#ConversationsFest24

#ConversationsFest24

#ConversationsFest24 promises just over 40 hours in the company of like minded people with an appetite for an in depth discussion and refection on the challenges of being a more aware, informed, purposeful and effectivce communications practitioner.

Unlike 'normal' industry conferences this will not be a series of expert presentations to delegates. Here the delegates are the experts and the expertise will be shared and shaped through small group discussions that will enable everybody attending to have a say and to work through the topics of the day at their own pace.

This in-person event will be based at the Yeats Society Sligo, using also a series of other venues around Sligo town for smaller discussions.

Mark your calendars and be prepared fo plenty of stimulating discussions over the three days

• Friday - Opening night

We will start on the evening of Friday 6th September with a keynote address from a public figure that frames the challenges of 21st century society for communicators.

We will then have an outline response to that address from a senior communications professional to establish some reference points for the work of the weekend.

Afterwards we will reflect on those contributions over dinner in a local restaurant and further over drinks in some of Sligo town's fine public houses.

• Saturday - Working discussions

On Saturday morning we will gather to hear three 'stimulus' presentations that probe the nature of what we do as communications practitioners, how that is valued as a role and how we can develop and build that value in others around us.

Based on those stimuli, we will then go into three hours of breakout seesions in varied intimate locations around Sligo town to tease out each of these challenges. Each session will be moderated and recorded so that we capture the full depth of the conversations and so that we can capture the synergies for further discussion later in the weekend.

We will reconvene all of the delegates for lunch and in the afternoon we will have a number of workshops based on the work of the Dublin Conversations.

There wil also be some optional activities out and about around the town designed to take as much energy as we can from the busy town centre setting.

• Saturday evening - reflection and relaxation

Dinner together will be in one of the sea side villages just outside the town with the option afterwards to join in one of the many nightly live music evensts in and around Sligo town

• Sunday morning - Bringing it all together

On Sunday we will reconvene as a full group for a presentation of the synopses of the Saturday break out sessions and a discussion on the key point to take from the work of the weekend that can help us shape ourselves and others as more porposeful communications practitioners.

Host or Publisher Andy Green and Padraig McKeon