Conference cartoons- a humorous way to document your conference!

I've been getting a lot of enquiries about my conference cartoons as the season begins to warm up so I'm going to take the opportunity to explain the process.

I attend the conference with my sketchbook and over the course of the event I take notes on the major themes and issues that are coming up. Simultaneously I produce large black and white cartoons based on those notes and these are put up around the conference area as they are produced. During breaks delegates can browse the cartoons and as well as being a humorous take on the day's discussions the cartoons also serve to crystallise certain issues. I often have delegates saying to me "that's exactly what I was trying to say!" when they see a certain cartoon. And of course they're often thrilled when I choose their pet issue!

The cartoons can then be used in the documentation arising out of the conference such as reports and action plans.

Below are some more samples from conferences, and if you'd like to make an enquiry just click CONTACT opposite.






For more conference cartoons click here.

Caricatures from the weekend- Galway and Ennis

These are some of the many caricatures I did between the Harbour Hotel Galway and the Woodstock Golf and Country Club on Friday and Saturday night. Galway was a party for the staff of Intergroup, and in Ennis I was entertaining guests at the wedding of Sinead and Shane. Great craic, lovely to meet everyone!

Caricatures- an ideal birthday present!

A recent caricature for a birthday present. At the moment I'm working on two retirement presents as well. If you'd like to enquire about a caricature for a birthday, wedding or retirement present contact me here.

I'll also have some images from the corporate party in the Harbour Hotel, Galway and the wedding in the Woodstock Country Club, Ennis up shortly for your perusal!

Photos from the Mayor's Ball!

Had a great night on Saturday at the Mayor's Ball in the Galway Bay Hotel. The meal was beautiful, five courses of the best vegetarian food I've had in a long time. Managed to raise a few quid for charity as well during the caricatures, as each person donated as I drew them. I also tried to get donations from people before they saw the finished product!

Shane Lennon and Lucia Evans put a brave face on it!

The lovely ladies of the Galway Junior Chamber...

Andrew and Alison asking for a refund...

Aidan and the missus squaring up to me...

...and even more satisfied costumers!

Well done to everyone involved for what was a very successful night.

Beleagured Galway Mayor gets even more beleaguered...

...or is about to! Mayor of Galway Niall O'Brolchain gets a caricature makeover at the Mayor's Youth Conference today.

Photo courtesy of Aengus McMahon.

More Caricatures from the Weekend

As promised here are some more caricatures from the weekend.

The Young Doctors!

A little later than intended, here are some of the caricatures I did of the doctors of the future at the Trinity Medical Ball in the Leopardstown Pavilion last Friday night. It was great craic, the organising committee hid golden tickets under loads of seats, and the winners got a caricature from me! I'll have some of the caricatures from the Gresham Christmas Party (yep, in January!) up later.

Clear, Stat! it's the Trinity Medical Ball!

I'm entertaining the doctors of tomorrow, tonight, in the Leopardstown Pavillion for the Trinity College Medical Ball. Should be fun! I'll be posting the results on Monday. I hope there won't be any future plastic surgeons there, I'd hate for my caricatures to be a bad influence.

On Sunday night I'll be in the Portmarnock Golf Club for a private function. Maybe I should bring my clubs as well as my pens. Why I haven't played golf since...

... the Ryder Cup!

UPDATE: Images from the Trinity Medical Ball can be seen here!

Stagecraft Ireland for all your juggling needs!

Have to give a plug to me old muckers in Stagecraft Ireland. They've just launched their new website, and provide a range of corporate entertainment and education packages:

"Stagecraft Ireland provide a range of entertainment services for corporate events, night clubs, parties, festivals, childrens' events, etc. We run workshops aimed at fostering teamwork and problem-solving, invaluable for any organisation or circus, dance and percussion which are always great fun for kids.

Stagecraft shows can be theatrical, spectacular, fun, zany, atmospheric, comical, spooky, whatever you need! We design productions to suit all kinds of audiences and ages.

Ultraviolet light shows, interactive walkabout/stilt/unicycle characters, fire performances, cabaret style circus productions, workshops. Guaranteed to impress!"

I worked with these guys frequently last year at the Ryder Cup and the RDS Horse Show and they mesmerised their audiences. Stagecraft Ireland's contact details can be found here.

SPAN cartoons and about the Project

I've put all the SPAN cartoons together here. It's a good way of showing what I can do for documenting conferences and meetings.

SPAN (Strategic Planning Action Network - Réseau de Programmation Stratégique Active) is a “North-West Europe” Interreg III B inter-regional cooperation project. Eight partners from four regions in four European Union Member States are involved in SPAN.

The project has an overall budget of EUR 4 million, 60% of which is funded by ERDF, through the Interreg III B Community Initiative.

SPAN aims to develop innovative approaches to strategic planning for the benefit of all the partner regions and test them under actual conditions. The stress is placed on the participation of civil society in the planning of territorial interventions at regional, infra-regional and local levels. The project also aims to shed new light on relations between urban and rural areas, relations which could be put to better use in the future.

More Conference Cartoons

And just for good measure, here are a few more from the SPAN Conversations hosted by the Southside Partnership in Dublin:


If you would like to make an enquiry about having me at your meeting/conference, contact me here.

SPAN Again!

This is one of the older ones, but it went down especially well- I think many of the delegates at the meeting identified with it!

Even More Cartoons from the SPAN Conversations

Here are more cartoons from the recent SPAN Conversations, hosted by the Southside Partnership. The meeting was held in the Davenport Hotel, Merrion Square.

For further information on how I can help document your conference or meeting, click here.




More soon!

SPAN CONVERSATIONS Project Update

Here are some of the images from the SPAN meetings I posted about earlier. These are from the initial meetings in 2003/2004. My role in these meetings was to capture the themes and issues of the meetings, which were otherwise quite dominated by "Eurospeak"! This cartoons will feed into the reports that the Southside Partnership will draw up for the project's conclusion.





Looking at this last one, I wonder am I the first person to feature cow-pats on an official EU website?!

Moooooooore to follow!

SPAN CONVERSATIONS Project

photo: Dave Keegan

Before Christmas I was asked to record the themes and discussions of the Southside City Partnership's SPAN Conversations meeting in the Stilorgan Park Hotel. This is a European Project run by the Partnership in conjunction with the Geography Department of NUI, Maynooth and looks at identifying key areas of social disadvantage and the causes of them in the Dun Laoighaire/ Rathdown area. To my shame I've only got one cartoon from the meeting (I forgot my camera!) but I have another session with them this month and I'll get them then. This is one followed by work in a similar vein from previous conferences:




And I'll leave you with some images from the meeting:

photo: Dave Keegan

(You can see my work around the room in the background above)

photos: Dave Keegan

More soon!