#cong19 Topics and Speakers

Brendan Hughes

Brendan, originally from Meath, lives in Dublin with three children. He has worked in a number of large Irish organisations such as VHI, FBD, BoyleSports and most recently INM. He has also lived in Gibraltar where he worked with a global affiliate marketing company. In his roles he focuses on creating consumer-focused digital product and marketing propositions.

Clare Dillon

Clare is an independent Technical Evangelist helping organisations capitalise on emerging tech and related business trends. She also help organisations spread their ideas.

Richard Millwood

The project was a new design for undergraduate, work-focussed, inquiry based learning for those students for whom university did not fit.
It ran from 2003, petering out after 2007 as the university it was hosted in ejected the foreign organism from its nest!

Nevertheless in November 2006, 144 graduates met each other face-to-face for the first time after three years of online learning as a community. A diminishing number continued to graduate over ten further years or so.

I would like to present some video snippets from that first graduation celebration, as students enjoyed their first live conversations with each other, adding a physicality to their already established deep online relationship, and discussing what they valued from the experience. I’d like to provoke participants with the idea that we can create the conditions for learning online and that a community of learners is the way forward, rather than the pre-packaged ‘content is king’ model. I would argue not that it is the solution to future learning, but is a way of addressing the diversity of student needs for education.

Padraig McKeon

Padraig McKeon has had a lifetime career… to date, in corporate and public communications working with two of Ireland’s largest public relations agencies and more recently as an independent consultant.

He also teaches – communications in DCU – and holds a number of directorships – both commercial and non profit.

A native of Sligo – of which he is very proud – he is insatiably curious and an inveterate sharer of thinking.

Tracy Keogh

Community Manager with BOI, worker at Grow Remote

Emer Flannery

Studying Psychology for 5 years in Ireland and the UK, working in Care services in a few random countries and getting the deadly travel bug and building a team of fellow travellers in Ireland and abroad, building Cuchie Couture (soon to launch) and now focusing all my energy on building my passion based business at Kaloo Wellness I know that 2019 will be a big year and I can’t wait to enjoy it with all the people I meet along the way.

Paddy Delaney

Paddy, (last year a father of 2, this year a father of 3!) has recently left a perfectly well-paid and enjoyable job of 13 years working for ‘the person’, in order to follow a passion; to change how financial planning and service is done in Ireland.
Through his new company he has built the tools to serve people who seek help in making properly informed decisions with regards their finances, to avoid mistakes, which in turn will help them live the life that they want.
He works with a small number of clients, and develops life-long, multi-generational relationships based on mutual respect and loyalty. And he loves it! Like may of us he has lots of ideas, and is keen to dispell the myth that ideas alone are a worthwhile thing!

Stan Kuznetsov

Entrepreneur and experienced sales and marketing professional in IT and FMCG. A loving husband and dad.

Alan Costello

Alan is an innovative and strategic leader, working in early stage venture capital with tech startup companies @NDRC.

He is opinionated, but nice about it.

Chris Reina

Chris Reina has been involved in education for the last 16 years, technology for the last 37 and making for the last 45 years. From showing 16mm film at 10 years old to his role on the startup committee of Tralee Educate Together NS to his current business – TeachTech Support and MakerMeetIE he has participated in many diverse aspects of education.

As Ireland’s only Apple Certified T3 Trainer he supports educational institutions nationwide by providing services such as: workshops and training to teachers and students; implementing and deploying technology; web and graphic design as well as servicing and repairs. Amongst his skills he lists fire, magic, circus skills and modesty.

His latest venture – one-third of MakerMeetIE – who are dedicated educators with a passion in Maker-led, S.T.E.A.M.-based education for teachers, students, parents and anyone with an interest in making and learning. He has recently returned from Rome where they have exhibited the Ginormous Geodesic Rome Dome – an 18 foot geodesic dome.

Eileen Forrestal

Having recently retired from the position of Consultant Anaesthetist, after a 32 year career as a Medical Doctor, Eileen is now engaged full time in the business at Get Up and Go Publications Ltd, producing a range of inspirational and motivational diaries, journals and events, for adults and teens. The diaries embody a philosophy and wisdom – Forgive the past – Live the present – Create the future, with an intention to empower educate, inspire and encourage people to be aware of their choices, and to be responsible for their own health, self expression, wellbeing, and happiness.

