Nicola Halloran is a Director on the digital team at Teneo with vast knowledge and experience across the digital space, responsible for creating immersive digital campaigns which are strategy driven for her clients. Nicola’s core expertise lie in Digital and Social Strategy, Creative Development, Content Production and Media Planning. She is obsessed with keeping up to date with emerging features and trends across digital channels and bringing these insights into the strategies she is working on. Outside of her professional life Nicola is also a trained chef, who has amassed a large following on social media as The Wonky Spatula, publishing her 1st book in 2020 and developing a recipe app to further her reach her audience via digital solutions.

Arlene Finn is the Communications Officer in Galway City Council. Arlene’s background is in behaviour change, facilitation, and stakeholder engagement. Her previous roles include Smarter Travel Programme Coordinator, European Green Leaf Project Coordinator, and Environmental Awareness Officer. Arlene holds a BA in Communications, Diploma in Marketing, Advertising and Public Relations, and an MSc in Sustainable Development. Arlene’s interest in communications comes from a desire to communicate effectively about sustainable development, to bring about positive change in society.

Shane Foley is a Social Strategy Director in Core Performance with vast knowledge and a deep understanding of the social media landscape. Shane studies the diversifying social platforms and audience behaviours across an increasingly fragmented landscape. Shane’s core expertise lies in Digital and Social Strategy, paid social media planning/buying and social listening audits. Shane is a Core tutor and leads the development and delivery of a module on paid social media to practitioners from the industry, ranging from beginners to advance. Shane is on the IAB Council Member serving as Social Advisor on the board. Throughout Shane’s time in Core, the social media team have won consecutive Agency of the Year awards for four years+.

Ronan Lupton is a Senior Counsel practising in the areas of Commercial, Chancery and Media Law. Ronan is a media law adviser to a number of prominent media organisations and routinely advises on prepublication and post-publication matters. In addition to his legal practice, Ronan lectures on the Advanced Diploma in Media and Social Media Law at King’s Inns, renowned for professional legal education and training across specialist areas of the law.

Louise Ryan will give an overview of SEAI’s social media strategy and will give insights into some of their recent campaigns, including the Winter Ready campaign. Social media is a key part of how SEAI connects and engages with communities, businesses and citizens to create a cleaner energy future for Ireland.

Mary Hayes is the Project Lead for Women’s Aid’s Too Into You campaign which aims to raise awareness of intimate relationship abuse against young women aged 18-25 in Ireland. Mary is responsible for supporting young people in learning about the signs of intimate relationship abuse and promoting awareness of supports available at TooIntoYou.ie She has a background in women’s health and mental health policy and advocacy, and has led on national campaigns on women’s and young women’s mental health. She completed her Masters in Equality Studies and holds a BA in Communication Studies.

Hannah-Louise is Social Strategy Director at Core Performance. Hannah-Louise was prompted to move into advertising a decade ago having witnessed the impact of digital transformation on newsrooms in her former role as a Showbusiness Editor with the Irish Daily Mail. Since then, she has worked across creative, content, and digital teams to innovate and discover new ways of storytelling for brands. She is passionate about great editorial, brilliant social strategy and finding new innovative ways through comms to tell stories about great brands. In her time in Core, she has led campaigns that have scooped awards in the US Content Marketing Awards, the European Sponsorship Awards, the IAB MIXX Awards Europe, the Sockies, the Digital Media Awards and the Media Awards. In her free time, she writes about family, places she loves, and parenthood.

Niamh MacAuley, owner of Purple Dot Media, has over 9 years’ experience in the video marketing industry. Purple Dot Media produces promotional videos for all kinds of businesses including, the public sector, construction companies, retailers and banks. Niamh also teaches businesses, how to film and edit videos for social media, using only their smartphone.

Lilith is an experienced public sector communicator and for the past 6 years has worked for NHS England - leading on public and sector-facing digital communications.

She currently leads the NHS England social media team whose content reached 230 million people between January and November 2023.

She's passionate about making health information accessible for everyone and finding creative ways to ensure people can find trusted and reliable health information online.

Darragh Doyle works with the Dublin City Council Culture Company as Head of Communications, Marketing and Audience Development. Leading a team of communications coordinators and collaborating with artists, creatives, event makers and colleagues across Dublin City Council departments, his new role spans media and online platforms in a dynamic cultural organisation that runs historic and cultural buildings and initiatives in Dublin. Darragh has a long career working with diaspora, tourism, charity, not-for-profit and entertainment organisations. He is passionate about literacy, about avoiding fauxtrage, about Ireland being a welcoming place and about being a loving and thoughtful dad and friend.

As Group Head, Kate has led the team to win national campaigns with leading brands such as Bank of Ireland, Heineken, McDonalds, and Red Bull, as well as being a key partner in the Irish Government’s campaign against sexual violence. With almost 10 years experience working across multiple mediums such as radio, print, and digital, Kate has significant insight into the ever-changing publishing landscape in the Irish market

Sina Port is a Fortune 500 Consultant and Brand strategist. She is one of the leading voices for positive brand impact and inclusive marketing. As a brand strategist, she helps global brands garner the power of diversity, purpose, and culture for brand success.
She’s consulted Startups, Entrepreneurs, and global brands like Adidas and BMW on purpose-driven brand strategies. She also conducts workshops on innovation, Gen Z marketing, and transformation with a focus on content creation and AI. Originally from Germany, she keynote speaks across the world. She’s the founder of Shared Diversity - a purpose marketing agency and Brand Academy - a program that helps entrepreneurs build and scale their personal brands. She’s grown her audience to over 50.000 people online and with her podcast and online courses, she is on a mission to help creative professionals build brands that change the world.

Nick is a senior social strategist at Channel 4, focussing on E4, reality and sport. Prior to his current role, his 10-year career in social media has seen him work at We Are Social, The UK’s National Theatre and the BBC.

Graeme McQueen is Media Relations Manager at daa, the operator of Dublin and Cork airports. Graeme joined daa in February 2022, having previously spent almost 20 years working in communications, public affairs and journalism. Graeme looks after all external media and social media activity within the daa Group. Prior to joining daa, Graeme was Head of Corporate Affairs for the customer businesses in Ireland and Great Britain within SSE Plc. This followed a seven year stint with business group Dublin Chamber of Commerce where Graeme held a number of roles including Head of Communications & Marketing and Head of Public Affairs. Before entering the communications world, Graeme spent almost ten years working as a business journalist for a number of titles including Business Plus magazine. Originally from Scotland, Graeme holds a degree in Journalism from Edinburgh Napier University. He can be found on Twitter via @GraemeMcQ.

Theresa Newman is a Communications Specialist in the Office of Public Works. Prior to joining the OPW fourteen months ago, she worked in the private sector for a boutique Social Marketing Agency, winning the PRCA award for Best Public Information Campaign in 2022. Before that, she worked as a parliamentary assistant and political campaign manager for five years. Her primary degree is in Journalism. She interned for Reuters while in university, and worked as a news reporter with The Sunday Times upon completing her degree. Her work has also featured on RTÉ, in the Irish Independent and in Vogue (yes, that one) magazine. A culchie by birth, she now lives in Dublin and enjoys fixing things, meeting new people and watching interior design shows.