by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua & Chief Marketing Officer, SITE Incentive Travel Industry Index 2018 Last week Society for Incentive Travel Excellence (SITE), Incentive Research Foundation (IRF) and Financial & Insurance Conference Professionals (FICP) released their eponymous joint survey for the Incentive Travel Industry. Another welcome example of associations working together for the greater… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua In his poetic masterpiece The Waste Land, T.S. Eliot writes “April is the cruellest month …”. For the incentive industry and SITE, in particular, we might re-phrase Eliot’s words and say “2017 was the cruellest year” for this year we lost two shining lights, Jane Schuldt and Paul Flackett,… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua SITE Index 2017 I had the distinct pleasure of co-presenting the results of the SITE Index this year at IMEX America with Rhea Stagner, President of the SITE Foundation and DVP Sourcing & Supplier Relations at Maritz. It was particularly pleasing because the capacity audience got very involved in… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua A week in Europe’s Green Capital 2016 @Supergreybeard and I have just reached the end of a deeply satisfying week in Slovenia. Over the past 5 days we attended the SITE Incentive Summit and participated at Conventa, the boutique meetings industry trade show that highlights the benefits of Central… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua IMEX is both Google and Amazon for the Meetings Industry. It’s a search engine and a showroom for network building, knowledge transfer and business exchange. It has a robust digital life but IMEX principally pivots around real people in real places in real time. It is by now the… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua An oldie but goldie … Most of us in the industry know the site inspection joke about the meeting planner who, due to over-crowding in heaven, is given the chance to check out hell too. When she visits hell it’s party time – all designer bling, adult beverages, hot… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua From hands-on execution to hands-off strategy Following decades as a DMC and MICE agency, Patrick Delaney and I are now working as consultants / advisors on meetings, incentives, conferences and events under our new brand, SoolNua. In a short time we’ve moved from hands-on execution to hands-off strategy. We’ve… Read more »
by Padraic Gilligan, Managing Partner at SoolNua Downtown San Francisco “You want to take the Cable Car?” he asked with breezy friendliness. We welcomed his intervention having struggled to understand how the iconic San Francisco system worked. He explained what to do, genuinely delighting us with his helpfulness. But then the hand went out: “We… Read more »
by Padraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua From time to time I have been asked where I go for good, on-line MICE content. Within the MICE industry there’s a plethora of good content so here’s my current list of sources. It’s a highly personal selection based on a combination of recommendations and random finds. As a… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua Yesterday the SoolNua crew participated at Site Ireland’s annual summer event and came away inspired, energized and truly motivated. And it wasn’t just the unabated sunshine – temperatures were 25 degree +. Upon reflection this morning I realized the event involved the rather rare perfect alignment of 3 key… Read more »