Activist campaigner Joanne O’Riordan swayed all that she surveyed at SCSI annual event

Chartered Surveyors held physical event with restricted numbers after a year of virtual contacts

Campaigner Joanne O'Riordan, guest speaker at the SCSI's 2021 annual dinner, seen with Southern Region President TJ Cronin, left, Peter McCarthy, chairperson and SCSI CEO Shirley Coulter

VIRTUAL events such as peer-to-peer online link-ups may have helped the membership of Ireland's largest construction, land and property professional body the Society of Chartered Surveyors (SCSI) keep the show on the road during Covid-19, but at least almost 100 of them were able to swap Teams and Zoom cameras for a welcome, face-to-face annual dinner last week.

After a pandemic-induced hiatus last year, a select number of the 5,000-member strong SCSI regrouped for a Black Tie social event, observing social distancing guidelines:  guest speaker the inspirational Joanne O'Riordan, sports journalist, disability campaigner and graduate in criminology quipped that now that she has a brother working in the Department of Housing her invite on the night might be fortuitous.