Eileen believes the accelerating rate of change in the world today is overwhelming the capacity of many people to ‘keep up’. “Mental heath and wellbeing issues of stress and burnout are becoming increasingly prevalent. Our Get Up and Go diaries use words and ideas to positively impact the lives of many people, providing a source of timeless wisdom from a ‘pre-information age’ to guide us through the challenges of modern life and help shine a light in the darkness of despair”.

Eileen suffered with a ‘stammer’ for most of her young life and ‘gave up’ on her voice at 13, frustrated by her inability to ‘be understood’ and decided to retire from ‘public communication’ preferring the safety of silence and having ‘nothing important to say’. She chose the specialty of Anaesthesia for 20 years, remaining hidden and silent. That changed in 2001 when she discovered the negative impact this decision had on her life and wellbeing. Since then she has been a strong advocate of courageous self expression, travel, education, self-discovery through personal development and stepping beyond your comfort zone. “The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek”. In 2014, Eileen retired from her medical career believing she could serve her purpose better by using her voice and words than her hands and drugs. After a career spent ‘putting people to sleep’ she is now in the business of ‘waking people up’ to all the possibilities of being alive, right here, right now! Having overcome he fear of public speaking she has since spoken on Radio, TV, schools and stages around the world and has not looked back.

The Get Up and Go Events bring together ordinary people living extraordinary lives, courageous individuals from many walks of life, who have stepped outside their own ‘comfort zone’ to share their experience of living life ‘with passion and purpose’ and are now inspiring their audience to do the same.

Eileen lives in Sligo.

Celia Keenaghan

I’m a sociologist committed to inspiring people to work better together so that together we develop resilient children, adults and communities who can create a society that is fun fair and fantastic!

In 2011 I set up Keenaghan Collaborative providing services in Facilitation, Mentoring, Training and Guidance.

I have worked in business, public health, community development, education and social innovation. I have been a driver of many local and national initiatives including the pioneering youth charity SpunOut.ie. I write, sing, dance, play the accordion and the early Irish harp and enjoy bringing creativity to enterprise.

Zanya Dahl

Zanya is founder/ director of @artizancreative, a creative digital agency that helps companies with similar values discover new ways to see and be seen. She signs up for pretty much any experience that will expose her to something she hasn’t seen or heard or done before. She loses track of time when she’s painting, eating good food, comedy improvising or cuddling her children.

Geoffrey Gibbon

Outline
Daisy weeps.
Empty nest, all alone. no one home.
Educated and trained all grown. Mega City bound, nothing here. Eager they fly away, adventures await new places new countries, new lives.
Daisy weeps now old, now alone.
Children weep, no jobs to bring them home.
Reverse the Mega City trend. Reverse the translocation of the youth away from rural communities and their family’s. Create a better economic future in a Mega Culture.
Daisy is happy. Growing old with dignity, growing old with her family and community all around.
About Geoff
My name is Geoff Gibbons currently residing in Louisburgh, co Mayo Ireland.
I worked for over 20 years around the world as a IT/ Telecom solution Architect and Technical trainer.
I was too safe to truly dream until now.

Derval Dunford

Derval Dunford is co-founder of Suí Mindfulness. She is a qualified MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction) and Yoga Nidra (relaxation) teacher and has also studied Stress Management, Hypnotherapy, Aromatherapy, Counselling Skills. She is co-founder of Mindfulness Matters Ltd, and in this role has trained thousands of Irish primary school teachers and children in mindfulness, relaxation, and well-being.
Derval has been facilitating Mindfulness and Relaxation workshops and courses for many years, has worked with a variety of organisations including regular workshops and courses with the HSE, INTO, and Mayo Education Centre, she speaks regularly at related conferences.
Derval’s interest in mindfulness and yoga nidra was inspired by her life challenges. She suffered from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) in early adulthood, chronic fatigue and MCS (multiple Chemical Sensitivity) in her thirties.
Being someone who has a busy mind, is creative, likes to be productive and dislikes wasting time, Derval, not naturally a ‘zen’ type, has come to realise, that the only way she can be her ‘busy’ self, follow her heart and flourish, is to balance the busyness with a smattering of stillness and calm, balancing the ‘doing’ with a little ‘non-doing’. While she is not a fluent Irish speaker Derval created the world’s first Yoga Nidra practice in Irish and bilingually, and co-created the world’s first children’s mindfulness CD in Irish. www.sui.ie

