My Weekend: Events business is about having fun

Tell us a bit about yourself?

I’m Dave, husband to Caroline and dad to Naoise, Daire, and Dougal (a giant sheepadoodle!). I’m from Cork, I grew up near Blackrock and now live in Ballinlough, so I didn’t move too far!

In typical Cork fashion, I never ventured too far away outside of holidays and a J1.

I studied accounting in University College Cork and then worked in Deloitte and Grant Thornton’s respective Cork offices, for circa 12 years, before joining Cool Running Events in 2021, which is headquartered out of Cork, as commerical director.

I’m an accountant by background, having trained in tax and then working in advisory and corporate finance for most of my years, before joining Cool Running Events. My role includes commercial agreements with partners, suppliers, landlords, etc, overseeing all aspects of finance, searching for and developing new sites and experiences, and so on, but the reality is, every day can be quite different, as we’re a reasonably small team, so we all get stuck in, as needed!

I could be involved in something very operational one day, something to do with sales and marketing another, finance another, and so on —or, as is the case most days — a little bit of all of them most days of the week!

I really enjoy the role, as we are a close-knit team and, aside from working well together, we all get on quite well, which makes going to work a lot more enjoyable! We are in the business of fun and we tend to bring that type of positivity to work, also, as we all want to make our experiences as great as possible.

What is your ideal way to spend a Friday night?

With a toddler at home, Friday evenings generally consist of a family walk or trip to the playground, relaxing at home, cooking a nice meal, and finding something good to watch on TV.

Lie-ins or up with the lark.. which is it for you?

Up with the lark! Partly to get a jump on the day, because if I don’t train/exercise before work, there’s a good chance it won’t happen in the evening, and partly because we have a toddler who loves to wake at the dawn and drag us out of bed!

Does work creep into your weekend at all?

Yes and no. We’re an experiences business, so weekends for us are key trading days. We have absolutely brilliant teams working at weekends in our locations and while the core of my working week is the weekdays, depending on the time of year and how busy we are, the weekends are not fully ‘off’ either. At the end of the day, we’re in the business of fun, so checking in over the weekend is rarely a chore and if I am called on something, I know it’s because it’s needed!

If money were no object, where would you head to on a weekend city break? And who would you bring with you?

Boston! My wife and I have been and loved it. I’m a big Patriots fan, so would love to go to another game in Gillette stadium. Now that I’ve indoctrinated our daughter with Sunday night NFL, too, I’d love the three of us to go to Boston and go see a game.

Closer to home, is there some place you like to head to recharge the batteries?

We have a mobile home in Timoleague in West Cork and we absolutely love it there. Simple things like going for walks on the beach with our daughter, Naoise, and dog, Dougal, are great, and we’re in an open-water swim group, too, which was the highlight of our weekends over the summer (shout out West Cork Swim Coaching). Simply not having any house admin or jobs to do there means a total recharge!

Do you like to catch up with family/friends at the weekend?

Absolutely. We try to have plenty of family time at weekends, but it’s always great to catch up with friends, too. We particularly like to meet friends down the marina or at a market!

Do you get to indulge any hobbies? Even as a spectator?

Absolutely. I took up triathlon a few years ago and got hooked, so I tend to always be training or planning an event I want to do! I run, bike, and swim most days of the week, much of it with a friend of mine, so it’s social too. My wife also completed some triathlons this year, so I’ve had great fun being a supporter as well as participant!

Entertain or be entertained? If it’s the latter do you have a signature dish?

I’m the cook in our house, so I definitely like to entertain! I don’t have a signature dish and I’m a decent cook, but, unfortunately, I’m probably more known for sacrificing the tastiness of a dish in an attempt to make it a bit healthier!! We don’t make any sacrifices with our mojitos though!

We have so many places to eat out in Cork: Where are your go to spots for coffee/lunch/special meal?.

If it’s a special meal, we tend to go to Cafe Paradiso. We eat a lot of vegetarian food, so it’s a real treat to get vegetarian food that’s so amazing. For brunch, it would be Good Day Deli; they also have great coffee!

Sunday night comes around too fast.. how do you normally spend it?

During the summer, it tends to be lashing on washing and batch cooking for the week ahead, after coming back from the mobile home. This time of year, it tends to be watching the Patriots (losing more often than not, at the moment), batch cooking, and organising the calendars for the week ahead!

What time does your alarm clock go off on Monday morning?

6.30am, if you mean phone or watch alarm. If you mean toddler alarm, every Monday morning is a lottery!!

Anything else you are up to right now...

You’ll find me down at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh at least once over the weekend. We’ve just moved our ice skating experience Alpine Skate Trail there, as part of Cork’s newest winter wonderland: Winterlee. Whether it’s catching up with our team or partners, or even donning a pair of ice skates with family and friends, I’ll be there in some capacity.