Conference & Meetings World Issue 117 | Page 50

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Being the best we can

PADRAIC GILLIGAN SAYS DON ’ T WANDER LONELY AS A CLOUD , BUT EMBRACE LIFE AND IMMERSE YOURSELF IN ACTS OF KINDNESS

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here ’ s a preponderance of healthcare professionals in my extended family . For the past two years they ’ ve been ‘ on the front line ’, putting their own health and well-being at risk , battling wave after wave of a rather insidious pandemic that caused annoying sniffles for some , but death for others .
I looked on with pride as they went about their daily heroics while I went online , joined Zoom calls and tried to stay positive about an industry that , at times over the past 20 months , looked truly dead and buried .
I also felt useless , gripped by the kind of existential angst that , in the 20th Century , kept the likes of Beckett , Kafka and Sartre awake at night , gifting us literary masterpieces that posed the great fundamental questions ‘ Where ’ s the meaning ?’, ‘ Why go on ?’, ‘ What ’ s it all about ?’.
When those around me were – literally – saving lives , that gnawing sense of futility as I listened to yet another over-caffeinated , bright-eyed , bushy-tailed presenter yakking on about God knows what became , at times , overwhelming for its over-arching pointlessness .
In the overall scheme of things , when faced with a global pandemic , what use was it to be a business events professional ?
The pandemic also allowed me time to think about big questions like that . Time to reflect and consider how my life was evolving with limited in-person connectivity - at times only with my immediate household - and zero travel
- at one stage we were limited to 2km .
So what did I learn ? I learnt about the limitlessness of human adaptability and resilience . As a species , we actually have it in our gift to deal with anything , adapt , find the work around and , ultimately , also find the meaning .
2km limit ? Fine . A 2km radius from your home is actually 2πr = 2 x 2.14 x 2 = 8.56km , assuming you can walk in a perfect circle . An 8pm hospitality curfew ? Fine , we ’ ll just eat at 5.30pm . It ’ s better for you , more healthy .
No travel ? Fine , too . Time to immerse myself in my immediate
Left : Padraic
Gilligan
neighbourhood and start a social experiment . What would happen , for example , if I intentionally greeted everyone that I passed on my daily walks ? Manifest kindness , smile and say ‘ Hi ’ like they do in small country villages ? Well , 75 % of the time , they ’ d say ‘ Hi ’ right back to you . Some would actually stop and want to chat . New connections could be made .
The sense of futility recurred with significantly less frequency . Maybe I wasn ’ t saving lives like the healthcare professionals with whom I was surrounded , but I was doing my part , finding solace and meaning in what William Wordsworth , that great English Romantic poet , described as : “... that best portion of a good man ’ s life His little , nameless , unremembered acts Of kindness and of love .”
We ’ re not all called to be nurses , doctors , paramedics and physicians . But we are all called to be human and that means being the best we can be as a hotelier , venue manager , DMC or incentive travel planner .
50 / CONFERENCE & MEETINGS WORLD / ISSUE 117