The 30th World Congress of the International Association for Suicide Prevention broke all records when it was held in Derry from 17-21 September. Over 850 delegates from 57 countries attend the congress which was a record for the IASP, beating the previous best in Montreal 2015. Another key achievement for the event was that it was also the largest congress ever to be held in the city of Derry. 

The glorious sunshine all week allowed delegates to experience this wonderful city and the event had a huge impact on the city. Feedback from all attendees has been amazing. Our team, lead by Project Manager Louisa Fraederich were delighted to partner with Ulster University, PHA, Visit Derry and University of Glasgow on this truly special event. We cannot wait to work in Derry again!

August ended with a very busy 2 weeks for our team managing conferences in Glasgow, Sligo and Dublin. It all started in Dublin City University with the 350 delegate MT Summit which turned out to be a record attendance for the event! We also had a larger than expected attendance at the University of Glasgow for the 2019 Society for Geology Applied to Mineral Deposits Conference which brought over 800 delegates to the city! Finally, we headed west to Sligo for the Archaeological Prospection conference and welcomed 150 delegates to a wonderful event in IT Sligo. A hectic few weeks but we wouldn't have it any other way!

A very busy 2 weeks came to an end for Abbey on Friday evening after welcoming almost 5,000 delegates across 3 conferences in Cork and Dublin. First up was the Wind Energy Science Conference in UCC where we had almost 900 delegates across 4 wonderful days. We then moved to Dublin for the Euro-K Conference in UCD which attracted 2600 delegates and an incredible 51 breakout sessions across campus! Also last week, we had the pleasure of working with the European Cyclists Federation and Dublin City Council on Velo-city 2019 in Dublin's Convention Centre. 3 amazing events that our team were proud to play a part in!

On Ticky The Turtle Tuesday, we are delighted to say that Abbey Conference & Events have joined the list of organisations who have signed up to IAPCO's Ticky The Turtle Pledge to help rid the meetings industry of single use plastics. 

Abbey have a number of exciting initiatives in place in our office to help achieve this and will also be implementing best practice onsite at our events to ensure we do our bit to help us achieve this aim collectively. 

We are super excited to announce that Abbey have been shortlisted in 2 categories at the prestigious Event Industry Awards which take place in Citywest Hotel, Dublin on Friday 19th July. 

Firstly, we have been shortlisted for the Best Professional Conference Organiser award and are aiming to win this award for an incredible 4th year in a row!

Additionally, we are thrilled to say that the IUSTI 2018 World & European Congress has been shortlisted for the Best Conference Award on the night. It was a truly memorable event for Abbey and our client Dr. Derek Freedman and it would be wonderful to have this recognised on the night!

Anja, Greg and John from Abbey Conference joined the thousands of meeting professionals from all over the world attending the IMEX Show in Frankfurt from 21-23 May. Abbey were delighted to have the opportunity to attend the show as hosted buyers through our wonderful colleagues in IAPCO. Some great contacts were made at the event and we're already looking forward to next year!

Abbey were delighted to once again partner with the Irish Society for Clinical Nutrition & Metabolism on the biennial IrSPEN Conference & Policy Seminar. There was a new venue for the conference this year, taking place in the iconic Aviva Stadium.

Glorious sunshine greeted the 250 delegates on arrival for a busy day of presentations from some of the leading national and international experts in the field. 

Patricia and Greg were part of the 107 PCO delegates from all over the world who attended the 50th IAPCO Annual Meeting in Basel, Switzerland. The meeting had a mixture of keynote speakers and interactive group sessions and gave Abbey a wonderful opportunity to network with international industry colleagues. Overall it was a very interesting and educational event to attend. Next year's meeting takes place in Montreal and the 2021 meeting has been awarded to Rome. 

Held in the stunning EICC from 28-30 November, the Difficult Airway Society Annual Scientific Meeting had a record 950 registrations. Day 1 of the event was a full day of interactive workshops followed by The Welcome Reception in the EICC. The following night we had a wonderful Gala Dinner and Ceilidh in The Hub, Edinburgh. The meeting was a wonderful success and special thanks to the lovely DAS 2018 committee who have been a joy to work with for the past 2 years!

An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar T.D. today announced a five-game plan which will see the return of College Football to Ireland and an expected €250 million economic windfall 

for the country over the coming years. The series kicks off with the return of Navy vs Notre Dame which will take place on Saturday 29th August 2020. Aer Lingus has been unveiled as title sponsor of the series at the Aviva Stadium with other fixtures and teams will be announced in due-course.

The previous Navy vs Notre Dame fixture in the Aviva Stadium in 2012 was a huge success with 35,000 fans travelling from the US; resulting in one of the largest economic and tourism boosts for the country in recent memory. The fixture is one of the oldest rivalries in College Football and Notre Dame won the previous Dublin showdown 50-10. This Saturday (27th October 2018) the two teams will play their annual head-to-head game in San Diego.

Abbey are very proud to once again be part of the team for this incredibly exciting event!