Month: December 2021

County Armagh professional Makeup Artist Aisling O’Connor hosted an afternoon to remember at the Seagoe Hotel in Portadown to celebrate the launch of her new Dream Beauty Studio.

The all-female event, ‘Look Good, Feel Fabulous’, took place on November 14 and showcased empowering motivational speakers, a Fashion show featuring local boutiques, a live makeup demo, a cocktail reception and afternoon tea.

During lockdown, Aisling hosted a “Makeup and Mindset” Zoom makeup tutorial alongside guest speaker Claire O’Hanlon which focused on strengthening the mindset – something Aisling based her own event on. 

Launching her own business in 2018, with a website and new branding launched 2020 before the pandemic began.

Aisling spent the majority of lockdown developing her brand and then launched her custom beauty space, Dream Beauty Studio in September 2021.

Aisling said: “The main concept underpinning my business is that of ‘The Lipstick Effect’, the psychological phenomenon where putting on your makeup is proven to increase self confidence, and boost self esteem.

“I just love what I do and love empowering women to feel better about themselves.” 

The mum-of-three is a strong advocate of encouraging women to use makeup as a powerful tool to enhance self-confidence which was the inspiration behind her in-person event.

“My main goal was to get a room full of women and have them leave that afternoon feeling uplifted, encouraged and above all, realising that it’s ok, and in fact of extreme importance, to put themselves first every once in a while.” she said.

The sellout event featured an impressive lineup of inspiring speakers including Life Coach Michelle McAuley, personal stylist Samara of Evolve By Samara and fashion blogger Caroline Currie of ‘Principal of Fashion’ who hosted the uplifting masterclass. 

Besides giving confidence, on the day £1000 was raised through raffle prizes for Little Forget Me Nots Trust, a local charity dedicated to helping families cope with child loss.

“I advocate strongly supporting local and female owned businesses. I believe in empowering others, which is what sets Dream Beauty apart. It’s more than just makeup, it’s all about leaving you feeling like you on a really good day.”

Currently, Dream Beauty studio offers a variety of beauty and cosmetic treatments including makeup, brows, nails, lashes, sugaring, tanning and massages and the studio is also big enough to offer group workshops and lessons.

To book a visit to the Dream Beauty Studio go to https://www.dreambeautybyaoc.co.uk/ or Follow @Dreambeautybyaoc on Facebook and Instagram.

THE CURE

2022 EUROPEAN TOUR

44 SHOWS / 22 COUNTRIES

= NEW 67’ ALBUM = NEW 135’ SHOW =

SPECIAL GUESTS 

THE TWILIGHT SAD

The SSE Arena, Belfast: Friday 2 December 2022

TICKETS ON SALE THIS FRIDAY 10 DECEMBER at 9am

www.ticketmaster.ie

The Cure have just announced details for their upcoming 2022 European Tour with 44 shows across 22 countries – including shows in Dublin’s 3Arena on 1 December and The SSE Arena, Belfast on 2 December 2022. The Cure have also announced a new 67′ album and new 135′ show.

The Cure will be joined by special guests The Twilight Sad on their 2022 European Tour.

Tickets go on sale this Friday 10 December at 9am from www.Ticketmaster.ie

The Cure make their highly anticipated return to Ireland following their sold out headline concert at Malahide Castle in June 2019 where they performed all their hits and fan favourites including ‘Pictures Of You’, ‘Lovesong’, ‘Inbetween Days, ‘Just Like Heaven’, ‘A Forest’, ‘Lullaby’, ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ and more.

Formed in Crawley, Sussex, England. Played its first show in 1978. Has performed around 1500 concerts to date. Has released 13 studio albums. Several concert films. A few live albums. Some soundtrack songs. More than 40 singles. A couple of box sets. A couple of books. A greatest Hits thing. A handful of covers. And various other stuff. 2019 Rock ‘N’ Roll hall of famer has had 13 members in 42 years. 2021 features 5 of them: ROBERT SMITH (VOICE & GUITARS) / SIMON GALLUP (BASS) / JASON COOPER (DRUMS) / ROGER O’DONNELL (KEYBOARDS) / REEVES GABRELS (GUITARS). 

