Event Industry Award Judges

Judging Process

The process of adjudication is as follows:

1. Your entry will be carefully scrutinised and finalists will be selected for each award.

2. The shortlist of finalists will be published in the Irish Independent and also on the Awards website, www.eia.ie.

3. Finalists will divided into two panels which will go forward to our judging panels, each comprising of 3 judges. Any judge who has a potential conflict with a shortlisted organisation will not judge the corresponding category.

4. The judges will rank the finalists from first to last based on the relevant category criteria. Once all scores have been received, they will then be amalgamated with the best scoring entry winning their category.

5. The winners will be announced at the Awards Gala Night in the Burlington Hotel.

Anna May McHugh - MD, National Ploughing Association

Anna May McHugh is Managing Director/Secretary of the National Ploughing Association, organizers of one of the largest outdoor annual events in Europe. Starting as Secretary of the Association in the mid 50's she became MD in 1973, Anna May is also the Irish Board Member on the Board of the World Ploughing Organization. Her work involves her liaising with hundreds of people on an annual basis to co-ordinate the Championships including contractors, service providers, national and local authorities, dignitaries.

She served a term on the Board of Teagasc, was appointed by Minister for Agriculture to the Agricultural Production Research Committee, the Advisory Committee on the Role of Women in Agriculture. Anna May is a Director of KFM Radio in Kildare, a member of the Laois Enterprise Board and she has held many officerships on community and county associations.

She has won Laois Person of the Year, Laois Millennium Person on the Year, Rehab National Person of the Year, an Honorary Doctorate from DIT, and most recently the Events Industry Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Events Industry, and the Irish Security Industry Premier Award.

Colm Croffy - Executive Director of the Association of Irish Festivals and Events

Colm is Executive Director of the Association of Irish Festivals and Events (AOIFE).

He serves as a Director of the International Festivals and Events Association (IFEA) and serves as the Hon. Treasurer of International Festivals and Events - Europe. Formerly Co-coordinator for Ballinasloe Fair and Festival - one of the largest festival and heritage events in the West of Ireland, he now is involved with The Rose of Tralee - one of Ireland's longest running televised festivals based in Kerry in the South West.

He was elected Chair of AOIFE in 2001 and subsequently took on executive roles leading to him becoming Operations Director in 2003 and Executive Director in May 2008.AOIFE partners the Government and other stakeholders in developing world class festivals and events in Ireland. He was involved with the Irish Government‘s Task Force on the Tourism Industry and has been key in championing the role of the Festival and Cultural Events Sector within Irish Tourism, Arts and Community policies. In 2003 he was awarded the Industry's highest honour - the IFEA Miller Hall of Fame.

Keith McCormack- Head of Golf, Business Tourism and Events at Fáilte Ireland

Keith McCormack is Head of Golf, Business Tourism and Events with Fáilte Ireland, and in this role, Keith leads a team providing all aspects of market development and demand generation in the Business Tourism and Events sectors.

A big believer in the power and appeal of Ireland's Business and Events Brand, Keith supports a number of  industry initiatives (through the Business Tourism Forum) that are looking to improve Ireland's product, and increase Ireland's overseas visitor numbers.

Before joining Fáilte Ireland in 2008, Keith worked for a number years for a diverse range of organizations, including Jacobs Biscuits (Danone Group), Glanbia and Greenstar (part of the NTR group).  He has held several roles across commercial functions, including head of marketing, trade marketing, category management and sales development.

Keith is a qualified marketing professional and holds a masters degree from Dublin Institute Technology and a management degree from Trinity College Dublin.   He is a member of the Marketing Institute, Institute of Directors, and a Board member of St. Patricks Day Festival Ltd and Dublin Contemporary 2011.

Sophie Gorman- Day & Night Magazine Editor and Arts Editor

Sophie is the Arts Editor for the Irish Independent and has been writing about the arts for them for almost 15 years.

She is also the editor of the weekly entertainment magazine, Day & Night. In addition, she also presented a weekly two-hour Arts & Entertainment Show on Newstalk 106 for a number of years.

Eleanor Kenyon - Independent Colleges

Eleanor has worked in the event management industry for the past seventeen years. She has organised international retail and private banking conferences in Latin America, the US and Europe.

She has extensive experience in international marketing, web development and design. Eleanor has developed a number of strategic marketing plans for blue-chip companies that focus on ROI (return on investment) and developing their brand. Previously, Eleanor has worked with the GSM (Global Systems for Mobiles) Association on their Mobile World Congress. This is an annual event held in Barcelona with attendees in excess of 50,000.

More recently she has worked with Hewlett Packard in setting up their events department and developing their corporate events. Eleanor
was involved in setting up the first Event Management Diploma Course in Ireland in 2003. She holds a BA in Spanish and Italian from University College Galway and a Postgraduate in Public Relations from the College of Commerce, Rathmines.

Gerard O'Neill - Chairman, Amárach Group.

Gerard studied economics at the LSE before working at The Henley Centre for Forecasting in London. He then became business planning manager in An Post, before setting up Henley Centre Ireland. Subsequently re-named Amárach Consulting, the company became the first Irish agency to establish an overseas operation (in the UK). Subsequently, Research Solutions and Amárach Consulting merged to form Amárach Research in 2008.

Gerard is a member of ESOMAR, the Market Research Society and a director of AIMRO - the association of Irish market research organisations. He was previously chairman of the Marketing Society, and a director of the Irish Direct Marketing Association. He is also a member of IBEC's Energy Policy Committee. He speaks and writes regularly on the business impact of economic and environmental change.