Words with Meetings Industry Friends: Rhonda, Joan and Andrea.

By Padraic Gilligan, VP, Industry Relations MCI It started with Rhonda Marko. Pretty quickly Joan Eisenstodt joined in and, more recently, Andrea Michaels. All strong and powerful women. All true icons of the meetings industry. I’m unsure whether they know each other personally but I’m certain they know of each other as all have carved… Read more »

Copenhagen: from hostile Vikings to hospitable design kings

by Padraic Gilligan, VP, Industry Relations MCI How things change in 1000 years The Danes have come a long way. From marauding, cultureless philistines who raped and pillaged all over Northern Europe to laid back, uber-cool independent types with an eye for razor-sharp design and a sincere  commitment to sustainability. It may have taken a… Read more »

Shanghai Surprises (Part 2) – how it all ended

by Padraic Gilligan, VP, Industry Relations, MCI How it Ended My Shanghai sojourn started with a marvellous meal. This is how it ended. The ballroom of the Kerry Hotel looked stunning with accent lighting and clever up-lit props – huge hand painted masks that swiveled in box frames, three dimensional cartoon art in bright colours, festive lanterns,… Read more »

Shanghai Surprises (Part 1) – when people come together, magic happens!

by Padraic Gilligan, VP, MCI Group The Dangling Conversation It was an unlikely gathering. An Irishman, a Singaporean, a super elegant Indian lady and a very pretty Chinese girl. The dinner had been spectacular. Mixed appetisers – baked crab meat, table tossed Caesar salad and freshly cut micro-thin slices of top grade Parma ham –… Read more »

Hybrid Events and the new event participant

by Padraic Gilligan, Vice President, Industry Relations, MCI “It’s not who attends your event, it’s who participates” Sebastien Tondeur, CEO, MCI Samuel Johnson, or Dr Johnson as he was more commonly known, had a wonderful ability to summarise a universal truth in a single, simple sentence. His aphorisms are both sublime and ridiculous: “Integrity without… Read more »