This November 10th and 11th sees the annual Association of Irish Festivals Events Conference (AOIFE), aptly titled ’The Business of Fun’, taking place at the Carlton Shearwater Hotel, Ballinasloe. 

The Business of Fun is an excellent networking opportunity for those working in the Irish festival and events sector and has some of Ireland’s  leading speakers presenting on a diverse range of festival related topics including: greening your festival, a festival’s marketing tool kit, the Tall Ships Festival 2012,  sponsorship and commercial presentations focusing on everything from festival friend schemes, fundraising and revenue ideas, and we’ll also be hearing from  the Arts Council and Failte Ireland on both their reviews of 2011 and plans for 2012.

As already mentioned, Maria Moynihan Lee is curating this year’s main conference which is now online at www.aoifeonline.com. As part of this year’s programme, I am quite excited to be programming the digital and social media strand over the two-day conference featuring some of Ireland’s leading digital movers and shakers in the area of arts, culture, festivals and events.

 Social Media/Digital Marketing Stream

Aoife Flynn | asquared consultancy | @stranded_aoife
Presentation: Twitter for festivals

Aoife started her career in Dublin with The Dublin Theatre Festival, then Abhann Productions and has over a decade of experience in cultural management and marketing. Passionate about arts marketing and audience development Aoife specialises in strategic digital marketing and has a deep understanding of visitors honed during her Development Manager role at The Model – one of Ireland’s leading arts centres and one of Sligo’s leading visitor attractions. Specialising in online marketing she has been invited to speak at conferences on this subject, and was contracted by The Arts Council as a mentor in digital marketing. She is the bees knees

Catherine Egan|PR and Social MEdia Manager at Entertainment.ie | @teabags18 | @entertainmentie
Presentation: Online PR for Festival & Events

Catherine manages public relations, social media and online communications for entertainment.ie. She has worked as a social media manager, assistant to the PR executives, receptionist and conference organiser over the past three years with organisations such asTheatre Forum, St. Patrick’s Festival, Wilson Hartnell Public Relations and the National Campaign for the Arts. She has a Master’s in Public Relations from Dublin Institute of Technology and holds a BA in English, Sociology and Political Studies from NUI Galway

I first met Catherine at St. Patrick’s Festival  and it has been a wonderful digital friendship ever since!

Darragh Doyle | Community Manager at World Irish | @DarraghDoyle |
Presentation: 10 things I hate about You!

Darragh helps people online. He trains organisations in Ireland on using Social Media effectively. This includes blogs, forums, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and YouTube. 2009Darragh advises organisations on their use of Social Media and their online presences. They’re as diverse as Google, Microsoft, RTÉ, ESB Electric Ireland, Eircom, Meteor and Festival and charity events. He uses competitions, twitter, tumblr, blogs, facebook, forums, YouTube, podcasts, emails, Yelp and more to help brands, charities, companies, events, marketing departments and PR companies get the word out to their audience.

On Tuesday October 4th, the Cultural Resources Forum of the Donegal County Development Board is to host  a special one-day conference “Donegal: A Creative County”,  to explore the possibilities for development that may be available to the cultural sector in Donegal, specifically in the areas of Cultural Tourism and in the context of the emerging focus on role the ‘Creative Industries’ are set to play in Ireland’s eventual economic recovery.

High profile speakers, with a national profile, are among the contributors who will attend an important conference in Villa Rose Ballybofey exploring the potential for developing the cultural sector in Donegal. Speakers include the well-known musician, television producer and cultural champion, Philip King; Dermot McLaughlin of  Temple Bar Cultural Trust, who is also the man behind the successful Culture Night festival; Ian Brannigan of the Western Development Commission; Michael Starrett of the Heritage Council; Kevin Kidney of Failte Ireland and Shona McCarthy of City Of Culture 2013.

Tuesday 4th of October, 2011
Villa Rose Ballybofey. 8.30am
The full press release is available here>

The Business of Fun: a two-day gathering of the leaders in the Irish festival and events industry taking place November 10th -11th at the Carlton Shearwater Hotel, Ballinasloe Co. Galway.

Guaranteed to be the number one networking event for the industry with a programme that includes a preview of the london cultural olympiad; the latest innovation in event’s social media and digital marketing; media panel discussion; collaboration and partnership; working with the hospitality industry; the do’s and don’ts of Irelands top festivals and much more.

As a member of the National Executive of AOIFE, I’m very excited to be programming the digital strand of this conference. We shall be announcing the full conference programme in the couple of weeks.

Nominations are now open for the RocketPyrotechnic Best of Festival Supplier Awards 201, nominate here>

Tickets for the conference are now available, book here>

ABSOLUT VIS10NS in association with the Small Print will be officially launched on Wednesday 7^th September and members of the public will have the opportunity to attend and meet some of the participating artists, who will talk about the inspiration behind their pieces and collaborating with ABSOLUT.

ABSOLUT Vodka commissioned 10 of the most creative visionaries from the world of fashion, photography, street art and illustration to use an 8ft tall replica of the iconic bottles as their canvas to create a unique exhibition, entitled ABSOLUT VIS10NS. The10 participants include stylist Celestine Cooney (IRL), artists DALEK (US), Niels Shoe Meulman (NL) and Mario Sughi (ITA), Creative Collective Rinzen (OZ), photographer Linda Brownlee (IRL), street artists The London Police (UK), illustrators Ben Newman (UK) and BrenB (IRL).

Drawing inspiration from the Swedish brand and the iconic ABSOLUT Vodka bottle, each of the participants will create their own bespoke design for the project and will follow in the footsteps of Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Damien Hirst, and most recently Ellen Von Unwerth and Spike Jonze in collaborating with ABSOLUT. The ABSOLUT ART collection has involved over 350 of the world’s most iconic 20^th Century artists worldwide leading to a multi-million euro art collection spanning over 400 pieces.