Mick Hogan

Mick’s passion is for nature and wildlife. He has travelled extensively, and experienced a wide variety of environments. Mick is a GMIT qualified Marine and Countryside Guide, and Climate Control Ambassador in Mayo. Mick’s work includes nature workshops, walks and talks with adults and children. Mick’s irrepressible enthusiasm for the wonder of nature is infectious.
Mick’s other passion is working with his hands, and being creative, he particularly loves working with fine quality wood. He loves connecting, or re-connecting people with nature in whatever way possible, drawing them out of the virtual world and into the here and now. This is the essence of the beautiful Irish hardwood Suí meditation stools that Mick makes.

Sabine McKenna

Outline: Experiences from 6 years on the online coding platform Scratch.
Sabine McKenna is a digital educator and off-and-on blogger. She teaches various digital skills to mainly young people in Skerries, Co. Dublin as creative computing courses Skerries (aka cccSkerries) and also runs workshops for children and adults in libraries. This is her fifth CongRegation.

Joe Jan

Rytis Joseph Jan is the Chief Technology Officer of Jan Digital Studios and leads its technology teams in the day-to-day operations, providing key expertise, supervising the development and deployment of our software and technology led projects. Rytis Joseph Jan also has a strong understanding of the Marketing, Communications, Digital Transformation & Customer Service fields, where he in his past roles has worked with both startups and multi-national companies, consulting with their technology deployment, marketing and communications campaigns. Jan has also lectured in Digital Marketing for The Irish Times Training, in their professional diploma and certification programmes. He is also a member of the Public Relations Institute of Ireland.

Mary Carty

Mary Carty is an entrepreneur with a background in the arts, education and technology. Over the past decade she founded two startups and was a BAFTA Interactive finalist. Mary is the cofounder of Outbox Incubator, the first ever incubator for young women in STEM aged 11 to 22. As Executive Director at Blackstone Launchpad NUI Galway, she oversaw the establishment of an entrepreneurship programme open to students, staff and alumni. Recently, Mary represented Ireland on the International Visitors Leadership Program with the U.S. Department of State, focusing on small business and entrepreneurship policy.

John Horkan

Co-owner and CEO of Horkan’s Group. John has over 30 years’ experience in business. His main responsibility is the strategic direction of Horkans Group and leading the eCommerce development across the businesses. He is pass Chairman of Retail Excellence Ireland’s e-Commerce Committee and he has participated in the Google Incubation Program for Irish Retailers. John is a founder member of DMiMayo Digital Marketing in Mayo network group. He represented Ireland at the Global E-commerce Summit in Barcelona in 2013.

Horkan’s Group is a family business that operates 4 Horkan’s Garden & Lifestyle Centre’s and 8 Petworld stores in locations across Ireland along with two eCommerce sites Horkans.ie and Petworlddirect.ie

Pat Kennedy

Backed by an engineering degree, Pat has broad professional experience which contributes to his systematic approach to solution identification. He relishes the opportunity to develop practical, and often, innovative solutions as the project demands.

Currently, he is owner and Head of Web Strategy at E-Concepts and has developed a number of solutions in the past 2 years, including a Facebook E-School system, a Franchise Application, a combined Calendar/Events system and E-Town projects in addition to one-off projects for SME’s and brands such as Cadbury’s, Boots and Londis.

An entrepreneur at heart, Pat has lived and worked in US, Denmark, Germany, Spain and Australia. This, in addition to his extensive travels in Europe, Asia and South America allows him to bring a broader and more global perspective to his work.

Eoin Kennedy

Eoin Kennedy is the founder of Congregation.ie, startup entrepreneur and a freelance communications consultant living in the west of Ireland.

Joan Mulvihill

Joan was the centre director of IC4 – the Irish Centre for Cloud Computing and Commerce. Previously she was the CEO of the Irish Internet Association.

Pamela O'Brien

Pam O’Brien is a Maths and Computer Science lecturer in Limerick Institute of Technology. The integration of techology in education is a key driving force and is an area to which she devotes a significant effort. She organises the ICT in Education conference (http://lit.ie/ictedu), an annual event which provides an opportunity for educators to share ideas for the integration of technology in teaching and learning. She is an advocate for the student voice and the maker education movement and has been been involved in CoderDojo for more than seven years.

