Famed Northern Ireland theatre company Cahoots NI is celebrating coming of age as it marks its 18th birthday.

The company specialises in theatre for children and its distinctive style combines magic and illusion, physical theatre and original music.

Its work is acclaimed in Ireland, the UK, America and has been enjoyed in theatres, schools and all kinds of venues since it launched in 2001.

The company is currently touring China with its production of Shh! We Have a Plan and has ever-growing audiences at home and across the world.

Their production Penguins is about to run in Birmingham Repertory Theatre and will open at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast in December. The company’s theatrical adaption of Marita Conlon-McKenna’s Under The Hawthorn Tree heads to The MAC and tours Ireland in the new year.

One of the founders and Artistic Director Paul Bosco Mc Eneaney says it’s amazing to have come so far.

“We’ve come of age. Isn’t that frightening?”

He revealed that the company came about almost by chance.

“It started by complete accident. When I was six or seven, I was obsessed with magic.

“Honestly, my mother and father couldn’t go past a shop that had anything linked to Paul Daniels or David Nixon. I had every magic set under the sun. I just loved it, and later I became one of the youngest members of The Magic Circle.

Along with that came a real love of circus, and fun fairs, and anything that, when I analyse it now, was built for joy or for fun or for amazement

“I knew that was my world.”

After touring the US as a musician Paul realised theatre was his first love.

“Absolutely, my first love.

“So, I came back and studied performing arts at BIFHE (Belfast Institute of Further and Higher Education, now Belfast Met). “Then I decided I was going to be an actor. That was it.

“I got into The Lyric Theatre at a good time, I did three or four shows back to back. A Midsummers Night’s Dream, The Playboy of the Western World and others.

“After that I became a jobbing actor. I was doing the odd little bit of film and nothing hugely significant, but I was making a living out of it.

“Then Anna Cutler, who ran the Belfast Children’s Festival at that time, asked me if I’d ever thought of writing anything for young audiences.

“I ended up writing a show called Puppet Magic, and I was in it. It got picked up by a few of the visiting international delegates who said, ‘We’d like that at our festival’.

“They were all happening the following year. So I was asking, how do we do this? How do we make this work? And the only way to make it work financially, was to form a company.

“This allowed me to access some funding from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, who would in turn support the international travel for this project.

“We renamed the show Buster, and it opened at the Edinburgh International Children’s Theatre Festival the following year. And then you do one show and you go, ‘Oh gosh, we should do another’.

“So, there was no plan. There was absolutely no plan.”

Paul said theatre for children was not seen as a priority back in the beginning of Cahoots NI.

“There was an inequality in the funding streams back then. I don’t believe children’s work was funded in the same way theatre for adults was.

“At the time, there was an education company, that was doing issue-based work and that was funded, but what we were hoping to do didn’t exist in Northern Ireland.”

Cahoots NI has gone on to challenge and change perceptions, with Paul adamant that children are just as deserving of top-quality theatre as adults.

He also says theatre can play a social role, instilling empathy in children and making them more socially aware.

“We are not changing the world, but we’re going to make the world a slightly better place with what we do.”

The company is now in big demand all over the world and has toured to Europe, Asia, all over the US and has even had requests to take their shows to Chile in South America.

Cahoots does not plan to rest on its laurels though.

Paul is already looking forward to future milestones.

“I’m looking towards 2021, which is our twentieth year – I feel I’m looking towards some sort of mini Cahoots NI festival, perhaps a celebration of our best work to date.

We are currently working on a new show called The Vanishing Elephant which will play in Belfast before opening on Broadway. Our future is exciting – I’m keen to create greater and longer partnerships with other organisations here and across the world.

The Cahoots show definitely looks set to go on.

Penguins, a Cahoots NI, Birmingham Repertory Theatre and Prime Theatre co-production will run at The Lyric Theatre from December 18-22. Under The Hawthorn Tree will open at The MAC on January 30 through to February 9 before touring Ireland.

For more information about Cahoots NI or their shows log onto http://www.cahootsni.com

North Down Museum’s Christmas Craft Market is taking place this weekend, Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 November.

A popular date on the local shopping calendar, the market will showcase a total of 22 artists and crafters providing an array of handmade goods, perfect for that unique Christmas gift.

Come along and browse the stalls which will be dotted around the historic museum building – start your Christmas shopping or even finish it!

Visitors can enjoy live music in the café from 1pm – 3pm on Saturday afternoon when local singer songwriter Riley Holland will perform.

Speaking about the Christmas Craft Market, North Down Museum Manager, Heather McGuicken said; ‘The Museum’s Christmas Market is a fun and festive way to purchase unique, local, hand crafted items for your loved ones.  Come and see something different while shopping this year’.

Coffee Cure, the museum café will be open throughout the event serving tea, coffee, lunch and snacks.

