by Pádraic Gilligan, Founder, SoolNua & Chief Marketing Officer, SITE “To infinity and beyond” was a saying that Didier often used during his tenure as CEO of SITE when I served as his CMO. It’s half quoted in his last post on Facebook, from Christmas day, 2023 when he says “Merry Christmas to all my… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Founder, SoolNua & Chief Marketing Officer, SITE Recent research from McKinsey into the way we travel now is crammed with exciting, actionable insights for organisers of incentive travel programs. While the McKinsey research focuses on leisure, the trends here tend to replicate themselves in incentive travel as, after all, the travel reward… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Founder, SoolNua & Chief Marketing Officer, SITE This post explores the “Growing Up in Ireland” study, highlighting how travel is the top aspiration among 13-year-olds, especially girls and those from higher-income families. It underscores the importance of travel experiences and offers insights for incentive travel professionals on gender and socio-economic trends. Growing… Read more »
Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua & Chief Marketing Officer, SITE Recently I posted on sustainability and incentive travel concluding that current definitions / understandings of each rendered them as irreconcilable opposites – sustainability was “limiting”, requiring restraint, reduced consumption, thoughtful, conscientious behaviour while a travel reward was sans frontiers and sans souci, suggesting freedom, extravagance,… Read more »
Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua & Chief Marketing Officer, SITE Conversations at IMEX, Frankfurt, May 2024 In a recent session at IMEX Frankfurt, I had the privilege of participating in a panel discussion with fellow business events professionals Irina Graf (The MICE Blog), Gregory Baur (Zurich Convention Bureau) and Marvin Zemp (Luzern Convention Bureau). The… Read more »
Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua & Chief Marketing Officer, SITE Business Events: a USD$1.6 trillion industry Last May the Events Industry Council published the latest iteration of its Global Economic Significance of Business Events and valued business events’ contribution to global GDP at USD$1.6 trillion. This figure, in fact, would rank business events as the… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua & Chief Marketing Officer, SITE More questions than answers Last year at SITE we celebrated the 50th anniversary of our formation in 1973. One takeaway for me after a golden year of celebrating incentive travel excellence was the realisation that, in 50 years, incentive travel hasn’t really changed that… Read more »
Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua and Chief Marketing Officer, SITE Turning Adversity into Opportunity Late of Lonely Planet, Oliver Smith found himself out of a job due to the pandemic. He quickly turned adversity into opportunity by visiting ancient pilgrim sites in the UK, eventually monetising his experiences in the form of a new publication,… Read more »
Pádraic Gilligan, Chief Marketing Officer, SITE & Managing Partner, SoolNua AI is not new on the Wild Atlantic Way AI is not at all new in Ireland, at least not along the Wild Atlantic Way or in Ireland’s Hidden Heartlands. Since the 1940s, it has been a thing in rural Ireland where I have deep… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua & Chief Marketing Officer, SITE Pandemic in Dublin Deserted streets. #WFH. Skies free from planes. Weather. “Modern Family”. Zoom calls. Neighbourhood walks. Entire families on bicycles. Where the Crawdads sing. Bird song. Coffee lines. Webinars. Sourdough bread. “The Americans”. Quizzes on Zoom. That’s my random list of memories from… Read more »