Mags Amond

Synopsis: “Community can be the warmly persuasive word to describe an existing sets of relationships, or the warmly persuasive word to describe an alternative set of relationships. What is most important, perhaps, is that unlike all other terms of social organisation (state, nation, society, etc.) it never seems to be used unfavourably, and never to be given any positive opposing or distinguishing term”
(Williams, R. 1976. Keywords: A vocabulary of culture and society.)
About Mags Amond: Retired from a first lifetime as a second level teacher, currently pursuing PhD (part time and from afar) at Trinity College Dublin. Researching TeachMeet, an evolving unconference during which teachers share ideas in a convivial atmosphere.

Conor O'Brien

I come from a tradition of cooperative and local involvement and has always been involved in community and farming organisations. I am now a director of Mitchelstown Credit Union; involved with a local group using walks on the Knockmealdowns and the Galtees to build the community, and develop it; and with a friend who wants to develop a food-growing low cost of living system so that a person with a project is not weighed with unsustainable living costs.

Russell Buckley

Russell Buckley is a Partner with Kindred Capital, the early stage venture investor, based in London. He is a previous Global Chairman of the Mobile Marketing Association and was an active Angel Investor in over 40 companies (via Ballpark Ventures).

Russell’s previous role was with mobile advertising startup, AdMob. He learned about AdMob soon after its launch, joining as its first employee in 2006. His remit was to launch AdMob into the EMEA market and four years later, AdMob was sold to Google for $750m.

Bernard Joyce

Bernard is a founder of New Paradigms Consulting, co-founder of Geodesign Ireland and MSc Student in Management for Sustainable Development

Rose Barrett

Rose here, I like to paddle boats and peddle digital consultancy to small businesses. I also end up volunteering for all sorts, particularly when it’s related to improving rural communities or using digital resources to help spread ideas.

Thérèse Kinahan

A Toastmaster, currently Area Director of Midland Area (4 counties), former President of Athlone Club.
BA (Hons) NUI Galway in Training and Education with interest and experience in Equality Studies. Worked in Africa and with Special Olympics. Mother of two adults. Aspiring writer.

Carol Passemard

I am in the business of transforming people’s lives. My goal is to empower you to be Mindful and Encourage you to be the successful person you deserve to be. Imagine discovering the key that unlocks your full potential and in just 2 days!

Mary Rodgers

Innovation Community Manager at PorterShed - Galway City

Colum Joyce

Firm believer that a good idea needs 5 years of patience for the rest of the world to catch up with you. Moved back to Connemara because I got tired of being a stranger in strange lands and it provides head space to think without the clutter and mutter of urban life and bureaucracy.

Paul Passemard

I am an engineer by background with 25 years experience in the oil industry in operations and major project and programme delivery. At the height of the UK’s North Sea Oil development I managed an oil industry consortium aimed at improving the performance of suppliers to the offshore industry
In 1989 I formed a management consultancy focussing on quality assurance and high performance team working. Through assignments with the UK’s HM Treasury I played a key role in developing the Gateway Process and rolling it out across central government departments and local authorities.
I am an experienced Gateway Reviewer and have led major project and programme reviews across the UK.

Daphne McKinley

Daphne McKinley has a broad commercial background with decades of property development experience in the UK and Monaco. She has developed validated financial analytics and a successful planning process for creating value, complimenting her perspective on award winning design through her design and construction management team.

Jeffrey Gormly

Artist, Author, Thinker, Collaborator
Current research topics:
Creative organisation – how we can unlock creativity in our collective life
Creativity for health – strategies for normalising creative self-expression
Creativity for freedom – making room for creative diversity in society

Michelle Gallen

I’m wreck-dwelling novelist who guzzles coffee, sips whiskey and inhales chocolate. Also known to get all geeky about edtech and medtech.

