Cong in county Mayo to be turned into an Innovation Centre

A quiet village in county Mayo is set to be turned into a centre for innovation this month!

Cong, a small tourist village in Mayo will see about hundred experts converge for a three-day conference from 24th to 26th November, 2017. Attendees will present their views and thinking on topics such as the Curse of Innovation, to Innovation and Faith.

CongRegation will kick off with an evening of personal ‘Innovation Stories’ in Ashford Castle on Friday 24^th from the inventor of Bailey, David Gluckman (which has sold over 1.25 billion bottles), Tom Murphy the founder of boards.ie (community of over 300,000 Irish people), Niamh Bushell CEO TechIreland (and ex start up commissioner), Alessandro Prest, CTO, LogoGrab (augmented visual search) and Gerry Duffy, global speaker who ran 32 marathons in 32 days.  Following the evening of talks the attendees will be treated to an Art Pub Crawl where they will learn to draw in a fun workshop.

The following day 80 speakers will converge on Cong Village where each of them will present their ideas on Innovation in small huddles spread through the village in cafes, galleries, bars and restaurants.

While the adults will be reenergizing their minds in Cong Village, their children will be experiencing science and rocket making workshops in the Crossroads Community Centre.

The day of ‘unconferencing’ on Saturday will finish off with a Blues Harmonic workshop where over the course of 2 hours, attendees will learn to play basic Chicago Blues harmonica and collaborate to write the lyrics of “Leaving Congregation Blues”.

In order to secure a ticket each attendee produces a 600 word article on their topic which is published on the CongRegation website (www.congregation.ie.

Organiser Eoin Kennedy says “This year’s CongRegation has attracted people from a very diverse range of backgrounds from academics, psychologists, business owners, teachers and nurses to farmers with an equally varied spectrum of perspectives on innovation. Although many speakers fly in for the event it is designed to be accessible and inclusive day of sharing, discussing, connecting and re-energizing.  Attendees propose a topic, research it and produce a paper and in essence pay with their insights.  Rather than the normal conference format of one speaker presenting to many people, we break the sessions into group of 12 people in multiple venues that randomly rotate and change 4 times during the day.  This format replicates real world roundtable coffee chats where some of the best conversations and ideas are born.”

There is no charge to attend CongRegation and submissions will be considered until the end of 20^th November.  In particular the organisers are looking for contributions in Innovation in Art, Music and Living with special consideration given to younger participants.

Anyone interested in participating is encouraged to send in a one liner/synopsis on their suggested topic area to Eoin@congregation.ie or submit a full article via the website http://www.congregation.ie/submit-paper.html

The free eBooks from 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 are available as a download on http://www.congregation.ie/ebook-download.html

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