#cong23 Press Release
Cong Gets A Dose of Reality
(14.11.2023) Cong Village in Co Mayo will get a strong dose of Reality from Nov24-26th with the celebration of the 11th annual CongRegation (www.congregation.ie) mind mesh unconference. Over 100 people will probe, discuss and share insights on this year’s theme of ‘Reality’ over 3 days and 7 different events.
The event kicks off with a night of ‘Reality Talks’ in Ashford Castle on Friday 24th November with Astronomer, David Moore from Astronomy Ireland, Shaman Aldo Jordan from the Irish School of Shamanic Studies, Philosopher Stephen Costello, founder of the Viktor Frankl Institute of Ireland and virtual world avatar creator Aileen Carville, CEO and Co Founder of COLONII.
Saturday will see 100 attendees discuss their submissions in rotating huddles spread through multiple venues in Cong village during the full day unconference while their children enjoy ‘Forest School bushcraft workshop.
Following the unconference clowning artist Mitchell ‘Moshe’ Cohen, who is flying in from the United States especially for the event, will deliver a 1 hr session that will awaken playfulness in a mature way and develop the power to transform the energies that create disturbance and disconnect. The workshop’s explorations and practices draw from physical theatre practices, clown improvisations, elements from butoh dance, qi gong and feldenkreis movement. A second workshop led by Chris Reina from MakerMeet will use generated graphics to put attendees into places that are not real. Using AI generated graphics and real humans along with a green screen and chromakey technology the workshop aims to take and make art, reality, illusion, confusion, ineptness and incompetence – while having lots of fun!
Saturday will finish off with a special performance of ‘The Magic Play’, which has recently completed its run the Bewleys Café Theatre in Dublin. Branded as fusion of comedy, magic and theatre this play will take place in the beautifully restored All Saints Centre in Clonbur Village.
Sunday will finish off with a GeoWalk with a geologist from the Joyce Country Ecopark mixing myth, reality , fact and geology.
In order to earn a ticket each attendee submits a 600 word article, via the website, outlining their own unique perspectives, thoughts and experiences on the theme of ‘Reality’, all of which are published on the event website. These submissions form the basis of the presentations on Saturday November 25th in small huddles of 10-12 people. Each huddle is chaired and attendees are given 10-15 minutes to share the insights from their submission followed by a group discussion. The huddles rotate 4 times giving all attendees the opportunity to present and meet as many of the other attendees as possible, in a peer to peer environment.
“The Reality theme builds on previous themes with submissions exploring the scientific and spiritual nature of Reality through to the grounded reality of everyday life. Outside of the rich and stimulating discussions the event also forges deep and serendipitous connections, due to the informal presentation style and social locations used for the event. In order to spark off inspiration attendees can also pick one of the curated books on reality that are available free of charge from the website” commented organiser Eoin Kennedy.
CongRegation is a free event and would not be possible without the generous support of its sponsors
Mayo.ie, Blacknight, MKC Communications, Informed Decisions, Grow Remote, IRDG, Blockverse Ventures and the Advanced Productivity Skillnet. All the submissions to date can be viewed on the website. Submissions are now being accepted via the online form https://congregation.ie/submit-entry/
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For further information
Eoin Kennedy
086 8339549