The very first All-Ireland Athlete Leadership Forum took place on Saturday the 11th of October 2014 in the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Dublin with 81 athletes and 62 mentors in attendance. Participants came from Special Olympics Connaught, Leinster, Munster, and Eastern Region.
Athletes carried out workshops in public speaking, interview skills and social media guidelines. To facilitate these workshops facilitators came from Tara Toastmasters group to assist with the public speaking, interview skills workshop while the social media guidelines workshop was facilitated by Special Olympics Ireland volunteer tutors.
As part of this forum, there was an election of one athlete to be representative of all athletes to the Board of Special Olympics Ireland. There were two candidates for nomination, Ann Hickey from Leinster and Claire Adams from the Eastern Region. Each of the candidates made a pitch to outline their qualities and why they should be elected. Every athlete in attendance was given a voting card and had one vote to cast. The results were announced at the end of the forum with Claire Adams declared elected to the Board of Special Olympics Ireland for a two year term. We are grateful to both athletes for allowing their name to go forward for election.
During the final session of the day athletes were selected to present on stage some key learning points from the day. Lucy O’Neill Special Olympics Munster spoke about the Public Speaking noting some key tips she learned, Jonathan Deering Special Olympics Eastern Region spoke about the Social Media workshop, also giving some very useful tips on the appropriate use of social media. Tomas Murphy Special Olympics Eastern Region put into practice some of the skill learnt on the day by interviewing two of the guests, Jason Sherlock and Fiona Coghlan. During the interview both Fiona and Jason gave all athletes some tips on training, nutrition and public speaking and the importance of really preparing for same.
Guests in attendance included Mary Davis, Chairperson, Board of Special Olympics Ireland, Matt English, CEO Special Olympics Ireland, John Henry, Vice President of State Street who are proud sponsors of the Athlete Leadership programme, Fiona Coghlan, former women’s international Rugby Captain and Special Olympics Eastern Region Ambassador, Jason Sherlock, former Dublin GAA player and Special Olympics Eastern Region Ambassador and Board members Laura Murphy, Nerissa Dowling and Maire Allen.
A huge thank you goes to the event team, workshop tutors and the Athlete Leadership development team for all the hard work in planning this day and to the athletes and mentors for their attendance at the first All-Ireland Athlete Leadership Forum.
Below are a sample of photos but you can also view all the photos from the day by following this link.
Pictured above:Jason Sherlock, former Dublin GAA player and Special Olympics Eastern Region Ambassador with Fiona Coghlan, former women’s international Rugby Captain also an Special Olympics Eastern Region Ambassador
Pictured above: Frances Kavanagh,Mary Davis, Nicole Redmond, Paul Mullen, John Henry (State Street) and Matt English.