Flying the flag for Waterford.

I often have people asking me “What is going on in Waterford City?” and I also tend to get asked the following supplementary, “How come you know so much about what is happening in the City?”

The simple fact is that due to the nature of my own business, bizBoost, and the various groups and committees I am involved with I need to “have my finger on the pulse” to coin a well worn phrase. I go out of my way to read ALL the local newspapers, listen to the local radio stations, attend as many Council meetings as I can, keep an eye on the social media traffic and of course I make take time to meet and network with a huge volume of people. And it is when I have the opportunity to meet with people that I take time to listen first and then answer the many questions I inevitably get asked.

Today is Thursday the 19^th March and the last two weeks have shown Waterford City as a beacon of positivity and a series of one good news story after another. These stories have been covered by ALL our local media and across the various social networking platforms. But just in case you missed these here as some of my highlights of the last two weeks (in no particular order):

1848 Tricolour Celebration, covering the 6^th to 9^th March; over 110 guests attended a Gala Dinner on Saturday 7^th March in the presence of the Mayor, Minister Coffey, Ambassadorial representation from the US, Canadian and French Embassies, and members of the 69^th Infantry Division (New York). Sunday 8^th March 1500 people attended the flag raising ceremony on The Mall with musical accompaniment from the Thomas Francis Meagher Fife & Drum, Barrack Street Band and the Island of Ireland Peace Choir. All of these events were organised by the voluntary 1848 Tricolour Celebration Committee.

Naming the Thomas Francis Meagher Bridge; on Thursday 12^th March, in the presence of President Michael D Higgins, the Suir River crossing was formally named The Thomas Francis Meagher Bridge in a closed ceremony, in horrible weather conditions, in an area just off the toll plaza. This really was a mammoth team effort on behalf of the 1848 Tricolour Committee, and the Councils of both Waterford and Kilkenny.

Lions Club National Conference; over the weekend of 6^th to 9^th March the Tower Hotel hosted the National Conference of the Lions Clubs of Ireland. Over 400 delegates from all over Ireland and further afield attended this national event.

 

VLM announce flights from Waterford Airport; on Monday 27^th April direct flights from Waterford Airport to London Luton will resume. The new Belgium based airline will fly 12 times in each direction every week from April. These flights replace the FlyBe routes.

President Michael D Higgins is greeted by 1500 school children; on Thursday 12^th March President Michael D Higgins presides over the launch of Flag Week. A programme by the Thomas Francis Meagher Foundation to educate the Irish school children around the history of the Irish Tricolour and the connection with Meagher and Waterford City. Over 250 schools attended this event and each school received a Tricolour flag that was flown at 33 The Mall, Waterford City. This event was attended by a whole host of dignitaries and perhaps my abiding memory will be everyone, and I mean everyone, participating in a Mexican Wave!

St.Patrick’s Day on Tuesday 17^th March; we were once again witness to a magnificent parade on St.Patrick’s Day and full credit must be given to those who organised the event and more importantly a big thank you to those who marched in the parade. The Waterford influence was not confined to the City as members of Spraoi also provide costumes and support for parades in Dublin and Cork.

Glanbia opens €180 million facility in Belview Port; the opening of the state-of-the-art facility by Glanbia should contribute around €400 million to the Irish economy and will create around 75 directly related jobs and 1,600 indirect jobs. Currently Ireland produces around 10% of the world’s infant milk formula but the future hope is that this will rise to over 60% with plants such as the one in Belview coming on stream.

Ballybeg Brick by Brick Appeal gathers strength; over the last two weeks we have seen an increasing number of local events raising money for the Brick by Brick Appeal and money is starting to come in to fund for many projects that will rise out of the ashes. There is so much local support for the Appeal that it you cannot fail to notice the momentum this is gathering.

 

Waterford United hosted the Irish Football Manager Martin O’Neill and Assistant Manager Roy Keane on Thursday 12^th March for a club fundraiser with John Delaney also present. Over 200 people supported this event and efforts of the fundraising committee.

These are just some of my own memories of the last two weeks and I know that there are so many more good news stories out there as well.

Sometime we have to actively look for the good news and it is just such a pity that we cannot lead with good news stories ALL the time. As they say in the newspaper world “Bad News Sells Newspapers” but the good news stories make us feel much much better in ourselves and in our communities.

Waterford as a good news story had unprecedented local, regional and national news coverage over the last fortnight and just imaging if we could replicate that over the 52 weeks of a whole year. Attitudes to this City would change instantaneously and investment would flood the City, County and Region.

Good news stories do so much more for the moral fibre of the City we live in than the bad press we seem to always focus on. We are ALL responsible for finding those good news stories and promoting the good in our City, County and Region.

If we ALL ensured that we could regularly replicating the last two weeks of positive press coverage the City and County has received then Waterford City would in no time at all get back its rightful place as Ireland’s fourth City of the Republic. This in turn would lead to lower unemployment, better third level attainment, higher wages and so on. It really is a win win!

