about their experiences. They’re actually doing your work for you, for free, but adding that elusive… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua Mindfulness in 2016 People outside the meetings and events industry often ask me about my favourite destination or the best hotel I’ve ever stayed in or what good restaurants there are in Barcelona or Boston or Beijing. The questions are often posed in a tone that sits somewhere between… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua Way back in the 80s, when I did post graduate studies in education, all the talk was about “child centred education”, ie, tailoring the lesson to the needs of the child, building the lesson content around the perspective of the learner, taking your starting point from where the learner is etc…. Read more »