The Convention Centre Dublin
Interview with Dermod Dwyer, Chairman, The CCD
Google was hosting an international sales
conference on the day that I walked up to the doors
underneath the tilted glass cylinder of the Fair
City’s newest landmark – The Convention Centre
Dublin. The elaborate entrance hall was ambient
with the heavy footfall of technically savvy young
people.
I was to interview the chairman of the company that
runs the impressively modern building on the banks
of the River Liffey. The hugely impressive foyer
of the magnificent development is adorned with
that most Irish of greetings – ‘Cead Mile Fáilte’, a
hundred thousand welcomes.
Although Ireland finds itself in a tumultuous period,
the Convention Centre takes centre-stage as a
legacy of more prosperous times, reshaping the
transformed Dublin Docklands that, with a host of
new buildings and bridges, replete with big wheel,
provide the city with a distinctly progressive feel.
Dermod Dwyer is at the helm of the the
organisation charged with promoting this new face
of Dublin. Having been led up to his office, I found
Dermod Dwyer to be a charming and engaging
man, possessed of a clear business pedigree and keen
appreciation of the mission at hand.
We begin by discussing the initial vision that led to
the creation of the Convention Centre.
“Well, there was a desire to have a convention
centre as the lynchpin of a new city-quarter here at
Spencer Dock. A public-private-partnership (PPP)
was created to bring that vision to fruition. We
knew that, if we were going to do it, this convention
centre had better be the best-in-breed. I think that