Paul O'Mahony

I'm a mature man living in Cork since 2005. Son of bookshop owner, grew up in Limerick, university in Dublin, 30 years in UK. Grandfather. Member of Toastmasters International.
Poet since 1995. Blogger since 2005. Big communicator via Internet. Huge into “social audio” – uses Anchor, Limor, Audioboom, Periscope, Twitter… Profession: marketing.
Loves: talking, opera, golf, black sole & tuna, gin, apples, cooking, ironing, writing, CongRegation, Eoin, Chicago, Italy
Motto: MAKE MEANING NOT WAR

Max Hastings

Max will explore the effects technology and especially social media has on people and communities and link the shifting landscape of social interaction to the shift from agricultural to industrial/urban in the 19th century and the social problems that arose.

Jillian Godsil

The old fashioned view of communty was based on locale, on people living and working in the one area. We have passed through the age of territorial connection - and commuting - but we have not regressed into pure border-driven communities. Now, we can be a commuity on a global basis through shared ideas and belief systems and available technology.

Niall McCormack

In 2018, the Africa Code Week project introduced 2.3 million young Africans to coding and digital literacy skills. 37 countries | 63,759 free workshops | 22,999 teachers trained and an almost 50:50 balance between boys and girls taking part. Impressive numbers from an initiative in just its fourth year. Africa Code Week is a powerful example of the incredible possibilities when communities come together to address a pressing social problem. This is their story...

Turlough Rafferty

How death galvanizes community in Ireland. Death in rural Ireland and how digital technology can help with grief, isolation and rebirth.

Kevin McDermott

Kevin Mc Dermott is a writer from Crumlin in Dublin City. From 2016-2018, he was writer-in-residence with the City of Dublin ETB and is involved in many school-based, writing initiatives. He is the author of five novels for young adults. Kevin has written plays, feature-length documentaries, essays, poetry and short stories for radio. He has a background in teacher-training and is an adjunct lecturer in the School of Education at UCD. Kevin is one of the writers on Poetry Ireland’s Writers-in-Schools scheme. He is passionate about the importance of the arts in education and believes in the creative potential of every child.

Pat Dolan

Prof. Dolan is joint founder and Director of the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre and an Academic Director of the M.A. in Family Support Studies. He also contributes to the wider undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes of the School of Political Science and Sociology as well as supervising Ph.D. candidates and Masters Dissertations in Family Support, Social Work and Community Development.

Alastair Herbert

Alastair Herbert is the founder of market research consultants Linguabrand. Alastair talks too much. That's why he became obsessed with listening. He believes a lack of listening holds back community creation and cohesion, especially where business is involved. Because people are generally poor listeners, Linguabrand created their own word geek robot - Bob.
Bob surfaces the deeper psychological content locked inside all conversations. Put simply, it's not what people say that matters - it's how they say it. Linguabrand's humans work with these deeper insights to connect communications to peoples' emotional needs. This principle of language style matching should work in creating communities - but perhaps not...

Nadine McCarthy

This talk will be a sharing of Nadine’s own learning journey, weaving threads of insight from a six-year period of her work and life. The thread follows her quest to build a sustainable community for transformational leaders and presence-based change-makers in Ireland. Using an awareness-based systems change methodology from MIT Boston, called Theory U, as the backbone for this, her path has been paved with many exciting but also challenging twists and turns. Some of the journey will be shared through the lens of insights, obstacles, milestones and learnings. Starting with the birth of an overwhelming dream through a story to current day, the intention in sharing is to help the audience connect with their own deeper longing for community – be that family, club, team, organisation, sector or country. In addition, Nadine hopes this will help support the building of other communities of practice and living systems capable of whole-island influence.
Working in business and across sport for the last 13 years through her performance consultancy, Be The Best You Can Be, Nadine is passionate about Performance Coaching, Systems Change and Leadership Development. Personally, Nadine is a purpose-filled Mum of two boys, a yoga and meditation fan and has a long-standing grá or love affair with Ireland.

Alex Chernenko

Alex will explore how much do we know about foreign communities living among us?

Tom Pollock

Society has suffered since businesses disconnected from the communities they touch.
In 1906, my great-great grandfather wrote a letter describing his life in 19th century Ireland. His opening line has echoed in my mind throughout my business career:
“My father was Dennis Riordan...born in Fonnought, Parish of Donoughmore, Co. Cork, Ireland, in 1769 and died in Bradford, England, in 1851. He was by trade a weaver and always kept four men employed.``
Dennis Riordan's son measured the success of his business not by money or product, but rather by the number of lives it sustained - modern businesses should too.

