by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua Monocle I’ve had a subscription to Monocle magazine for some years now. It arrives every month falling through my letterbox with a significant thud for Monocle is not your average magazine. It’s what might be called a weighty tome, usually more than a centimetre in thickness and so crammed… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua When I was 14 my Dad used his contacts to get me a part time job. It was in a Deli / Liquor Store, or, as we say in Ireland, an Off-Licence. I was paid 35 old pence per hour and worked 10 hours a week on a Friday… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, Small Cities Simon Kuper published an interesting piece in last weekend’s Financial Times magazine (10 / 11 June 2017) that has resonance for the Destination Marketing sector. Entitled “Small cities, big ideas” Kuper’s article channels a plethora of recent reports, surveys and rankings to back up his contention that “the… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua Changes Recent posts on this site have highlighted the seismic changes across the Meetings and Events Industry with reference to the agency or intermediary sector and, particularly, Destination Management Companies (DMCs). However, the Destination Marketing sector has also been subjected to the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”, under-going… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua Following months of relative calm, fractious chatter regarding the value of Destination Management Companies / Consultants (DMCs) has rendered the waters of our industry choppy and turbulent again. This chatter has followed the publication of a White Paper on the relationship between Core PCOs travelling with Association clients from… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua I hate millennials but I especially hate millennial eventprofs. I hate everything about them. If I had my way the meetings and events industry would impose an outright ban on anyone born after 1982. I might retain some of the post 80s technological advances but I’d keep none, repeat… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua Incentive travel, chief amongst the four elements that comprise MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, events) has traditionally been synonymous with luxury. This has been the case for decades. It stemmed from a shared word cloud that included such terms as exclusive, expensive, elite and extraordinary. Add in extravagant, opulent and… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua Today @Supergreybeard and I spoke with two corporate meeting and event planners about return on investment aka ROI. It was a fascinating conversation with two highly experienced professionals from global organisations. By the end of the telephone conversation, however, I knew we were no further down the line with ROI today than… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua I’ve written extensively on this blog about Destination Management Companies (DMCs) and how the business model for DMCs has been changing almost as fast as governments in Italy and policies in the Trump Administration. Over the past while @Supergreybeard and I have been thinking about the related, adjacent world… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua Alternative Facts Would eventprofs tell their own mother a barefaced lie? Well, yes if they were European or, to be more precise, if they were from Prague. In a survey undertaken this week of Prague-based meetings and events professionals almost one third of the respondents admitted to SoolNua that… Read more »