Back to the desk today after a very warm few days at our stand at the education Hub at the 2024 ploughing.

A great few days meeting clients, colleagues and even the Minister for State Malcom Noonan called by our stand. Minister Noonan, as Minister of State for Nature, Heritage and Electoral Reform and T.D. for Carlow-Kilkenny, works tirelessly for an Ireland where healthy, resilient ecosystems teem with wildlife, are conserved and made accessible to all.

_{CEO AnnMarie McSorley with Minister of Health of State and Nature, Malcom Noonan at Ploughing 2024 at VeriConnect stand}

Speaking to agency leaders such as Kieran from National Organic Training Skillnet, Mary from the National Parks and Wild Life it was great to get a meeting of minds on bringing Sustainability Strategy to life for our clients.

Clients such as Laois Development Company, who we worked extensively on the Nore Vision Project headed up a full Laois marquee. Their new CEO Caroline Lydon and new LEADER programme Manager Brian Kelly are bringing their new programme to life at present with the Sustainability pillar a focus for the role out of their programme.

Suzanne Kearny from SECAD, the LEADER company that developed the Wild Work programme was at the ploughing and called by the stand. Their EU best Practice Interregional award winning Wild Work project continues to be rolled out this Autumn. The Veri Connect platform and eLearning toolkit with 60 units for schools are being rolled out via upskilling teachers in the content to integrate into their curriculum delivery.

We were delighted to share the stand with LANTRA, the leading provider of training, qualifications and career guidance for land based industries across the UK and Ireland. A Not for profit that was set up 50 years ago, to support upskilling of rural workers. As always working with Paula Smyth and her team at LANTRA was a great education opportunity for me. I also got to spend the day yesterday with their new Irish Trustee, Pat Griffin. Pat’s career has spanned 30+ years, working quarrying, and in the agricultural
industry. Having joined the Health and Safety Authority in 1991, Pat held several positions with responsibility for Mining and Agriculture. This included the Irish Governmental representative on the European Standing Working Party for the Extractive Industries for over 30 years, developing policy and guidance for the sector.

Kieran Cowhig our Lead Ecologist is working today on our stand and will be investigating new LANTRA programmes in Tree Identification and management for Community spaces. I also met with Leitrim team on the Social farming, and our client Leitrim Development Company. There are a number of really exciting new PEACE PLUS programmes coming up in the Biodiversity sphere. We were also really excited to share an upcoming innovative re-wilding programme in the North West which we hope to be announcing soon and may even have some VIP’s to help us kick off!