Killarney Gives Worldwide Welcome To Google
Over 2,500 Googlers from around the world converged on The Brehon and the INEC in Killarney last month for, web giant, Google's Annual EMEA Sales Conference - Engage Killarney 2009.
While in Killarney for two days of conferencing, delegates were addressed by senior Google executives including CEO Eric Schmidt, whose personal Gulfstream jet as well as six chartered aircraft transporting over 1000 conference delegates from across Europe, Africa and the Middle East came to land in Kerry Airport. A further 1000 delegates travelled by chartered trains from the company's European Headquarters in Dublin. Their Dublin office employs 1,500 people and is Google's biggest office outside California and New York.
John Herlihy, the head of Google in Ireland, saluted the people of Killarney for the welcome extended by the town to the company. "I explained to my colleagues in Europe and the US the meaning of 'Céad Míle Fáilte' and they certainly appreciated the 100,000 welcomes which met us wherever we went in Killarney. I cannot praise the staff at the INEC, and staff in the hotels, restaurants and pubs throughout the town highly enough. Their professionalism and service levels were second to none and showcased Killarney, Kerry and Ireland to the very highest standards. The logistics of bringing 2,500 people together from all over Europe is not easy but everything worked very smoothly and we definitely showed that Ireland is among the best locations in Europe for international conferences. I would like to thank all the people of Killarney for the hospitality shown to all of us in Google. My hope is that we can bring the conference back to Killarney again in the future." said John Herlihy.
The entertainment element of the conference on the first night - dubbed Gfest - consisted of an outdoor street party on Scott's Street complete with live music and food stalls, as well as ceilís, karaoke, trad music sessions, storytelling and other events at locations dotted around the town centre. Delegates were free to roam the visitor friendly town at their ease visiting some of the 26 local pubs, as well as coffee shops and restaurants mingling with the locals who are famed the world over for their hospitality. The 2,500 delegates also attended a gala Banquet in the INEC on the second night, this was the largest banquet ever held in the INEC.
Speaking on the success of the conference, Patrick O'Donoghue, Managing Director of the INEC and Destination Killarney Group said: "This conference augments The INEC and Killarney's position as one of the World's leading conference destinations. The high profile nature of this conference means that it could pave the way for other similar events in the future."
"It was one of the most keenly contested pieces of Corporate Business of 2009 and has already resulted in phenomenal exposure for Killarney. We worked tirelessly over the past six months first to secure this event, which involved negotiating a lengthy tender process and contending with rival bids from other leading venues including Dublin and London, this was followed by months of logistical preparation."
In preparation for the conference the INEC has been Next Generation Network (NGN) enabled with the latest-state-of-the art networking platform. Next Generation Networks enable businesses to run a full range of IP-based voice, video and data applications over a single network.
The fibre connection now available in The INEC provides Internet speeds of up to 100Mb uncontested. This effectively gives a huge increase in bandwidth speeds bearing in mind that the normal line connection speed of only 7Mb is contested which means it is shared with other users. This state-of-the-art technology will play an integral role in attracting other such conferences to the INEC.
The fact that The Brehon is a participant in the Fáilte Ireland Green Hospitality Programme and that the INEC Complex as a whole observes strict environmentally friendly policies also proved key to securing this conference.
Back to Press Releases page