It is all about OUR positive attitude to make Waterford the very best that it can be and looking forward with a positive mindset is something we all need to do.

“Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose” (Lyndon B Johnson).

Thank you to Paul Dower for his photographs.

It is Team Work that really counts!

It was with much disappointment that I watched my beloved Scottish rugby team lose yet another Six Nations rugby match in 2015. That is now three loses in a row and there is a very real chance that I will be adding one more “Wooden Spoon” to my ever expanding collection.

I once again found myself shouting expletives at the television set on Saturday afternoon and in the dying minutes of the match I began to look for scapegoats. Unfortunately, I started blaming the Irish referee Mr Georgio Clancy-Cappuccino-Cinquecento for what I felt, in the heat of battle, were some very unjust decisions and the awarding of the penalty try in the dying minutes was just the straw that broke the camel’s back. I could not believe that I was to witness another defeat on the back of some very dodgy and biased refereeing decisions!

How could Scotland be so unfairly treated by two consecutive referees in two consecutive Six Nation’s matches?

I was of course feeling hard done by and was naturally looking for someone else to blame, as often happens when poor performance is witnessed and experienced. I should have just accepted that Italy were the better team on the day and out muscled and outsmarted Scotland. In the cold light of day they deserved to win and I should not have been looking externally for excuses and I should have been focusing on how poorly the Scottish team performed.

“Honourable in victory and gracious in defeat”, my Grandpa once told me as a wee boy on holidays in the North East of Scotland in the beautiful City of Elgin. This mantra takes pride of place in my sporting life and yet sometimes due to passion and adrenalin I do wander off this track and become the ubiquitous bad loser. My family and friends will testify to that.

It is very clear that in sport and business we should be benchmarked by our own performance and to succeed on and off the field of play we do need to perform at the very highest possible level. This often means working as part of a larger team and knowing what you are or perhaps more importantly what you are not contributing to any given set of goals. To succeed as a team all the constituent parts have to work together for a common cause and every cog, wheel and motor must work in unison and work as one. Should any part malfunction then the whole mechanism will grind to a halt or break and subsequently fail.

It is therefore important to have very clear goals aims and objectives within any organisation or when attempting a project.

My disappointment at yet another Scottish rugby false dawn was soon forgotten when the Waterford Business Group (WBG) “Night at the Dogs” followed on from Saturday’s Six Nations climax with Wales beating France in Paris. The “Night at the Dogs” was a fundraiser for the WBG, with a pledge of money going towards the Ballybeg Brick by Brick Appeal.

A cold crisp evening awaited the WBG, the dogs, the race punters and the supporters of the Appeal at Kilcohan Park Greyhound Track. We had 11 great sponsors supporting ALL 11 races on the night and the highlight of the evening was the Waterford Business Group Sweepstake with a €1000 prize available for the winning dog.

The whole evening went by extremely smoothly and without a hitch due to the teamwork of the WBG Committee, support of Willie Moore and his Committee, and the great work of the staff at Kilcohan Park ably led by Carl Pallas, the Stadium Manager. Like a well oiled machine everyone knew what they had to do and what was expected of them and the success on the night was simply due teamwork and planning.

There were no scapegoats and no one to blame, as nothing went wrong on the evening because everyone performed to the very best of their ability.

And this ability to perform at the very highest level leads me on to ask these very simply questions “Is Waterford really performing to the very best of her ability?” and “Are we ALL really pulling the right direction or are we pulling in opposite directions?”

These two questions really should initiate considerable debate and if the answer is “No” to the first question and “No” to the second question then how do we turn that around and how do we ensure that we are all, to use a well worn phrase, “Singing off the same hymn sheet?”

When we see so many of our competitive towns seemingly stealing a march on Waterford City is it because they have a more cohesive approach to working together or do they simply get projects over the line by “Hook or by Crook”. Do our competing towns take the attitude that this will be good for our town so we will make the project work?

It does seem that getting projects off the ground in Waterford is difficult and securing support also seems to be rather laboured and full of ever-present barriers. Yet when driven people have the strength and determination to keep going the rewards are there. And projects that are lead by driven people do come to fruition, but why oh why does it have to be so difficult?

There are many great projects, schemes and developments going on in and around the City and yet there could be so many more if we just fostered a culture of being willing and able to identify what projects will put the City back to its rightful place as Ireland’s fourth City of the Republic.

We need to encourage those with drive, vision and determination and help them deliver for the betterment of ALL. We need to see REAL teamwork at play and REAL strength of mind to work with the right people who can deliver for this great City of Waterford.

By finding the right people and creating the right “Team Waterford” we will not have to find scapegoats such as I had to do towards the end last weekend’s Six Nations rugby match. Instead we can create a well oiled machine that delivers for Waterford City, County and the South East.

“Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm,” said Winston Churchill, maybe secretly he was a Scottish rugby fan.

ENDS

Everyone must be a brand Waterford Ambassador!