Please see the biography for a longer story: http://www.thecure.com/bio/

WWW.THECURE.COM

Causeway Coast & Glens Heritage Trust, in partnership with Ulster University, are delivering two free marketing and social media training sessions to local creatives, storytellers, and artisans next week as part of the EU funded Northword project.

Led by trainer and founder of Excalibur Press, Tina Calder the virtual training begins on Monday December 6 with the Supercharge Your Marketing By Creating Your Brand Story and will be followed by Everything You Need To Know About Social Media For Marketing Your Business on Thursday December 9 where Tina will guide attendees through all of the key infrastructures that make up their brand such as brand story, brand mission and brand social media content style.

Tiérna Mullan, the CCGHT Project Officer said: “The pandemic has highlighted the importance of digital platforms in supporting the creative industry, and the Northword project aims to further harness this potential.

“The wealth of creative talent in the Causeway Coast and Glens and Mid & East Antrim Borough Council areas is phenomenal and through the two online training sessions we can support the creative industries in remote areas and enhance their online presence.” 

Trainer Tina Calder has acquired a wealth of knowledge in 25 years working in local media having worked with a large number of thought leaders and business owners. Tina specialises in helping businesses transform and level up their marketing and communications efforts.

“I’m delighted to be working with Causeway Coast & Glens Heritage Trust on this fantastic project to be able to support business in the creative sector in areas of their marketing such as brand storytelling and social media marketing” said Tina, adding: “Programmes like this that offer free training are absolutely vital in supporting our vibrant and exciting small businesses within the creative sector.”

CCGHT is a registered charity devoted to protecting and enhancing the unique heritage of the Causeway Coast and Glens area, and in collaboration with Ulster University, they are the lead facilitators of the Northword project in Northern Ireland.

Northword is a transnational project that seeks to use traditional storytelling to support creative industries in northern countries in remote areas and enhance the online presence of small businesses. 

It also seeks to draw on and support long traditions of storytelling in northern locales and encourage communities to rediscover and celebrate local tales.

Both training sessions will be recorded and will include an interactive element such as a Q&A session and participant handouts.

To register for the events, go to https://ccght.org/events 

Sign up to the Northword e-newsletter to keep up to date with progress and upcoming events Sign up for the Northword e-newsletter! – Northword NI

For more information on the Northword project visit https://storytagging.interreg-npa.eu/ or https://northwordni.org/

New platform that finds a total addressable market in seconds and connects with decision makers in minutes

Belfast, UK 02.12.21

SAAS company Zymplify Group has launched Lead Onion, a powerful intent-driven sales enablement platform that allows users to identify, prioritize and connect with leads and prospects in real time.

Lead Onion allows users to activate buyer-intent data with 17 dynamic intent sources at their fingertips giving them the ability to quickly identify companies who are ready to buy and their key decision makers. 

Once identified prospects are prioritized into ready-to-buy sales leads allowing sales teams to connect with in-market buyers in real time.

The announcement comes on the back of Zymplify Group investing a further £1.5million into the SAAS company and a commitment to create 26 jobs over the coming year working across its three brands Zymplify, Lead Onion and Zym.

Zymplify Group chief executive Michael Carlin said Lead Onion represented a significant step forward in the operationalization of data and prospecting across all sectors.

He added: “Lead Onion helps teams reduce sales cycles, accelerate sales and enhance their sales and marketing efforts by making available the world’s largest and most compliant database of 400 million business profiles and 4.2m identified in-market accounts.”

