As a networking organisation that’s main goal is to connect people and businesses, we are now looking to enhance our virtual channels and methods to maintain engagement with our members and to support you in these challenging times. Along with many event planners, Causeway is not alone in having to cancel or postpone events over the next few months and we are currently exploring new ways to keep our membership engaged and maintaining building business connections on both sides of the Irish Sea. 

We have cancelled all our forthcoming social networking events, and it was with huge regret we took the decision to postpone our highly anticipated ‘Growing our Cities in the Climate Emergency’ workshop launch scheduled to take place at the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation at the end of April. However, we still plan to host this event virtually with our key target audiences, and are currently scheduling hosting an interactive webinar with guest speakers from across the public and private sectors of Belfast Dublin, Edinburgh and Glasgow so the discussion, debate, and sharing knowledge on how best to develop our cities can begin. 

We plan to use technologies, such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams, to host more webinars on topics of interest to our membership over the next few months, and our Board welcome suggestions on themes or areas of interest to you. We will also increase the number of blogs we write and share, and we would love to receive submissions from our memberships on this - please get in touch. In addition, we may explore producing some of these into engaging podcasts. 

We understand the imminent future of face-to-face events is currently unknown, but we are still committed to highlighting successes within Irish and Scottish business communities and are currently in the process of planning our flagship Gala Black Tie Celebration of Ireland and Scotland Awards Night for 1 October in Edinburgh. We encourage participates to submit nominations for the Awards now - at times of downturn and doubt, we need more than ever to celebrate and showcase positive stories of triumph and the connections that have helped build success – whether this celebration of achievement be physical or virtual, time will tell.

As the Irish Foreign Ministry said earlier this week, “we can’t gather together, but we can pull together in solidarity".  Our Causeway team is still here working and available for you - online or by telephone - please get in touch with us if we can help with a membership query or you have an idea for a virtual event, we’d love to hear your ideas.

Stay safe, and I wish you and your families good health and wellbeing in these extraordinary times.

David Greenlees