Michael McKenna

The example of Skerries Community Association shows one way of offering the residents of a town an opportunity to play an active role in shaping its future... See Michaels full submission under 2019 submissions.

Dermot Casey

Dermot is a husband of one and father of three. He’s trying to live in his body as much as his head these days to find some more space. When not writing blogposts for Congregation he takes a critical look at startup ideas on a daily basis while looking to invest in early stage companies at NDRC.

Richard McCurry

Looking at how best to re-work the notion of community in an era of fake news, online bullying and far away social fields being greener

Joy Redmond

Not everyone involved in voluntary organisations are good eggs. In April, Wexford Water Safety closed down our local training ground thus denying 90 athletes (mainly children and youths) access to our sport (Surf Lifesaving) without any notice or rationale. Within 24 hours, they had seized the contents of our container of equipment that we’d fundraised tirelessly for almost five years. Unlike most sports such as golfing and tennis, which are effectively corporate social networks, it is not uncommon to not know the surname or the occupation of your fellow Watersport enthusiasts. Hell hath no fury like a community scorned and within 24 hours, we rallied together a super sub-committee to get their groundless decision reversed. Parents and volunteers emerged with the exact skillsets needed to take on a national body - a barrister, a social worker, a spin doctor, an academic and a QS who together poured over the documentation to make our case to Water Safety Ireland. What followed was a three month campaign that caught the attention of the media, politicians and community groups.

Ginger Aarons

See Gingers full submission https://congregation.ie/only-a-fool-would-say-that-the-linkedin-international-community-phenomenon-10-cong19/

Gar Mac Críosta

Community, consensus and theories of ideas in emerging and evolving communities. The overden window, preference falsification ....

Helena Deane

Helena Deane is the Horizon 2020 Adviser and Project Support Executive at WestBIC, an EU Busines Innovation Centre with HQ in Galway, as well as the Fusion Programe Consultant for Intertrade Ireland and Principal Consultant at Business Connection Ireland based in Cong. Her educational background is in European Business Administration, having graduated First Class in this field from Universities in Cambridge and Berlin. For the last 10 years, Helena has been working with StartUps, SMEs, Universities, ITs and various Public Organisations as a consultant in the areas of R&D and innovation, technology transfer, feasibility analysis, business strategy, planning, commercialisation and funding. Helena is also engaged by the European Commission and EUREKA as an expert and evaluator to undertake specific assignments concerning research and innovation related to Horizon 2020 and the Eurostars Funding Programme.

Eoin Kennedy

How a community speaks and communicates is central to preserving its integrity. Eoin will explore why communities need to communicate, what modes we have lost and some of the attempts people are making to reconnect through verbal language.

Mick Fealty

Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty

Michael Fitzgerald

CEO and Founder of OnePageCRM. NUIG graduate with an Engineering Degree, Michael has also worked as a Sport Science Technologist to Olympic Athletes, and in Medical device product design before venturing into the world of code.

Michael went back to college to study product design and mechanical engineering and worked as a product designer for SRAM Inc. He was headhunted as an inventor for Slendertone BMR Ltd. and from there started a software company. He set up his own software business, specialising in e-Commerce systems. It was here that he was unable to find a focused sales solution to grow his client base, leading him to sketch out a design for a sales focused CRM (Customer Relationship Management).

Founding member of The PorterShed and Innovation District
Patron of Non-profit EmployAbility Galway
Guest lectures on Innovation Creativity & Entrepreneurship at NUI Galway
Co-founder of Bizcamp Galway – Weekend conference for Entrepreneurs
Contributor to Start-Up Weekend
Co-founder and sponsor of Code Ninja app development competition
Power of Action Program for Non-Profit organizations globally

Ailish Irvine

The best ideas come from communities solving their own problems. It's almost always a team effort and no one person pulls it all together. When we stop looking for others to fix or problems and put or energy into finding solutions we have far greater success. The best communities are filled with people who found their own solutions and then held a table quiz.

Geraldine O'Brien

Cronan McNamara

Cronan is Founder and CEO of Creme Global and Founder and organiser of the Predict Conference. Creme Global is a data science technology company delivering the Expert Models data science platform.

Cronan is fascinated by in creativity and innovation and is driven to deliver world class products and services, from Ireland, that make an impact globally.

