Annie Byrne

 Annie Byrne is the owner of Aislinn Events a wedding planning service specializing in Ireland as a destination for weddings. She has hands-on experience in all areas of hospitality, catering, weddings and corporate event management at the high end and within 5 star properties opening Aislinn Events in 2009 as an independent Wedding and Event Planner. Over her career she has been involved in the planning and executing hundreds of stunning weddings and fabulous events.

For the last 2 years Annie has organized the annual Business of Weddings Ireland event with the mission to inspire and assist small wedding businesses to maintain excellence through education and collaboration.

Annie also initiated the 2011 Survey of Irish Brides & Grooms to gather information and statistics on couples getting married in Ireland. Finding their spend habits, trends, how they are sourcing suppliers, why they are buying from them and more, making the results freely available to all wedding businesses.

 She is committed to making positive change in the wedding industry believing that together we are our best marketing resource and by collaborating as an industry together in Ireland we become stronger businesses and a stronger league of professionals

Gareth Dunlop 

Based on 15 years of direct commercial experience helping businesses use the internet more effectively, Gareth advises companies on how to get the most from the internet and how to get best value from their web and digital marketing agencies.

Previously Gareth was the MD of iON, a leading digital strategy and marketing company, headquartered in Belfast and with major clients in 15 countries. Prior to that he was theMD of Tibus, one of the largest and most successful web development agencies in Ireland, from 2002 to 2009 when it was sold to UTV Media. Since 1996, he has gained massive commercial experience advising blue chip clients in Ireland, UK and Europe(SPAR, DHL, Post Office UK, BBC) on internet strategy and best practice.

A former Board Member of the Irish Internet Association, and Chairman of WeddingsOnline.ie, Gareth writes & lectures extensively on internet related matters. He occupies regular columns in SiliconRepublic.com and the Irish Independent in the Republic of Ireland, and Business Eye magazine in Northern Ireland.

Bláithín O’ Reilly Murphy

Bláithín O’ Reilly Murphy is a Wedding Consultant & Author with over 8 years’ experience in the Wedding Industry. Until 2009 she ran the successful wedding consultancy Distinctive Weddings, under which she wrote her first wedding book; Distinctive Weddings; Tying the Knot without the Rope Burns. She now divides her time between a select number of Wedding Planning Clients, lecturing to Event Management & PR students, writing the successful blog, Wedding High, travelling in Ireland and Abroad on speaking engagements and on her latest project; ‘The Book More Brides Program’ which is aimed at helping Wedding Professionals dojust that! Bláithín is regularly quoted and featured in the media around the world, most notably on E! Online and the bestselling book ‘How to Start Your Own Business’ by Robert Ashton.

Irene Dehaene (Judge)

Irene heads up marketing with iQ Content, the leading European user experience web design consultancy. She is passionate about how the internet and technology can help businesses grow and reach their business goals in a way that was never possible before.

Prior to joining iQ Content, Irene ran her own business, Incite Marketing, helping Irish companies expand both in Ireland and overseas. Previously, she headed up marketing and PR with international companies including Cybertrust, Baltimore Technologies and Jinny Software.

Irene is also a judge for the MII All Ireland Marketing Awards and the IIA Net Visionary Awards, and has written for publications including the Small Firms Assocation’s magazine and Marketing Age.