Padraic Gilligan

Pádraic Gilligan is Vice President of Industry Relations at MCI, a global association, communications and event management company. He has written and spoken on many aspects of the meetings industry, regularly contributing to Site, MPI and other associations. Areas of interest include Social Media, Branding, Service Marketing, Regulations in the Pharmaceutical Industry, Measurement and Return on Investment, Business Case for Meetings and Events etc. His interests in these areas and in destinations in general are reflected in his blog which may be accessed on www.padraicino.com

Pádraic Gilligan holds BA and MA degrees in Italian and English literature from University College Dublin and a post graduate diploma in Marketing from Boston College. Following a 13 year career in education, teaching at second and third levels, he started Delaney Marketing Consultants in 1994 with Patrick Delaney. In 2002 Delaney Marketing acquired Ovation and re-branded as Ovation Group. In June 2007 Ovation was acquired by MCI Group and commenced a robust global expansion programme which has seen the establishment of Ovation offices in over 20 European, Asia, Latin American and Middle Eastern destinations under the Ovation Global DMC brand.

In 2004 Gilligan was elected to the International Board of the Site and served as international President of this global organisation in 2008. He has won many awards and was voted Industry Personality of the Year by Meetings.net for 2009. He serves on the advisory boards of IHG and The Special Event Magazine. Padraic is married to Rita Smyth and together they have 6 grown up children. In August 2011 he became a grandfather. He is a passionate supporter of Arsenal Football Club, a performing singer-songwriter and walks 5 km every day.