Ballinacurra House: Ireland is well placed to host new brainstorming boom
Hosting corporate think tanks in unique private settings represents a huge opportunity for the Irish hospitality sector, says Des McGahan, owner of Ballinacurra House, Kinsale.
The Georgian house and its various lodges have hosted large corporate gatherings, large private think tanks behind closed gates wherein the guests do not need to constantly tidy away sensitive plans and documents. One client mentioned is one of the world's largest breweries.
In September, the 40-acre Kinsale estate is to host UK sports promoter Barry Hearn along with a large party of guests. At some point, they may take a break from business to play a private round of golf on the Old Head of Kinsale.
In a similar response to Covid-19, Barry's son and fellow sports promoter, Eddie Hearn, has set up a boxing arena on his private estate, Brentwood House in England. The zero-crowd arena, entitled Matchroom HQ, will host live televised fights that will lead to world title fights.
“The pandemic is forcing people to come up with new ideas,” said Des McGahan. “With remote working having become so widespread, it is creating an issue for businesses who still need to host group activities to share ideas, to brainstorm and to encourage creativity.
“Online conferences help, but the UK is seeing a rise in corporate gatherings that are taking place off-site in controlled environments. A private estate can offer that far better than a hotel. A number of big corporations in the UK have even bought country houses to host regular events.
“We have reinvented ourselves with a new corporate model. We didn't really come up with the idea. It is already enjoying success in the UK, but nobody is doing it in Ireland.”
The closed-door corporate gatherings is the big ticket item in a new range of Covid-aware private activities newly rolled out by Des and Lisa McGahan.
They're also hosting a range of four controlled staycation options, pop-up restaurants, private dining rooms with an exclusive door and a dedicated toilet, family bubble dining and private small weddings for up to 40 people.
Meanwhile, Ballinacurra House is also spearheading the newly launched The Private Estate Collection Ireland, a new national representative group for private country houses.
The group also includes: Gloster House, Co Offaly; Clonwilliam House, Co Wicklow; Virginia Park Lodge, Co Cavan; Virginia Park Lodge, Co Cavan; Kilshane House, Co Tipperary; Dromquinna Manor, Co Kerry; Borris House, Co Carlow; Lisnavagh House, Co Carlow; and The Millhouse, Co Meath.
The Private Estate Collection Ireland hopes that Fáilte Ireland will support the initiative.
Meanwhile, Lisa McGahan has previously held senior roles with Deloitte and brought a lot of corporate finance experience into Ballinacurra House.
In the accompanying audio file, she outlines how Ballinacurra has adapted to meet Covid challenges and her plans to cater for the anticipated boom in corporate hospitality.
Lisa McGahan said: “There has been a lot of publicity around ‘Island’ nations – such as New Zealand – becoming the hot new trend for companies and individuals to move to as a safe haven. But Ireland can be portrayed as the ‘New Zealand of the Northern Hemisphere’, which is being missed. Our weather may not be as good but we don’t have earthquakes.”
Lisa and Des are promoting Ballinacurra as a 'Corporate and Wellness Hub'. They're pitching the house as a creative environment for onsite brainstorming, physical wellness activities like pilates, mental wellness, healthy cookery classes etc.
The couple has some experience with reinvention. Their latest corporate initiative takes them back to the model they began with when they launched Ballinacurra House in 1998.
When the corporate hospitality market unraveled along with the global banking crisis in 2008, Ballinacurra changed its focus onto weddings. Since Covid, weddings have been severely impacted; thus the latest shift of focus.
Prior to 1998, Des spent years as one of the leading event managers in Asia, handling all aspects of Formula One racing, the Hong Kong Sevens and Cirque du Soleil.
Des has hosted huge golf events, including 14 Johnnie Walker Classics and several Hong Kong Opens. If you catch Des on a good day, he'll tell you hair-raising backstage stories about his role in managing boxing and snooker events in Asia.
It was in managing these events that he first began working with Barry Hearn. No doubt the McGahans and the Hearns will discuss trends in the global corporate hospitality when they meet again in Kinsale in September.
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