DHR Communications

DHR Communications is delighted to announce that Africa Day 2009 was the overall winner in the ‘Event of the Year’ category at the Business and Excellence Awards held by Bold & Beautiful magazine in the Gresham Hotel, Dublin on Saturday night.

Catherine Heaney, Director of DHR Communications and Project Manager for Africa Day, was at the awards ceremony to collect the award, along with Martina Quinn, Senior Account Manager with DHR Communications, who serves as Content Manager for Africa Day. We work in collaboration with Davis Events Consultancy on Africa Day, and Paul Davis – Logistics Manager for Africa Day – joined us at the awards ceremony on Saturday night.

We were presented with the award for Africa Day by Benedicta Attoh, who had herself won an achievement award earlier in the night for the contribution she has made to Irish social and political life since moving here from Nigeria.

DHR Communications would like to thank all of the African community groups, cultural organisations, performers, contributors and volunteers who helped make Africa Day 2009 such a success. A selection of photographs from the awards ceremony on Saturday night are now available on our Facebook page.

The Africa Day celebrations in Ireland are organised by Irish Aid each year. A full case study of our work with Irish Aid on its Africa Day events is available here.

DHR Communications has a busy week ahead.

Tomorrow night, we’re in the Gresham Hotel, Dublin, for the annual Business and Excellence Awards, run by Bold & Beautiful magazine. Africa Day 2009 – for which we served as project managers – is nominated for an award in the ‘Event of the Year’ category.

On Monday, we’re at European Union House on Dawson Street for a traditional arts exhibition, which is being launched by Senator David Norris. The exhibition is being organised by D8CEC (Dublin 8 Community Education Centre), a neighbour of ours in The Digital Hub. It focuses on traditional arts activities – such as storytelling, folk dance and potterymaking – and is the outcome of a three-year Grundtvig adult education project in which D8CEC was involved, along with adult education organisations from Lithuania, Sicily and Greece.

Next Thursday, we’re working with Comhar Sustainable Development Council on a seminar on Education for Sustainable Development at the Coach House in Dublin Castle. The seminar includes an afternoon session on the role the media can play in informing and educating people about sustainability. Panellists include Frank McDonald, Environment Editor of The Irish Times; broadcaster Duncan Stewart, and Paul Cunningham, Environment Correspondent with RTE. The session will be chaired by John Bowman.

Our week’s activities will conclude with work on a three-day international networking event for the British Council(Ireland), which will focus on green enterprise and developing resilient communities. The three days of activities – which are being organised as part of the British Council’s Challenge Europe project – will include a trip on a ‘learning bus’ to the Cloughjordan Eco-Village in Tipperary; a focus on high-level business change in relation to sustainable development, and a panel discussion on a Green New Deal for Ireland.

Africa Day 2009 has been nominated in the ‘Event of the Year’ category for the annual Business and Excellence Awards, organised by Bold & Beautiful magazine, a lifestyle magazine with African roots.

The Awards Ceremony will take place in the Gresham Hotel, Dublin on Saturday, 21st November.

DHR Communications has served as project manager for Africa Day for the past two years. Working with Davis Event Consultancy, we organised the inaugural Africa Day flagship event – ‘Africa Day@ Dublin Castle’ – in 2008, followed by ‘Africa Day @ Iveagh Gardens, Dublin’ and ‘Africa Day@ Limerick’ in May 2009.

This week, we’re busy working on events for Diageo Ireland’s Corporate Social Responsibility team and Comhar Sustainable Development Council.

Diageo

Gay Byrne will return to the area in which he grew up tomorrow to join long-term residents of Dublin 8 in celebrating their memories of life in the shadow of the Guinness brewery. Mr. Byrne will join local residents at an event in the Guinness Storehouse to celebrate the ‘Memoirs of Guinness’ project, which came about when local history groups from Dublin 8 approached Diageo to say they would like to get involved in the Guinness 250 celebrations.

As a result, the history groups – which are mostly comprised of older people from Dublin 8 – worked with Diageo and the learning team from The Digital Hub to produce a series of podcasts documenting their memories of growing up in the vicinity of the famous Guinness brewery. On the podcasts, the groups share their memories of playing in the grounds of the brewery and attending Christmas parties in the ‘Beano’ (Iveagh Play Centre) on Bull Alley Street. They also reminisce about the free healthcare services provided by Guinness; the role that women played in the day-to-day running of the brewery, and the prestige that was attached to gaining employment within the company.

