Re: Re: well what about the developments popping up in the shannonside ?

Conference Centre Location

My preferred location would be near the city centre, however since Shannon airport is part of the Limerick / Shannon gateway it would be a worthwhile exercise into looking at all the options that would best serve the city if not the mid-west region as a whole.

The airport like the university is one of the main driving engines of our local economy. Since it’s foundation it had to adapt to change and innovated new business concepts not just to survive but to grow. With open skies and the full removal of the stopover, new alternatives such as a (International) conference centre at the airport might be an important new ingredient to interest American airlines to fly direct to Shannon.

Take multinationals like Johnson & Johnson for example, who operate both in North America and Europe (Ireland included). Their (geographical) business conference needs could well be met in Shannon? Limerick hotels, restaurants etc would certainly not snub these “Business” tourists.

Nearly all the city hotels have conference facilities to cater for local, regional needs. The university (UCH) can easily deal with a 1.000 delegate conference but is it not curtailed to operate only during the vacation periods? Since the department is keen to build the centre as a public-private partnership it cannot surely be can’t be seen as a hand out?

Anyway I’m off to the Irish Pub now to link up worldwide with fellow ex-pats per video conference and hopefully see Limerick beat Clare!:D