Archive for the ‘Events’ Category

Art and the things we are missing..

January 30, 2021

White Horse Ballincollig

I was chatting to Brendan, my son who is in the middle of his 14 day “luxury” stay at the ‘Holiday Inn’ in Auckland in New Zealand as part of their two week mandatory quarantine period.

The one thing that really struck me from that conversation was him describing the very surprising sense of overwhelming relief of being away from Ireland, from being away from restrictions, from being away from constant thoughts about hand sanitising, keeping our distance, mask wearing, not hugging, walking past our favourite establishments which are all closed, inevitably chatting about it with everyone and listening to the incessant dark news feed, and living each day under a very dark Covid cloud. 

He thought he was managing the whole thing fine, getting on with things as we all do BUT … it has been non stop and it has been creeping into all of us incrementally in a way that we I’m not sure that we will fully appreciate until it’s all well and truly behind us.

(You can hear this conversation on the Win Happy Podcast by clicking this link).

In tandem with this conversation, I was reading a very interesting piece in the New York Times by Melissa Kirsch about the huge role that art plays in our lives.

She wrote about “how we are all waiting for things to open up so we can resume what we think of as normal life” and the fact that this simple idea suddenly feels daunting.

She wrote about “the promise of going to a play, hearing live music or standing awed before a painting that much more exciting to anticipate“

We have been missing so much, it is hurting in ways that we haven’t been able to fully process and the sooner we get back to all of those simple pleasures we can start to heal and living again.

I’m imagining a fantastic meal with friends in The White Horse in Ballincollig, before heading upstairs to their beautiful, intimate and very special venue to watch a gig. Maybe it’s THE 4 Of US, Mark Geary, John Spillane,  Jack O’Rourke, David Syme, the White Horse Guitar Club or Allman Brown. Whoever it is I’m imagining being back there, standing at the bar chatting to the barman and waiting for another feast of music to top up my soul.

I miss it.. 

Greg Canty 

Greg Canty is a Partner of Fuzion Communications who offer Marketing, PR, Graphic Design and Digital Marketing services from our offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

 

 

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Posted in Air travel, Caring, Creativity, entrepreneurship, Events, Inspiration, Motivation, Positivity | Leave a Comment »

2020 – Time to Experience the “real thing”

January 1, 2020

Ardsallagh Cheese

When it comes to trends in Marketing to look out for in 2020 and beyond I think it will be all about ‘Experiential’ getting closer to the customer allowing them to touch and feel the products and services and to meet the people behind them.

We see ourselves that the noisy, over crowded, algorithm choked social media space, which not so long ago provided a fantastic opportunity to “get close” to customers is proving very challenging without substantial advertising budgets.

The social media “influencers” in the main who had a short moment in the sun, over cooked the magic by quickly switching from being genuinely passionate about their sectors to being “show me the money” merchants.

The cynical and very savvy consumer is seeing through all of this “BS” and is slowing returning to more trusted and reliable traditional media, which is really interesting as they are craving something authentic, something that does not leave them cold.

An interesting medium that we see doing well is podcasts, which if executed carefully is a very special way for your customer to get to know you better while they are commuting or in the gym.

I was judging the podcast category again this year for the Digital Marketing Awards and I could see some really great examples of companies using the medium to great effect.

I noticed with interest last November, Amazon the leaders in online retail, promoting their ‘Black Friday‘ sale with full page adverts in the national newspapers, billboards around the city and even customer events.

For the third year running in London they had a free four day “pop-up” event, ‘The Home of Black Friday‘ whereby customers were treated to all sorts of entertainment and demonstrations as well as being able to ‘touch and feel’ some of the special Black Friday deals.

As well as checking out the huge range of epic deals on offer throughout Black Friday and Cyber Monday, visitors to the Home of Black Friday had the chance to try out the latest must-have products from beauty to tech and preview the latest screenings from Prime Video.

They ticked the boxes on all of the customer demographics with complimentary workshops and experiences including, DJs, Rappers, yoga, cocktail masterclasses, beauty makeovers and Christmas workshops.

It turns out that clicking on images of items on our screens isn’t the “be-all and end-all” after all!

We witnessed it ourselves before Christmas with the weekend events that we ran for Dunnes Stores in some of their leading stores in Cork, Dublin, Galway and Limerick, whereby customers could meet the food producers, taste the food, meet the designers and see the fashion on models and watch some demonstrations by experts.

