Padraic Gilligan
Dublin, Ireland
With his business partner Patrick Delaney, Pádraic Gilligan is Managing Partner at SoolNua, a boutique consultancy firm working in the Meetings and Events industry. Previously both Delaney and Gilligan worked for MCI, a global association, communications and event management company.
Pádraic 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 saw the establishment of Ovation offices at over 100 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 and Destination Management Professional of the Year for 2013 by ADMEI. He serves on the advisory boards of IHG, The Special Event Magazine and FICP.
Gilligan has written and spoken on many aspects of the meetings industry, regularly contributing to Site, MPI, ADMEI, ICCA and other associations. Areas of interest include Destination Marketing, 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 popular blog which may be accessed on www.padraicino.com
Padraic is married to Rita Smyth and together they have 6 grown up children. He is a passionate supporter of Arsenal Football Club, a performing singer-songwriter, a committed cyclist and an enthusiastic user of social media (@padraicino)