With Lead Onion users can see the companies who are actively searching for their product or service, get contact details of the key decision makers and send prospects to their tech stack for lead nurturing or use Lead Onion’s inbuilt cadences to connect instantly and quickly act on those buying signals.

Zymplify Group chief marketing officer Debbie Rymer explained: “The thing that makes Lead Onion really different isn’t just the company level intent or the contact details of the key decision makers in those organisations. It’s the fact that our platform is the only company on the market that takes into consideration first, second and third party data, and then highlights the people that are displaying intent across all of those channels”.

With Lead Onion companies can not only gather up to the minute, relevant and current data but can organise and prioritize that data efficiently in a manner that allows sales teams to act on the intelligence immediately right when the customer is ready to buy.

Michael Green, chief operating officer of Lead Onion said: “One of the biggest challenges companies have with intent data is making it actionable. That’s what we solve. 

“For example, there’s been a lot of discussion in  sales and marketing about third-party intent data and whether it’s useful…the fact that we make it actionable helps to solve that conundrum – we bring order to the chaos of there being so much data out there.

“Lead Onion provides contact details alongside the company-level intent. We’re the only platform that has first, second, third-party intent data at the company level.” 

Lead Onion was originally created to fill a need for the Zymplify Group themselves.

Michael and his team, frustrated by the prospecting and lead generation tools on the market, set out to find a solution that would streamline the prospecting and lead generation timeline.

He explained: “Before we created Lead Onion it was my job to extract the data from various sources, be that G2 or purchasing large data lists, and populate existing sales CRM systems and platforms with that data for the sales teams to use.

“This was being done every week but, in some cases, by the time the data was collected, collated and uploaded to the system the intent was already a week old and in many cases the data had gone stale.

“With Lead Onion that process has gone from a few days or a week to minutes. Our sales teams are being fed live data on a daily basis that’s current, relevant and actionable.

“Sales teams no longer have to think about where they will go for their next lead – it’s there, it’s ready and waiting for them. Their days are planned out and if they need more the system can give them more.”

With Lead Onion’s suite of tools marketers responsible for delivering leads to sales, sales leaders responsible for growing revenue at scale and recruiters looking for their next hot hire can use up to the minute tools and intelligence to identify, target and connect faster with their target audience.

“Lead Onion gives your sales teams more talk time because we have removed repetitive admin and research tasks from their workflow” said Debbie Rymer, adding: “supercharge your conversions by giving your team the hottest leads today looking for the solution that you offer now, not last week, not last month.”

To book a Lead Onion demo or for more information go to https://leadonion.ai/ 

With the festive season just around the corner, Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council is delighted to announce its first Royal Hillsborough Christmas Market, which will be set up along The Dark Walk and Hillsborough Fort.

Due to popular demand, the market will take place over two days, Friday 10^th December from 3pm-9pm and Saturday 11th December from 10am-3pm.

Visitors can expect a host of festive foods, gift ideas, activities and entertainment guaranteed to awaken the Christmas spirit in all adults, children and ‘Bah Humbugs’ alike! The Royal Hillsborough Christmas Market will provide over 50 local artisan food producers and craftspeople a platform to showcase their unique produce and festive gifts.

Self-proclaimed ‘foodies’ are in for a treat with the wide range of artisan producers taking part including local favourites Spontaneous Deuce, Ispini Charcuterie, Rosie McNeill Cakes and Jack’s Fudge. Other offerings include seasonal chutneys and preserves, speciality cheeses and rare breed meats, organic teas, juices and much more to fill your festive larder. There will also be an impressive line-up of artists and designer craftspeople along The Dark Walk, with local makers including Ellie MacCandles, Wendy Ward Design, Plumpy Balms, LG Jewellery, Ruth Osborne Art and Lauren Fowler Handcrafted Company all taking part.

