It’s been a productive and rewarding 2017 as I look back on my work over the past year. In the spring, as event facilitation consultant and moderator of EU Ideas Lab 2017 I was thrilled to be part of such an successful international event in Brussels. As it happens, today the EU Ideas Lab 2018 team had an extensive conference call meeting for the 2018 edition, which is shaping up to be another great event on March 1, 2 and 3rd next. Again on the facilitation front I thoroughly enjoyed my first Global event Green Foundations and Institutes World Cafe , which involved planning and conducting an interactive discourse between many Green Foundations from across five continents.
Sunset in Garristown this evening December 18th 2018
On the horticulture front, in my role as Horticulture Industry Forum (HIF) Co-ordinator it has been a good year. In March, the Minister of Horticulture and DAFM became formally engaged in HIF and both the Potato and Amenity sectors joined HIF. This now means that HIF represents the entire horticulture industry. Over the summer HIF commissioned me to compile the Vision report for the industry. I’m now really looking forward to advancing the industry in 2018 through helping to progress the 24 recommendations in that report.
Autumn 2017 saw, at last, the delivery and enactment of the Mediation Bill . This was particularly gratifying as I handle PR for the Mediators’ Institute of Ireland and have been managing the lobbying campaign for this long awaited legislation for the past 5 years. Focus now switches to supporting the Mediators’ Institute of Ireland to promote awareness and use of mediation across Ireland in 2018.
The final big occasion of 2017 for me was in my role as a business mentor for LEO Fingal when as an IBYE judge we selected three outstanding young entrepreneurs to represent Fingal at the Dublin Final and hopefully the National Final in Spring 2018. It was inspiring to see the talent and passion of all the finalists and I will be disappointed if one of our three winners does not go on to be an national winner! Nollaig faoi shéan agus faoi mhaise duit!
