The Language of Business

The Language of Business by Padraic Gilligan, Managing Director, Ovation Global DMC Hilton has recently launched a really interesting app connected with its Garden Inn product. Called Bizwords it’s a combination game / educational resource pivoting around the acronyms and buzz words which, increasingly, punctuate our daily business discourse. Naturally Hilton slips a little self… Read more »

5 Steps from a Reluctant Networker for Networking Success

By Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua [First published by MICE Exchange] You pause at the door but then decide on another trip to the restroom. You’ve been at the entrance to the ballroom twice before but, each time, found compelling reasons not to go in. First time, when you looked into the room, there was nobody there. Second time… Read more »

“Flash Mobs in Bangkok: is this Thailand?”

“Flash mobs in Bangkok: is this Thailand ?” by Padraic Gilligan, Managing Director, MCI Dublin and VP Ovation Global DMC I thought I was in the middle of a Flash Mob. It was evening rush hour and I had just gotten off the Skytrain. I could hear music playing all over the station and people… Read more »

Prague and the Road not Taken

“Prague and the Road not Taken” by Padraic Gilligan If ever there was a place to follow Robert Frost’s advice and take “the road less travelled” it’s Prague. If you do you’ll discover an achingly beautiful city, natural and unspoilt, charmingly unselfconscious, wearing no make-up. To do this you’ve got to move quickly beyond the… Read more »

Budapest is knocking on heaven’s door

“Budapest is knocking on heaven’s door” by Padraic Gilligan When the long haired buskers in the underpass are playing complex counterpoints by Bartok and Bernstein rather than “Knocking on Heaven’s Door” by Bob Dylan then you know you’re in Budapest. This is a city with a profound intellectual and cultural DNA which it carries naturally,… Read more »

Incentive Houses and DMCs: a marriage made in heaven?

For the past couple of years The Site Foundation has been conducting annual research on topics of current interest to The Meetings and Events Industry. This research released as “The Site Index” has been extraordinarily useful to the industry presenting an up- to-the-minute snapshot on a variety of topics of both generic and specific interest…. Read more »

Rooms with a View – private venues in Florence

Rooms with a View – private venues in Florence by Padraic Gilligan Italian cities, in general, don’t carry their illustrious past as a burden that prevents them from getting on with 21st century living. The past is integrated into the present sometimes seamlessly, sometimes not but, either way, contemporary life simply carries on, regardless, amidst… Read more »

Hero or Villain? What is the true identity of the DMC?

At an industry function recently I found myself seated between two agency executives. I spent a fascinating and frightening evening listening to war stories about their experiences with DMCs around the world. In roughly half of the stories the war in question was won as a result of incredible acts of heroism and valour on… Read more »

The all-new Las Vegas

My abiding memory of Las Vegas rotates around Moon Civetz’s company, Maverick Aviation Group. It was during the last Incentive Research Foundation (IRF) Invitational in 1995 when the IRF was still the Site Foundation and I was on the Site Board. Site CEO Brenda Anderson had persuaded me to accompany her on a helicopter ride… Read more »

All Aboard the Marrakech Express (‘cos the Times they are a changin’)

All Aboard the Marrakech Express (‘cos the times they are a changin’)* *with a nod to some great 60s tunes! [First published on the excellent, lively, vibrant and way-cool travel portal http://www.zipsetgo.com/]  In 1962 – almost 50 years ago – Bob Dylan gave voice to a new generation and announced the “times they are a… Read more »