I attended the decommissioning ceremony for the Irish Naval vessel La Aoife. This vessel is in fact twinned with Waterford City. The ceremony took place at 15:00 on Saturday 31^st January, at Forde Wharf, in the presence of the Minister of State at the Department of Defence Paul Kehoe TD, Rear Admiral Mark Mellett DSM, friends and family of the many crew members (past and present of the La Aoife) and many other dignitaries too numerous to mention.

I also spotted representation from the 1848 Tricolour Celebration Committee, Waterford Business Group, Waterford In Your Pocket as well as many of our very supportive local media.

Maybe due to the absolutely bitterly cold wind blowing right down the Suir Estuary, making my eyes run constantly and preventing me from wearing my kilt, that I failed to notice any significant representation from our 32 Councillors. I did see the City and County Mayors (we have two Mayors in Waterford) and two additional Councillors, but very few others. I understand that there was Mayoral Civic Reception held the night before but surely the decommissioning ceremony, in the presence of a Minister of State, with national TV coverage should have been attended by a significant number of Councillors and not the scattering I and many others noticed and commented on?

It was also great to see RTE South East, with Damien Tiernan and his dedicated crew fighting the elements, filming the decommissioning ceremony and managing to get the whole service from the cutting room floor to being broadcast on RTE Six One News only a few hours later. Well done to all.

You simply cannot buy the sort of publicity and branding the La Aoife has generated for Waterford City. The La Aoife has been one of the City’s greatest ever ambassadors and we owe a great big thank you to her last Captain Marie Gleeson, and her dedicated crew, who worked extremely hard behind the scenes to ensure that the La Aoife was decommissioned in Waterford City and not Cork.

We must also acknowledge the work of Councillor Eddie Mulligan who in his capacity as a new public servant and in his role with the Naval Reserve (Waterford) also worked away in the background to bring this vessel eastwards, away from Cork, for her final official ceremony here in Waterford City.

Over the last number of years the La Aoife crew have raised in excess of €35,000 for our hospital and this has been done without fuss or ceremony or publicity. We owe a huge thank you to all those who raised funds over the past numbers of years.

But what of our future relationship with the Irish Navy now that the La Aoife is decommissioned? Will Waterford City be twinned with another of the Navy’s newer vessels or will we simply be forgotten?

I do know that a number of official requests have been lodged and submitted requesting that the new vessel, Le James Joyce, be twinned with Waterford City once the vessel is commissioned later in 2015.

As we are all too aware “the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray!”

So we ALL need to ensure that our relationship with the Irish Navy, as maritime City, continues and if readers are interested in continuing this relationship then please lobby your local TD’s and Councillors to ensure that the Le James Joyce does in fact become twinned with our wonderful City and we can continue to see the name of Waterford City promoted and literally carried around the vast seas that surround this island.

On Friday last I had the immense pleasure to spend some time with three Committee members of the Ballybeg Brick by Brick appeal. We got in touch with each other on the back of the Waterford Business Group organising its own fundraising night on the 28^th February, at Kilcohan dog track. The Waterford Business Group unanimously decided at our weekly group meeting to give part of the nights fundraising directly to this appeal. So coming along and support if you can.

The three committee members I met must also be considered as brand ambassadors for Waterford City. What happened in Ballybeg was nothing short of horrendous and yet only a few days later a committee was founded and action plans were being drawn up.

The appeal has been promised the earth, moon and stars by a vast number of political representatives and it will be the responsibility of those who have made these many promises to deliver and deliver within a timescale that is appropriate and suitable for Ballybeg. There are large numbers of community groups relying on a renaissance that must happen within a period of weeks and not over a period of months. The longer the rebirth of this area takes the longer it will simply be forgotten and the citizens of Waterford City cannot allow that to happen.

I saw a determination and drive in the three Committee members that tells me they will make sure Ballybeg rises from the ashes - just like the mythical Phoenix does. But this group will need help, encouragement, guidance, advice and much much more. It is everyone’s responsibility to be a part of the rebuilding process and I would urge that we make the regeneration of Ballybeg a good news story for the whole of Waterford.

In business every staff member is a brand ambassador for that business, whether they like it or not. Even when you are not at work you will always be associated with your company, business or place of work. Like the La Aoife, its crew, and the Ballybeg Brick by Brick Appeal committee we need to work very hard to create the right image and right impression if we are to flourish as businesses. This means being constantly aware how we act and more importantly how we deal with our customers.

There is absolutely no point in Waterford working hard creating a brand image of the City if once you come here you experiences something completely different. Good customer service builds your brand image and bad customer service destroys your brand image.

The businesses across Waterford need to be aware of their brand image and through better customer service we will build a better brand Waterford. In light of this the Waterford Business Group are providing FREE customer care workshops to members starting from Monday 9^th February and taking place in Lady Lane Library every Monday and Friday morning throughout the month of February. See www.waterfordbusinessgroup.com 

Finally, I often find that it is those who work hardest to make a project come to fruition that never seem to get the credit they deserve. Strange but true!