Ontario Club : 17th Feb. 2006

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On a viciously cold evening of Friday, February 17th, Toronto’s prestigious Ontario Club was the scene of a sold out dinner of over 200 guests who had come to an event hosted by the Ireland Canada Chamber of Commerce, The Ireland Fund of Canada and the University of Limerick. Special Guest Speaker was the renowned marketing guru, Kevin Roberts, Worldwide CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi, the Ideas Company who spoke about “Getting to the Future First”.

What this audience didn’t expect was that in addition to Roberts, Downer was the dark horse in a two man hit team, that left their audience with many thought provoking ideas and definitely a warm and fuzzy feeling for the University of Limerick, on the shores of the Shannon. Roberts shone at what he does best – espousing a corporate mentality that rewards the enterprises and employees who think outside the box, whose ideas go far and beyond the bounds of commonplace thinking and leave the consumer shouting for more of the same. This type of thinking needs to be given an environment to grow in and not a bureaucracy that stifles. His audio-visual presentations included the Maori kappa haka routine of the All Blacks, side splitting Aussie beer ads and cuddly Pampers visuals with a Silent Night soundtrack. This man of ideas and passion is definitely in the right business.

He is also very passionate about the University of Limerick where he holds the position of Professor of Sustainable Enterprise. His cup of passion runneth over when he speaks about Roger Downer. His obvious respect for this mans work was palpable in the highly charged room.

Enter stage right – Roger Downer, sporting a northern McCourt like Belfast accent, a wit and spring in his step that would leave many a younger man in the also ran position. It was only eight short years since Downer had left the University of Waterloo, a mere 60 miles up the road from downtown Toronto. He is still remembered there with the deepest respect and the buzz of his presentation, his zeal and passion for his newly adopted university will live on in this city whose population is comprised of 460,000 of the Irish Diaspora wowed the audience and has left great room open for future events and support for Limerick.

© Eamonn O’Loghlin is Publisher & Editor of the Toronto Irish News – www.torontoirishnews.com– hosts a weekly Irish radio show and visits his native Ennistymon and beloved Lahinch Golf Club every September.