In his spare time Cronan enjoys playing competitive tennis and spending time with his family

Jeffrey Gormly

See Jeffreys full submission

David Gluckman

David Gluckman was born in Port Elizabeth, South Africa on 1st November 1938, the day that Sea Biscuit and War Admiral fought out the Race of the Century at Pimlico Park, Baltimore. Educated in Johannesburg, he joined a local advertising agency after university and soon fell in love with business. He made the pilgrimage to London in 1961 and worked as an account executive on the introduction of Kerrygold butter into the UK. Always a frustrated creative, he escaped into brand development in 1969, met a man from a drinks company called IDV, and his life changed forever. A lover of cricket, he considers his greatest achievement bowling the West Indian legend, Joel Garner, first ball in a pro-am 6-a-side tournament.

In 1973 David invented Baileys, the world’s most successful cream liqueur, which has since sold over 1.25 billion bottles.

Maryrose Lyons

How humans curation of online communities has evolvedAre our online communities becoming more evolved, or are they merely echo chambers?

Gillian Berry

Community means many things to many people. It can be the catalyst of change, the spurring of motivation or the detriment to a society depending on the perspective.
See Gillians full submission

Enda Lynch

The piece will look at the challenge of growing a sense of community in clubs which are amateur and struggling to grow their clubs while the professional organisation, even though it also has greater resources is challenged in how it grows its community and what it stands for.

Tom Murphy

I once made a thing called Boards.ie and it grew very very big.

Aileen Howell

As the world changes, the definition of community is changing. It used to be a physical location but now it is becoming far more nebulous and abstract. Far more people will now seek to find their ``community`` online with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc all providing the means. However, does this shift online mean we are missing out on the benefits of community in a tangible, physical sense.

Stephen Howell

Modern digital marketing is a variant of the 1950’s sales funnel, the wide end reaching a breadth of the public narrowing to the funnel exit with a loyal customer. In community building, the stages could be Awareness, Engagement, Conversion, Loyalty, and Advocacy. As product marketing teams try (and often fail) to build momentum and communities of fans around their products, social media platforms are stepping in to offer targeted community funnels: awareness of the service, engagement with the app, conversion to the company, loyalty to the brand, and advocacy of the community. It is the distillation of the ‘if you have not paid for the product, you are the product’ meme – only this time we are being virtually packaged in bulk as ready made communities. Once the community has cohesion and exists without the marketers whipping it into action, it becomes truly dangerous, because an enraged community with a cause but without direction is weaponised anarchy – and all it needs is a bad actor to step in, adopt the community, assume control, and direct attacks as needed. To combat weaponised communities? Follow the funnel – step 1 is awareness.

Joseph McGuire

Author of 'Face Facts' you can find more about Joseph on https://clearsightcommunications.com/

Carlene Lyttle

Community is an incredible teacher of social and emotional skills that will become increasingly important in the fast chaining world. A risk to the sustainability of these wonderful facets of the community is losing traditional ways of communicating as a community and reliance on digital platforms that do not champion the local. Technology offers opportunity but needs to be directed in ways best for the community.

Sinead Tiernan

I am obsessed with creating WOW experiences for people in life and in business. I coach my clients to remove frustrations and pain points that ultimately leads to the delivery of a customer experience that nurtures and grows raving fans. Happy employees deliver even happier customers and therefore I also work with business leaders to create outstanding employee engagement and wellness programs.
I have over 20 years experience in the corporate sector in the UK and Ireland. Driven by continuous growth I invest a lot of time and money in my own personal development in the areas of behavioural psychology, coaching and meditation.

Frank Hannigan

A journey to find my birth mother.
- Blood is thicker than water
- Claire is a 5ft 76 yr old Mayo Woman
- So much personality and sensibilities in common.
A journey to find my genealogy
- Gaelic, Norman, Cromwellian.
- Irish Ways and Irish laws.
How power worked in Gaelic Ireland.
How Community worked in Gaelic Ireland.
Ideas from 16th Century Gaelic Society that we can steal for our 21st Century Communities

Gerard Tannam

Gerard Tannam leads Islandbridge Brand Development a team of specialists working to build great relationships that bridge the gap between buyers and sellers.

Liam Ó Móráin

You are in a good place when the communities (circles) you belong to are in equilibrium and flow concentric-like around and through you!