In addition to the local artisan offering, marketgoers will also get the opportunity to explore the ever-popular local street-food scene in the grounds of Hillsborough Fort. Delicious aromas will be floating through the winter air from a range of gourmet street-food and drink vendors including Dough Heads, The Hatch and Tribal Burger, with warming coffees and hot chocolates from Percy’s Coffee and Steady Neddy’s to name just a few, each with their own distinctively seasonal menus developed using the best of Northern Ireland produce.

To ensure a festive atmosphere like none other, Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council has made every effort to impress by calling upon the local community to provide the seasonal entertainment. The sweet sounds of the Downshire Primary School Choir and Friends’ School Brass Ensemble will be on hand to open proceedings and welcome visitors to the picturesque setting. Children can partake in seasonal craft activities and there will even be a visit from the big man, Santa himself, so if you are not already, you need to make you have made the ‘nice list’, in time for the market!

Royal Hillsborough Christmas Market is free to attend and will take place Friday 10^th December from 3pm-9pm and Saturday 11th of December from 10am-3pm. The market will be managed with COVID-19 mitigation measures in place. The advice is to wrap up warm and join the festive fun.

For more information and updates visit  www.visitlisburncastlereagh.com or @VisitLisburnCastlereagh on Instagram.

TO CELEBRATE THEIR 20^TH ANNIVERSARY, BLUE ANNOUNCE THE HEART & SOUL TOUR

TICKETS ON SALE FROM FRIDAY 9AM

One of the UK’s most exciting and successful boy bands are back! To celebrate their 20^th anniversary, Blue have announced today their Heart & Soul Tour. Blue will play 14 arena shows around the UK and tickets go on sale this Friday at 9am – tickets can be purchased from:

www.waterfront.co.uk

www.ticketmaster.ie

www.officialblue.com

The announcement for the Heart & Soul Tour comes 20 years to the week that Blue released their smash hit #1 debut album, All Rise. The album which was released 20 years ago this week, went on to sell over 1.4 million copies in the UK alone and was certified 4x Platinum. The tour sees all four original members – Antony Costa, Duncan James, Lee Ryan and Simon Webbe – reunite for a fun-filled epic show. The concert will feature all the band’s hits from their 5 albums as well as some incredible surprises.

Speaking of the tour, Blue added: “We can’t believe it’s been 20 years since All Rise, our debut album, was released. It’s been quite the ride since then and now we have so much to look forward to as we go into our third decade! We had a lot of time in lock down to reconnect as friends and we started thinking how we could celebrate the anniversary. The four of us started working on new music and it felt so good to be back doing what we love again. This time off during the pandemic also made us realise how much we missed performing live. We can’t wait to get back on the road and see all of you at our Heart & Soul Tour. We have been planning this tour for a while and we promise you, we’ll be putting on the best show and making it a celebratory night you won’t forget! We have some surprises up our sleeve for the 20^th anniversary so stay tuned, 2022 is going to be a big one!”

Blue are one of the most successful British bands and have sold over 16 million albums worldwide including 3.6 million albums and 1.4 million singles in the UK. Their first 3 albums all topped the Official Album Chart and the group have worked with a variety of legends including Stevie Wonder, Elton John and Lil’ Kim. The British four-piece have recently begun work on new music, with announcements to come.

Tour dates:

11^th September – Belfast, Waterfront Hall

12^th September – Dublin, 3Olympia Theatre

17^th September – Liverpool, M&S Bank Arena

18^th September – Leeds, First Direct Arena

19^th September – Glasgow, OVO Hydro

21^st September – Aberdeen, P&J Live

22^nd September – Newcastle, Utilita Arena

24^th September – Manchester, AO Arena

25^th September – Birmingham, Resorts World Arena

26^th September – Brighton, Brighton Centre

28^th September – Nottingham, Motorpoint Arena

29^th September – London, The O2

1^st October – Cardiff, Motorpoint Arena

2^nd October – Bournemouth, International Centre

Tickets on sale at www.officialblue.com.

Follow Blue at:

Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / Spotify / YouTube / Wikipedia