Dunnes Stores

I am now buying the Ardsallagh Cranberry Roulade Goat Cheese and Himalayan Salt Aged Beef on a regular basis after chatting with the cheese maker and the butcher from James Whelan Butchers, I’m wearing SPF skin cream protection for the first time after meeting Darren Kennedy and I am wearing a cashmere jumper from Paul Costelloe!

I also, as well as having more belief in the wine selection at Dunnes Stores, I have some new favourite wine brands after listening to the wine buyer talking about his favourite wines and the vineyards they come from.

In truth, no advert or social media posts would have had the same habit changing effect on me and there is a lot of money in our habits!

So for 2020 and beyond, I can see us all working really hard to create those new opportunities to get closer to the customer through real life experiences.

Greg

Greg Canty is a Partner of Fuzion Communications, a full service Marketing, PR, Graphic Design and Digital Marketing agency with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

 

 

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Posted in Advertising, Creativity, Entertainment, Events, Marketing, Media, Retailing | 1 Comment »

Your No. 1 Business Tips – Dublin Chamber of Commerce, Business Owners Network

July 27, 2016

Dublin Chamber - Business Owners Network

We had an interesting session last Friday morning with the Business Owners Network at Dublin Chamber of Commerce. We hold these networking sessions every second Friday between 7:30 and 9am (no messing with this gang!).

I was chairing the session and we decided to do some online networking – we asked everyone to tweet their “Number one Business Tip” and use the hashtag #BONTips. A quick search of the hashtag showed everyone who else was in the room and we took it from there, connecting, replying – plenty of interaction and new connections.

Besides having great fun as always the session yielded some very interesting business tips:

@JodhianMorian   Privacy247

“Privacy is a choice but never let anybody dictate your default settings”

@tonyinvest57  Tony O’Reilly

“Prepare to retire in style”

@iPingIT

“Always make sure you have your data backed up!!!!! Ur information is your ammunition”

@borgmanearls  Nick Borgman

“Be willing to go the extra mile for your clients every single time…”

@dee_TPI   Deirdre Dunne

“Put on a big smile when you answer the phone. You may look mad but sound great”

@claudesaulnier  Claude Saulnier

“Always hang out with good guys”

@KylesCatering

“Get up early to make your day productive”

@Colliers_Ire   Colliers Ireland

“Make a plan & engage! Post content that’s not just about your business but of interest to your followers!”

@RoseKer  Rose Kervick

“Be impeccable with your word”

Dublin Chamber - Business Owners Network

@RossONeill_RGON   Ross O’Neill

“You’d be surprised how many obstacles we unknowingly put in our teams way – listen to your team and act fast to remove them!”

@ToxicData   Toxic Data

“Handle toxic waste properly for better PR”

@wandsoft   We Simplify Business

“Want an extra staff for less than €100 a month, that’s what we offer”

@ActNowIreland   Aisling Curtin

“Reflect on which actions take you closer toward who & where you want to be in business & which actions will take you further away”

@KarenADraper   Karen Draper

“Don’t put off till tomorrow what you can leave to the next day”

@soandsodesign  So and So

“Design is so simple that’s why it’s so complicated” – Paul Rand

Dublin Chamber - Business Owners Network

@AR_Escapegames   Adventure Games Dublin

“Try spend €2 on to reach more clients”

@Jen_Appleton   Jen Appleton

“Comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing ever grows there”

@SuppliesBosMatt  Mathew Dean

“Smile”

@BDComms   Ben Dobbs

“Adjust your level of directness or indirectness based on the culture, personality and context of your partner(s) in an interaction”

@garykealy2  Gary Kealy

“Do what you love and you’ll never work again”

@navenbachani

“Believe in your product and thrive your business with that belief”

@dunneclare   Clare Dunne

“Going on holiday soon? Check your passport now, don’t wait until the night before departure!!”

@gerrycrosbie    DesignYard Awards

“Select an award that makes maximum impact”

@sdg_magee  Samantha Magee

“Management is an art enriched by everyday experiences”

@IanH123   Ian Hannon

“There is NO substitute to hard work. So you might as well get stuck in and enjoy it!”

@CHBCGroup   CHBC Office Group

“Just get started”

@HapiColm   Colm Rowan

“Clear and honest communication is essential to ensuring a team is successful in business. Communication drops, so does teamwork”

Dublin Chamber - Business Owners Network

@briancrowleytip   Brian Crowley

“Passion is everything!”

