by Padraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua Tourism-Review.Com recently ran a piece by David Whitley (http://www.grumpytraveller.com) entitled “A Destination Marketing Dilemma: How do you sell a city like Sheffield?” It’s a well written, mildly strident rant about what he calls the “cack-handed, hope-over-reality marketing” that many destination organisations are guilty of. He insists that destination marketing… Read more »
by Padraic Gilligan, Vice President, Industry Relations, MCI My first round of golf for 2012 was somewhat marred yesterday by last week’s social media stories. I knew there was a connection between the McDonald’s, Trip Advisor and culture/strategy stories but I couldn’t figure it out. So I stood up on the tee box, gazed confidently… Read more »
Having posted on the extraordinary inclusion of 3 Irish hotels on the Trip Advisor Travellers’ Choice Top 25 Hotels in the World I was obviously intrigued by Conor Pope’s story which appeared on the front page of Monday’s Irish Times (30 January). Apparently Pope had sight of internal correspondence authored by Jean O’Connell, Director of… Read more »
by Padraic Gilligan, Vice President, Industry Relations, MCI Group As a Irish born meetings professional I was obviously thrilled that 3 Irish properties were included in the recent Trip Advisor Travellers’ Choice Top 25 Hotels in the World. 17 countries of the world have properties listed amongst the 25: Greece, Belize, Czech Republic, South Africa,… Read more »
Global DMCs – a beautiful oxymoron? by Padraic Gilligan Allegedly, when asked for his favourite oxymoron Irishman, global entrepreneur and former international rugby player, Tony O’Reilly, said “Great Britain”. But it may be regarded as crass and unfair to explain the meaning of oxymoron by reference to O’Reilly’s wicked quip (although given the current rumblings… Read more »
By Padraic Gilligan, Vice President Industry Relations, MCI New music in 2011 has been as good as it has ever been with new bands releasing great debuts and old bands reaching new heights. These are my favourite releases from 2011 in no particular order. Hidden in their midst are some 2010 releases which I didn’t… Read more »
“It’s not about the money, money, money” Leveraging employee engagement and emotional conections for success by Padraic Gilligan, Vice President, Industry Relations, MCI In the November issue of Pharmaceutical Market Europe, Nick Eve, CEO of UK based communications agency, Pumphouse, writes about employee engagement. He quotes recent research that shows the issues facing major corporations… Read more »
“Sweet Home Alabama?” By Padraic Gilligan, Managing Director, Ovation Global DMC and Vice President, Industry Relations, MCI The much reported story of the German corporate executive who was arrested and jailed in Alabama for not having the required documentation on his person raises some interesting issues for corporate meeting planners and destination marketers. It appears the… Read more »
By Padraic Gilligan, Managing Director, Ovation Global DMC [First published in Kongres Magazine, December 2011] According to a recent exchange on Linkedin the term “DMC” or “Destination Management Company” was coined by either Tom Risbecker, Gunter Roleff or Phil Lee. Tasso Pappas and Ralph Holt, both DMC legends in their own right, opt for Europeans… Read more »
The late, great Jack Franchek once told me that success as a DMC was all about cultivating relationships with weird people. And Jack being Jack exaggerated that contention to the nth degree: “Unless you’ve got a whole bunch of outcasts and weirdos in your Rolodex (this was a pre-Internet age!), you’re as useful to me as… Read more »