by Pádraic Gilligan, Co-founder, SoolNua | Research & Consultancy, SITE Incentive Travel Index 2025 The 2025 Incentive Travel Index is now in the field and, based on recent findings from NorthStar Media’s Pulse survey, we’re seeing a marked shift in sentiment around incentive travel. “Uncertainty” has become the watchword. With the Damocles’ sword of tariffs… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Co-founder, Soolnua Consulting & Research | Consultancy, SITE Sue Uda, who founded the Ireland Chapter of SITE in the late 1990s, has sadly passed away after a long illness. As the Irish saying goes, “Ní Bheidh A Leithéid Ann Arís” — her like will not be seen again. A quiet visionary, Sue… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Co-founder, SoolNua & Research | Consultancy, SITE The mood music The mood music around global trade, and by extension, around business events, now sounds like Shostakovich’s or Rachmaninoff’s darkest, most tormented pieces. Or, to use a biblical reference, it’s the Book of Job. When it seems that things can’t get any worse,… Read more »
By Pádraic Gilligan, Co-Founder, SoolNua | Research & Consultancy, SITE We now live in a global society where conflict, in all its forms, has become the new normal. Game-changing decisions that impact entire industries are being made—and unmade—within 24 hours. Global trade, poverty alleviation programs, pathways to peace, and even fundamental values like inclusiveness are… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Research & Consultancy, SITE & Co-Founder, SoolNua I travelled to Athens recently to speak at a gathering of meeting and incentive travel professionals, organised by Hosts Global, one of our industry’s foremost and leading DMC consortia. I was asked by my friends Kurt Paben and Tina Gaccetta to speak on trends and… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Co-founder, SoolNua Consulting As we usher in 2025, the business events industry faces a turbulent yet transformative landscape. Global macroeconomic shifts, geopolitical instability, and the rise of a new world order cast ominous shadows over the horizon. Yet, despite the challenges, there are significant opportunities for those of us prepared to adapt,… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Co-founder SoolNua & Chief Marketing Officer, SITE The origins of SITE – the only professional association dedicated exclusively to incentive travel – are well-documented. We even have living witnesses to its founding meeting at the Hotel Americana on December 3, 1973. That said, the roots of incentive travel itself as a corporate… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Chief Marketing Officer, SITE & Co-Founder, SoolNua Consulting There’s a line in Arthur Miller’s great tragedy Death of a Salesman, where Willy Loman, the play’s main character, is described as “a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine … ” Whenever I saw Bob Moony,… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Chief Marketing Officer, SITE The leadership of most professional associations—SITE included—are likely familiar with Bowling Alone (2000), Bob Putnam’s seminal work on America’s declining social capital. Association leaders turned to Putnam’s research to better understand the precipitous drop in membership numbers. The Decline of Social Capital: Putnam’s Timeless Insight Putnam attributed this… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Co-founder, SoolNua Consulting & Chief Marketing Officer, SITE At IMEX America this year, SITE and our partner, the Incentive Research Foundation (IRF), launched the 2024 Incentive Travel Index (ITI) to a packed room of eager attendees in Las Vegas. Each year, the ITI gives us a clear snapshot of where incentive travel… Read more »