@PrintDepotIre   Print Depot

“Turn up and get involved”

@Abrivia12   Donal O’Brien

“Hire ok people, have an ok company! Hire great people”

@Kildaredesign   Grainne Slattery

“SEO it’s all about being found”

@eoscott   Eoin Scott

“Always back up the data on your PC. Accidents happen!”

@conorisme   Conor Coyne

“Succeed or learn”

@joebehan7  Joe Behan

“Listen to understand”

BON 7

@kdhampsonkevin   Kevin Hampson

“Hire a great accountant”

@robertwrockwell   Robert Whelan

“Embrace setbacks. Don’t dwell! Learn and move on”

@Alec_Drew   Alec Drew

“Value of the zero invoice”

@Davey_ETE   Dave Murray

“People want to do business with people they like”

@ItsSocialBee   Melissa Curley

“Use to create a twitter background header. It’s free to use and uses exact dimensions”

and of course last but not least is my one….

Dublin Chamber - Business Owners Network@GregCantyFuzion

My number one business tip is “Never waste a good story”

What is your No.1 Business Tip?

If you are a business owner in the Dublin area contact the Dublin Chamber of Commerce and arrange to attend one of the Business Owner Network sessions for free. Even better ‘tweet’ them @DubCham – tell them Greg sent you!!

Greg Canty 

Greg Canty is a Partner of Fuzion who offer Marketing, PR and Graphic Design services from our offices in Dublin and Cork

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Posted in Business Planning, Dublin, Events, Social Media | Leave a Comment »

Where are you sitting at the table?

November 9, 2015

dinner dance

“Can you sit us at a good table this time?“…I could hear that familiar question being asked.

Years ago we used take a very glamorous fashion and beauty event on tour around the country – I kid you not!

We did this every six months for about four years, running over 70 events in total. We had the best Irish models, the best of fashion, superb staging and we had many sponsors who felt our event was a clever way of reaching a ‘high-end‘ female consumer.

Blossom Hill CatwalksThe event was called Catwalks and in latter years Blossom Hill sponsored it so it evolved into Blossom Hill Catwalks.

The events were complex and very hard work covering every possible thing you could think of from choosing and liaising with venues, deciding and negotiating menus, choosing models and entertainment, pitching to fashion and beauty companies, creating unique branding for each series, executing PR and advertising plans, visiting each location in advance and then selling tickets!

When all of that was done all we had to do was run the events, which was the really heavy duty, demanding and totally exhausting part of the job.

The most delicate and sensitive parts of each event were all about hierarchy!

In the exhibition area which sponsor went in each available space, which brand would start the fashion show and which ended it, and most importantly where did everyone sit?

etiquette-of-queuingThe seating plan in particular was a very emotional, highly charged one whereby you had the responsibility of deciding where approximately 300 women would sit. In every single function there are great places to sit and not-so-great places. As the organiser you need to decide where each of those women will sit, knowing that your decision will please some and displease others. “Why am I less important than than others?”

This is really tricky and once you go beyond looking after the sponsors (your breadwinners) how do you choose where people who have paid exactly the same for their tickets sit?

My criteria in allocating the best seats used be sponsors first, supporters and influencers second, enthusiastic and really nice people third, prize winners last and everyone else as fair as possible in the middle. This wasn’t an exact science and there was always a group who felt a little hard done by because of where they were sitting and yes I did try to look after the nicer of these with a little extra wine!

There was always an awkward few that you knew might give you a hard time so if you weren’t in the mood for a hard time they might have ended up with a better seat – I hated doing that!

In every walk of life there is a hierarchy and where you are seated, where you are positioned in the brochure, or where your exhibition stand is situated reflects either how much you paid or shows how you are thought of.

Why was I put here?

There is no point getting upset about it …just try to understand why and only if it matters enough figure out how to move up that hierarchy.

Where are you sitting at the table?

Greg Canty 

Greg Canty is a Partner of Fuzion PR, Marketing and Graphic Design, with offices in Dublin and Cork

 

 

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Posted in Events, Personal development | 4 Comments »

Finding your Sparkle

June 5, 2014

Rubyhorse

Another great night of entertainment at The White Horse pub and restaurant in Ballincollig in Cork ..this time it was a really mixed and varied occasion as we came together as part of a fundraising initiative for Risteard O’Domhmaill’s ‘Atlantic‘ movie project.

