Congregation Convenes in Cong! This Year’s Theme is ‘Ideas’

The 6^th annual CongRegation ‘Mind Mesh’ in Cong Village gets underway tomorrow, which will see about 100 Irish and international speakers debate, discuss and share their expert insights into the world of ‘Ideas’. Blacknight is delighted to be a sponsor once again this year.

Consisting of 7 separate events over the weekend in 10 different venues the conference features an evening of talks in Ashford Castle, Adults Physics Workshop, Full Day Unconference, Children’s Smart, Music and Clay Modelling workshops, a learn the Ukulele bar music workshop and finishing with foraging walk in Cong wood.

The centre piece of the weekend is the unconference which sees coffee shops, book shop, art gallery, restaurants and shops in Cong Village turned into mini conference centres or huddles with attendees debating Ideas from the perspective of artificial intelligence to how to get ideas off the ground.

Unlike other events, you cannot buy a ticket for CongRegation. The price of entry to the 3-day event is a 600 word unique article on the theme of ‘Ideas’, that is posted on the conference website.

“The structure and the different events at CongRegation are designed to not alone share information more effectively but to allow the attendees to get to know each other better in a relaxed and informal peer based environment.  These combined has produced lots of serendipity in previous years” commented organiser Eoin Kennedy.

Speakers at the Ashford Castle evening of ‘Ideas Talk’ include business woman Daphne McKinley on establishing the Sean Edwards Foundation, Valerie Cox on her 21 years experience of ideas as a journalist in RTE, Lee Tunney Ware on what are ideas, David Gluckman, ideas innovator and inventor of Baileys and a poet on how the creativity community approaches ideas.  This evening will finish with a Semicon(g)ductor Physics session with Mags Amond and Richard Millwood, where the attendees will literally try their hand at conducting – electricity.

While the adults are enjoying the mind mesh in Cong Village on Saturday 24^th their children will be enjoying a series of work shops including a smart fabric work shop by Common Ground Design followed by a music (drums) and finishing with a claymodelling workshop in the Crossroad Centre.

After the conference dinner on Saturday attendees will be taught how to play the Ukulele from scratch by Sean McGrath in Danaghers Hotel followed by a music session.

CongRegation will finish with a foraging walk in Cong Woods on Sunday morning.

The event is proudly sponsored by Blacknight as well as,  Mayo.ie, the Advanced Productivity Skillnet, and MKC Communications.

CongRegation takes place in Cong, which is a small village in Co Mayo and home to The Quiet Man and Ashford Castle.  Throughout the day coffee shops, bars and restaurants will be alive with people sharing stories and insights on this years’ theme of Ideas.  Each session or huddle lasts one hour, with two in the morning and two in the afternoon and is moderated by a chairperson.  A free ticket is delivered to attendees once they produce their submission paper and teas/coffee/lunch will be provided during the day.

As each attendee is also a speaker so everyone who goes is a stakeholder and central to the event.  Special breaks are built into the day to facilitate social interaction along with special semi-conductor, music and foraging workshops planned.  Attendees can also send their children to the specially designed day long workshops.  This the 6^th year of the event.  Full eBooks on previous years are available to download.