The four history groups involved in the ‘Memoirs of Guinness’ project are from D8CEC (Dublin 8 Community Education Centre, based on James’s Street), St. Nicholas of Myra (based on Francis Street), Dolphin’s Barn and Bluebell.

Comhar Sustainable Development Council

Comhar SDC is hosting an all-island conference on biodiversity tomorrow in the National Botanic Gardens. The conference will be officially opened by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, John Gormley TD.

The event will focus on how to develop Ireland’s green infrastructure – comprising green spaces, urban centres and rural areas – and a piece of new research on green infrastructure will be presented to conference delegates.

A number of leading experts on biodiversity and urban / rural planning will speak at the event, including: Gerry Sheeran, President, Irish Planning Institute; Russell Elliott, Countryside Council for Wales, and Cliona O’Brien, Heritage Council.

DHR Communications is delighted to have been appointed to work with the British Council in Ireland. The British Council is the United Kingdom’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. It has been operating in Ireland for the past 20 years.

The British Council recently celebrated its 75th anniversary and marked the occasion in Ireland with a reception at the British Ambassador’s residence in Glencairn, Dublin. A new strategy for collaborative working in Ireland and Northern Ireland was launched at the event.

Projects in which the British Council in Ireland is currently involved include:

• OPENCities: an initiative aimed at exploring how immigration can significantly contribute to a city’s success. Over 100 cities – including Dublin – will be engaged in the project. A photography exhibition and ‘city soundtrack’ music competition will take place in Ireland in spring 2010, and research will be published documenting the experiences and attitudes of migrants in Dublin.
• Challenge Europe: a three-year campaign aimed at making a lasting impact on the climate change debate across Europe. Almost 300 Challenge Europe ‘advocates’ – aged 18-35 – are working with various sectors to identify and explore climate-related issues and challenges locally and across Europe. The ultimate aim of the project is to change business practice, policy and public behaviour.
• Conversations with Africa: a collaborative partnership between the science museum, W5, in Northern Ireland, Irish Aid and the British Council. Students aged 14-16 from schools in Northern Ireland, Ireland, Ethiopia and Ghana will debate and raise awareness of sustainable development issues on a local and global scale through video-conferencing and other activities.

DHR Communications will be working with the British Council over the coming months to promote these – and other – initiatives.

Dermot Ryan, Director of DHR Communications, has been appointed to the Lord Mayor’s Commission on Employment.

The Lord Mayor, Cllr. Emer Costello, established the Commission on Employment to examine how Dublin City Council and other public, private and NGO agencies can help promote economic renewal and employment growth in Dublin.

The Commission will identify and make recommendations for actions in the key areas of:

1. Unemployment and employment.
2. Business, entrepreneurship and finance.
3. Education, skills and training.
4. Volunteering and the social economy.

The Commission is currently inviting individuals and organisations to propose ideas and actions in relation to these key areas.  Submissions (ideally no more than five pages in length) should be made to the Lord Mayor’s Office, Mansion House, Dawson Street, Dublin 2 or by email to lmce@dublincity.ie. Further information is available on www.dublincity.ie or by telephoning 01-2225233. The deadline for receipt of submissions is Friday, 4th December 2009.

In addition to his work with DHR Communications, Dermot Ryan is Chairperson of SWIC LEC – the South West Inner City Local Employment Centre – placing him in an ideal position to contribute to the work of the Commission on Employment.

Full details of the work of the Commission on Employment are available here.

Last week saw us working on another successful event for the Joint Consortium on Gender Based Violence, during which the Consortium held its annual consultation session with its special advisor Mary Robinson.

The Joint Consortium on Gender Based Violence was established in 2005 and comprises 16 organisations – including Irish human rights, humanitarian and development organisations, together with Irish Aid and the Defence Forces – that are working to tackle gender based violence in their development and human rights work. Mary Robinson has served as special advisor to the Consortium since it was established. During last week’s event, she gave her assessment on the progress that Ireland is making in its global efforts to tackle gender based violence.