It was a pretty cool experience to pop into the studio to see it in progress but I had thought we were going to see the finished exhibition. I’m going to miss the opening and the exhibition itself as I’ll be away but am intrigued to see the end results. Give anyone a blank canvas and see what they do or…give ten of the world’s top designers and artists a large blank and (empty!) vodka bottle and see what they can do….

The ABSOLUT VIS10NS exhibition runs from September 7^th to 12^th in the Laundry Room of South Studios, Dublin 8. The free exhibition is open daily from 11am to 7pm, for more information visit www.facebook.com/ABSOLUT.Ireland

To attend the launch event visit the ABSOLUT Vodka Ireland Facebook page and reserve a place on the guestlist www.facebook.com/ABSOLUT.Ireland

PS The Small Print just moved in Temple Bar! 

I haven’t really had time to put decent things on my blog recently. It’s been one hell of a busy summer, to say the least.

However, earlier this week I spotted this gig and was reminded again via LeCool Dublin on Wednesday with a preview from Des Fitzgerald.

So, last night found myself and my trad partner Lisa venturing across to the National Concert Hall for an awesome evening of remarkable, beautiful and inspiring sounds from some of Ireland’s most talented musicians that have come together as ‘The Gloaming’. There’s also a New Yorker, pianist Thomas Bartlett.

‘The Gloaming is a collective of remarkable individual talents who share a musical aesthetic. The five came together to explore new music at Grouse Lodge Studios is West Meath in early 2011. At once they made music that is at once both ancient and utterly new. New York pianist Bartlett, sean-nos singer Ó Lionaird, Chicago guitarist Cahill, fiddler and hardanger innovator Ó Raghallaigh and fiddle master Hayes is a group of virtuoso musicians yet it is a band with a sound all of its own. Sparse and beautiful. Authentic and tune-filled. And capable of raucous power.’

Stellar, rousing performances, warm banter and standing ovations, it was a magical evening at the NCH. Here’s a taster:

The group are on tour for the rest of this week only so I suggest you get yourself along to one of these dates:

Sunday, 21st August
An Griann, Letterkenny

Wednesday, 24th August
The Model, Sligo

Thurdsay, 25th August
Riverbank Arts Centre, Newbridge

Friday, 26th August
Cork Opera House, Cork

Saturday, 27th August
Glor, Ennis

AOIFE are delighted to announce Maria Moynihan Lee as the convenor of AOIFE’s annual conference which will take place in the Carlton Shearwater Hotel Ballinasloe 10-11 November 2011.

This years Irish Conference will coincide with the 19th IFEA Europe Annual Conference , which will see some 75 top European Festival and and Event programmers in attendance over the two days.

Maria is one of Ireland’s top event producers who has most recently been involved in the Galway Volvo Ocean Race as Festival Director. Maria is best known for her role as CEO of St Patrick’s Festival from 2000 to 2004. She has also been involved in many other festivals in Ireland, including the Bloomsday centenary celebration, the National Day of Welcomes, and the Galway Jazz Festival.

Her involvement as Conference Convenor makes this year’s AOIFE conference a must for all festival and event producers who wish to learn about best practice and grow their events for the 2012 season

Maria and the conference project group are actively seeking ideas, proposals, themes, speakers from the sector in the hope that the programme conveys the broad spectrum of festival and event activity

Fifty People One Question is a film series exploring human connections through people and place. This video was produced by SceneNotHerd, an initiative of Temple Bar Cultural Trust, based in Temple Bar, Dublin’s Cultural Quarter.

Directed by Ailish Kerr, and crewed by Aoife Dunne and Lauren McColgan, it was screened last night, Saturday July 16th,  at a SceneNotHerd event as part of the Made in Temple Bar festival celebrating 20 years of regeneration in Temple Bar.

www.templebar.ie

From July 15th – 24th, Temple Bar Cultural Trust is teaming up with more than 20 of our cultural neighbours, over 100 artists and performers and some of the most exciting creative companies in Ireland to celebrate 20 years of unique culture and regeneration in Dublin’s Cultural Quarter. Log on to www.templebar.ie for the full programme

The new Lord Mayor of Dublin Andrew Montague will this morning sign a mayoral scroll proclaiming Social Media Day tomorrow, 30 June. It is a fitting honour for Dublin – Europe’s internet capital – which is home to the European headquarters of Facebook, Zynga, Google, LinkedIn and many others.

The decision by Dublin’s Lord Mayor to declare tomorrow Social Media Day in Dublin coincides with a similar decision by Dublin’s sister city, San Jose in California – in the heart of Silicon Valley – to become the first city in the United States to proclaim 30 June Social Media Day.

via siliconrepublic.com

Lord Mayor of Dublin Andrew Montague signs a mayoral scroll proclaiming Social Media Day

so what’s going on?

1) I’ve met a lot of amazing, talented and wonderful people via social media, especially on the twitter. It’s a great place to connect at local levels. There’s still some people I haven’t got a chance to meet in person, so earlier yesterday I threw out the suggestion of a tweetup in town. Kieran Murphy of the delectable Murphy’s Ice Cream has kindly offered us a 2 for 1 deal on ice-creams too!  So all the tweeters who head to Murphy’s at Temple Bar Square between 1-2pm can avail of this offer.

The codeword to get you a cone in your hand is : popsicle! Hope to see you there later today! Fingers crossed the rains stays away.

2) The second tweet up of the day is happening in Doyles at 6pm, follow #dublintweetup for details on that.

3) Join the official Mashable Meetup at Grand Canal Theatre at 7pm

Happy Social Media Day!

festival.super8ireland.com