Cork ambassadors contribute more than €13 million to local economy in 2017
Six special category winners honoured at annual awards ceremony
Cork Convention Bureau (CCB) last night hosted its annual Cork Conference Ambassadors Awards at the Oriel House Hotel, Ballincollig. The prestigious ceremony paid special tribute to 33 ambassadors, including six special category winning ambassadors, who have helped secure more than €13 million for the local economy over the past 12 months and who were instrumental in bringing almost 9,000 delegates to Cork in the past year, approximately 80% of whom were international guests.
Chairman of Cork Convention Bureau Seamus Heaney, said: “This is our fourth year of celebrating the extraordinary efforts of our Cork ambassadors in bringing valuable business tourism to the city and county. In the past ten years, almost €75 million has been generated in Cork as a result of business tourism and more than 75% of all business events that come to Ireland come here with the help of an ambassador. It is wonderful to be able to pay tribute to our Cork ambassadors tonight, to acknowledge their dedication to Cork and to give them the recognition they deserve.”
During the awards ceremony, winners were awarded for bringing international conferences and events to the region. Special recognition was given in six separate categories:
1. Academic Conference Award
Dr Keelin O’Donoghue, CUMH/UCC, and Daniel Nuzum (ISA), for bringing the International Stillbirth Alliance Conference to Cork. She secured more than €560,000 to the local economy and the conference brought together more than 350 medical and parent group delegates over three days.
2. Association Conference Award
Dr Dominic Hegarty, consultant in pain management and neuro modulation at CUH, and his committee for organising the ‘CRPS complex regional pain syndrome’ conference in Cork in August 2017. The conference brought together a varied group of health practitioners to discuss complex pain management and attracted more than 240 international delegates over three days.
3. Special Interest Award
Dr Niall Smith and Elizabeth O’Carroll Twomey, CIT, for securing the ISU Space Studies Programme for Cork. The ISU SSP17 event is worth more than €2million to the local economy and saw 330 international attendees come to Cork, some staying for a nine-week period.
4. Best Collaborative Event Award
Pat Ledwidge, Elmarie McCarthy and Denis Barrett representing the local organising committee that brought the UNESCO International Conference on Learning Cities to Cork, attracting up to 700 international delegates over a five-day period with an estimated value of €1.2million.
5. Cork Stakeholder Conference Award
Cork Airport – Neil McCarthy, Kevin Cullinane and Kathleen Walshe – for bringing the Airports Council International ‘Regional Airports Conference and Exhibition’ (ACI RACE) to Cork. They secured more than €560,000 to the local economy, the conference attracted more than 350 international delegates to Cork.
6. Sports Ambassador Award
Tommy Lawton and team who brought the World Youth Angling Championships to Inniscarra, Cork, in August. They are a small group of coarse fishing enthusiasts that brought more than 700 participants to the week-long event with an estimated value of €600,000.
