by Padraic Gilligan, Vice President of Ovation Global DMC How to be a Canadian First, the sadness. Inside the front cover of the book, a handwritten inscription: “To our favourite non-Canadian, with love Moira”. My copy of How to be a Canadian by Will Ferguson and Ian Ferguson was given to me by the late,… Read more »
by Padraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua Don and Betty at the Hilton Rome Most fans of Mad Men, the US TV series set in a Madison Ave Ad agency in the early 60s, will recall the Rome episode from programme’s 3rd series. Don Draper, the enigmatic creative genius of Sterling Cooper is invited by the client he… Read more »
by Padraic Gilligan, Vice President, Ovation Global DMC In 1662 Irishman Robert Boyle made a scientific discovery that eventually allowed us to voyage to the bottom of the sea; 8 years later the exact same discovery was made by the Frenchman Edme Mariotte. The “multiple independent discovery” principle is well documented and includes Newton’s and… Read more »
by Padraic Gilligan, Vice President, Ovation Global DMC Learning, Connecting, Being Inspired In his seminal book Meeting Architecture, Maarten Vanneste identifies education, networking and motivation as the 3 pillars around which successful meeting outcomes are based. Thus we go to conferences to learn, connect and be inspired but the selected conference location contributes significantly to… Read more »
by Padraic Gilligan, Vice President, Ovation Global DMC “LAs fine and the sun shines most of the time …” The approach by air into Los Angeles takes you over miles and miles of urban sprawl leaving you wondering whether there’s a heart in this city at all. And when you process in your mind decades… Read more »
by Padraic Gilligan, Vice President, Industry Relations MCI and Vice President, Ovation Global DMC On Saturday I leave for Los Angeles where I’ll be attending – and blogging from – the annual conference of FICP, the Financial and Insurance Corporate Planners Association. This will be my 7th FICP conference and I am looking forward to… Read more »
by Padraic Gilligan, Vice President, Industry Relations MCI and Vice President, Ovation Global DMC Remembering the Days of the Old Schoolyard I was always good at rote learning. I found it easy in school to memorise quotations from Shakespeare, formulae for maths class or lyrics to songs. I can still remember chunks of Julius Caesar… Read more »
by Padraic Gilligan, Vice President of Industry Relations, MCI and Vice President Ovation Global DMC The Venetian, Las Vegas Last Thursday I over-nighted at The Venetian in Las Vegas. Built in the mid 90s and opened in 1999 it broke new ground in Vegas as a fully integrated luxury MICE resort with extensive gaming, retail… Read more »
by Padraic Gilligan, VP, Industry Relations and VP, Ovation Global DMC Redemption on the Streets of Las Vegas 4am is around the time the big clean up starts. In Las Vegas it’s also the time I rise. The Strip goes into twilight mode as night time revelers gradually de-materialise leaving space for jet-lagged Irish and the cleaners…. Read more »
by Padraic Gilligan, Vice President, Industry Relations, MCI and Vice President, Ovation Global DMC I start getting into the mood for Las Vegas when I see archive footage on BBC4 of The Steve Gibbons Band performing their one-hit-wonder “Tulane”. Neither the band nor the title of the song has any connection with Las Vegas so… Read more »