This movie producer with a social and environmental conscience, who has already produced the award winning  “The Pipe” movie about the Shell pipe laying project at Rossport is raising funds so he can produce a movie called ‘Atlantic‘ to raise awareness about damage to our environment by exploration, big business interests and other issues.

Besides some thought provoking movie footage we were treated to some craft beer, delicious canapés and the very best of music from the White Horse Guitar Club (12 of them!), the quirky, inimitable and brilliant John Spillane and a very special acoustic reunion gig by Rubyhorse.

While the whole night was really special the stand out moment was the Rubyhorse reunion. This crew, one of Cork’s most successful ever music exports came together for the first time in 10 years. It wasn’t a full appearance by the band but we saw Joe Philpott (guitar), Decky Lucey (guitar and backing vocals) and lead singer Dave Farrell perform a number of favourite songs including the US hit ‘Sparkle‘.

I am a huge music fan but for some reason I had never seen Rubyhorse live so I was really curious as to what was the magic that had them at number 17 in the US billboard charts in 2002, that had them performing on the Letterman and Conan O’Brien shows and had the top brass in the music industry including U2’s Paul McGuinness interested in them.

Within 30 seconds I had my answer ..

Dave Farrell, RubyhorseOf course they are talented musicians and without doubt they have some really great songs including ‘Sparkle’, which brought them huge success, but for me the magic of Rubyhorse is the confident, enigmatic, charismatic lead singer Dave Farrell who is up there with the very best frontmen I have seen.

From the second they started their set Dave owned the crowd in a way that none of the other superb performers on the night could come anywhere near – I’ve seen a lot of bands down through the years and Dave not only has a great voice but also has a rock star swagger and a special charisma that you witness rarely.

I was lucky enough to have a chat with Dave after the gig and discovered a really soft unassuming guy who was telling me about an exciting restaurant project, which he is hoping to open later this year in Cork.

I was really puzzled as to why this gifted singer, who clearly comes alive on stage is not the lead singer in some incredibly huge band at the moment. When I put this to him he explained that he has simply moved onto other passions and interests..

If you find where you truly Sparkle how can you leave this behind?

 

Greg Canty

Greg Canty is a Partner of Fuzion who offer Marketing, PR and Graphic Design services from our offices in Dublin and Cork

 

 

 

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A Night of Passion

April 13, 2014

Passion

This was going to be a busy night dancing between three events ..

First up Eamon Curtin, Programme Manager of the IGNITE Programme had arranged for an incredible speaker to tell us about his fantastic start-up journeys. Raomal Perera, now a Professor of Entrepreneurship told the group of young entrepreneurs about how he scaled the dizzy heights with two companies, ISOCOR (listed on NASDAQ in 1996), which he sold and Network365, which was ultimately purchased by Intel in 2013.

Raomal PereraThe very passionate and honest Raomal,who has won many entrepreneur awards gave the group precious advice about funding a business and dealing with Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists. He told the group that the first things they look for in a young business they consider investing in, is the Integrity and PASSION of the people involved.

Next up we headed to L’Atitude 51 for the International Wine and Food Society “Best of Local Producers” event where we sampled the best of wine which was carefully selected by the joint owner Beverley Mathews who is as passionate about wine as the guest food producers.

The wine was accompanied by the finest food from some of the best of local food producers. We heard from Frank Hederman who has been smoking salmon for over 30 years, we heard from the owner of On The Pigs Back about the fantastic cheeses and best of all was our butcher from Kanturk.

Jack McCarthy, Butcher KanturkJack McCarthy, 5th generation butcher was both entertaining and no-nonsense as he lit up the room with his passion for spicing beef, black pudding, haggis and tongue – you just wanted to plan an immediate trip to Kanturk and stock up on anything that this passionate man was selling.

Our final event of the evening was the Mark Geary gig at Coughlan’s Bar, which has just been voted IMRO’s best live venue in Ireland. This is an incredible and well deserved accolade for this cosy venue, which is a huge credit to the woman behind all of this, Edel Curtin. Bands all over Ireland and Cork music fans are lucky to have such a passionate person as Edel bringing us great gigs in such an intimate venue on a regular basis.

Mark Geary

After a little wait our buddy Mark Geary and his band of merry men and the fabulous Grainne Hunt came on stage and entertained us in his inimitable style complete with great songs, great story telling and a special sense of humour. This was a great gig with a special solo cover of a Tom Waits song by Grainne ..beautiful!

