Way, way back in probably April or May I heard an interview on the radio about 500 travel bloggers coming to Dublin in October. My immediate reaction was ‘wouldn’t it be wonderful to go to something like that’!!!
And guess what? I did get to go!
I won a ticket to attend – major thanks to Failte Ireland who were the host sponsors.
There were close to 600 travel bloggers in Dublin last week for the TBEX Europe conference. They came from all over the world!
The conference itself was full of useful seminars on writing, travel tips, social media, tourism statistics and developments. In fact looking back over my notes, it is going to take me weeks to work my way through all I learnt.
There were two highlights for me….. the ‘armchair’ chat with John Minihan….. yes, the photographer that took those iconic photographs of Lady Diana and Samuel Beckett.
The biggest highlight though was the launch party.
I had been told that the launch night on Wednesday was going to be pretty spectacular and I should make an effort to attend.
So got the glad rags on and headed to Guinness Storehouse. My sister came along – as she put it ‘gate-crashing’ (not really) and being moral support.
And yes it was spectacular. To greet us at Guinness Storehouse – there were folks on stilts, there were flame throwers and there was a samba (type?) band and we hadn’t even gone indoors yet!
TBEX Launch Party
Once inside it was up a couple of floors where all you could say was WOW! The food – oysters, prawn cocktails, confit of duck wrapped in cabbage, sushi, pulled pork on Waterford Blaas, cheeses, ice-cream, chicken kebabs, delicious lamb kebabs with a coriander dipping sauce…. I am sure I’ve probably forgotten something.
Ice-cream is served Madam 🙂
And there was wine – Guinness of course – Guinness in Prosecco – I imagine there was probably tea or coffee – no-one was drinking that 🙂
There was music of all sorts – traditional Irish, funky Irish, techno Irish. All excellent.
Despite the rain, the view from the Gravity Bar did not disappoint.
There were people there from all over the world, and all the Irish people were just ‘wowed’ and over-whelmed by how Ireland was being represented to these travellers.
It truly was a night to feel really, really proud to be Irish. Well done to Failte Ireland and Guinness Storehouse you did us proud.
Here’s the official ‘movie’ from the night… it will give you a flavour of what a wonderful evening it was.
We were sent home with a little goody bag of Guinness things. So I thought I’d share some of the wonderful evening with you – partially also to celebrate the blogs 4th birthday!!!
Would you like to own a few Guinness fun and funky things?
Guinness gifts
Well leave a comment and we’ll pick a winner.
(Open to folks all over the world!)
A Year In Redwood 