Mark could have brought a small band with him for this intimate gig but this is a passionate artist who prefers to give his audience everything instead of making a few extra bob and doing just enough.

We had a really great and quite diverse night, but the one thing that was the same and made everything special, whether it was business, wine, food, music or running a venue was Passion.

Raomal was right …Passion is the most important ingredient of all.

Does what you do allow your passion to shine through? 

Greg Canty

Greg Canty is a Partner of Fuzion who offer Marketing, PR and Graphic Design services from our offices in Dublin and Cork

 

 

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Posted in Business Start Ups, Customer Care, Entertainment, Events, Motivation, Positivity | 2 Comments »

Searching for Gold in the world of Glamour

March 22, 2014

Panning for Gold

Is there one thing that you can do can that can help you find gold for your business?

Back in 2001 I had this crazy idea for an event – how about getting the best models in Ireland, with the best fashion brands, adding in a beauty exhibition area, spicing it up with some entertainment and then taking this on tour to the best hotels in the country in major locations?

I woke in the early hours of the morning with this crazy idea, insisted that I explained it to Dee before I forgot it and then I turned around and went back to sleep.

Soon after that we met Michael Doherty the owner of VIP magazine who liked the idea – if we went ahead with the event he would come on board as a Media Partner.

That was the last piece of encouragement we needed and from that conversation “Catwalks” was born. Both Dee and I had the job of bringing Ireland’s most glamourous fashion and beauty event on tour around the country.

Blossom Hill CatwalksWe met model agencies, we chose models, we chose a fashion show producer, we met staging companies, we booked hotels, we chose menus. we set up a lo-call number, we developed a brand and we sold the idea to top national brands and before we knew it we had six dates booked around Ireland – all we needed now was to sell tickets to the women around the country. Simple!

We went back to Michael Doherty and sure enough as promised he agreed to be our media partner. He believed in our event but he also agreed that it was a great fit for VIP magazine and it’s readers. He boldly predicted that the very first double page advert in VIP magazine, would effectively sell out the event.

When we heard this we were delighted – if that was the case our events would be a huge success, we would make money and there would be little need for all the other planned promotional activity.

The day that issue of VIP magazine hit the shelves across the country we braced ourselves. Our phone was manned and we waited for the avalanche of women booking tickets for this first of it’s kind event. We’ll never forget the name Marie Carroll, a hairdresser from Tralee who rang and booked two tickets – Yes, we were up and running!

And that was it ….nothing for another two weeks.

Panic started to set in big time. Was this great idea such a great idea after all?

Our other advertising started including local radio and newspapers. We ran competitions, we managed to get media coverage through Dee’s PR skills including a great piece on TV. We sent flyers and posters to each of the participating hotels who promised to distribute them.

Slowly but surely we started to get bookings but not enough to take away that awful sense of panic.

Tony Hadley - Catwalks

We made a decision to hit the road and visit each of the locations where we were holding our events. When we went to a town we distributed large quantities of flyers and posters – we went into the boutiques, the hair salons, the beauty salons and any place where we felt we could grab the attention  of our target audience.

We handed out our flyers and posters and we could see the reaction of the women we handed these to. What was this event all about? We stopped and we chatted and we explained what it was all about. Boutiques asked could they participate – “If you buy a table at the event we will give you a segment of the fashion show” was our response. We shifted a lot of tickets through this simple mechanism.

We got a call from our girl manning the phones. “Where are you?” she asked “I’m getting lots of calls for tickets from Limerick“. We had just spent four hours hard slog in Limerick and were totally exhausted. My shoulder was nearly broken from the weight of the promotional material I had been carrying around the place.

This was the day we learnt some big lessons:

There is no one thing that will make the promotion of your event, initiative, product or service a success – It is the combination of everything.

The one absolutely essential ingredient for success was us working our socks off!

The events turned out to be a huge success and in total over a four year period we ran 72 separate shows with our final event being in Killarney with Tony Hadley of Spandau Ballet fame closing it with an incredible version of “Gold“.

Gold….it is never easy to find!

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Fuzion are a Marketing, PR and Graphic Design agency in Ireland with offices in Cork and Dublin

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Posted in Advertising, Direct Marketing, Email Marketing, Events, Graphic Design, Marketing | 2 Comments »