The market runs from 10am to 4.30pm on Saturday 23 and 12pm to 4.30pm on Sunday 24 November. Parking and admission is free at North Down Museum.

For more information on the Christmas Craft Market and other events and exhibitions, visit www.northdownmuseum.com

People organise events for a variety of reasons: training, networking and bringing people together, to name but a few, and the number of organisers doing so for these grounds has increased in recent years. Choosing the right venue and location are stressful enough, but on top of those concerns there are the challenges of running the right activities and engaging the guests once they come through the doors. 

A soul-destroying event could spell disaster for your brand and company, but have no fear. Below are six simple ways you can supercharge your event and keep the attendees clamouring for more: 

1. Call In Some Content Producers

Content is huge now, so you need to hire some professional content creators to help with the content marketing of your event. This is a superb way to start telling the story of your event, get potential attendees familiar with your brand and, generally, get them enthusiastic for the event. The content contributes to the overall experience of the event. Of course, you’re creating expectations by doing this, too, so you must be sure to deliver the goods on the day.

2. Encourage Social Media Use

Social media is another part of the event experience and is a way to generate excitement before the event, during it and after it. An event hashtag is a given, to help promote the event, and that can get the ball rolling, but if you’re the organiser you should keep the momentum going by encouraging discussion on social media. Ask engaging questions or introduce interesting topics, related to the themes of the conference event itself.

3. Keep Things Simple

Now, your audience won’t be idiots, but you should observe a simple formula to keep them from dozing in their seats. The content should be valuable to them in some way or have a wow factor that makes them sit up and take notice. It should solve a problem, provide an answer to a question or respond to a theory or need. The content should also generate some form of emotion and be something that they want to later share with others at the event and away from it. Professional content producers can help with all of this.

4. Train Speakers in Engagement Techniques

Public speaking is a skill and it takes no small amount of guts for speakers to get up there and deliver their speech or presentation. No one likes to give a tranquilising speech or stare into the eyes of attendees who are visibly bored and have grown irritable, maybe a touch hungry, too, or both.

None of that has to happen, though, if you train speakers in engagement techniques. This gets the audience more involved. The speaker can ask them questions. They can have breakout sessions. They can run activities or workshops that lend themselves to interaction. Boredom shouldn’t be an issue.

5. Use audience engagement handsets

Audience engagement system handsets are useful for a simple reason: they include everyone. A lot of events use websites or apps and present polls in which the attendees can take part, but sometimes internet bandwidth issues can disrupt engagement measures like this. A handset offers more reliability and, to a certain extent, equalises attendees because no one has to be tech savvy to use them. Older members may struggle if they were to have to use their mobile phones to participate and would welcome the handsets if this is the case.

6. Harness the power of analytics

How do you know if a conference is going well? A real time analytics tool can help you gauge it. Implement one of these tools and you can track how attendees are responding to your social media content. You can also have a look at any online feedback forms guests have submitted during the event. This data supplies you with valuable insight which you can use to make changes to the event as it happens or keep in mind when you hold your next event. No longer do you have to hit and hope or look on helpless as an event goes downhill.

A note on presenting at a conference event

If you happen to be one of the brave souls presenting at an event, consider hiring an expert to help you with your presentation visuals. Bullet points do add structure, fair enough, but they can be a bit boring as well, to say the least. 

Meanwhile, there are presentation specialists out there who can design your presentation visuals for you. Shoddy visuals can damage your presentation and your credibility. You want to look like a professional, but poor visuals will let you down. Hiring a PowerPoint pro to give your presentation the TLC it needs to shine and keep your reputation intact.  

Whether you’re running an event to train people, get people networking or just bring people together, you can minimise the stress of the endeavour by implementing the tips above. They’ll help you and your speakers to keep the attendees engaged, making it an enjoyable event for them and a successful one for you.

For more details on how to make your next event truly engaging, be sure to check out https://responsecrowd.com

Don’t miss out on a very special Narnia-inspired Christmas experience – The Most Magical Library of the Best Stories Ever – which will take place 22-24 Nov at C.S. Lewis Square, east Belfast, as part of this year’s C.S. Lewis Festival, 22 – 26 Nov.

Join The Literary Fairy, her friend Finn Faun, and the Very Interesting Creatures to sort out the terrible mess created by the evil Snow Queen and foil her rotten plan to ruin Christmas! This brand new C.S. Lewis-inspired Christmas experience will take place in a specially designed magical space in C.S. Lewis Square, where children and families will go on a fun and imaginative journey, encountering some fantastical characters before finally meeting Santa himself once their quest is complete. For further information on tickets, booking and the festival  visit www.eastsidearts.net

Maeve Curley from Lavey (and a member of Termoneeny Running Club) is busy training for next year’s London Marathon.

She is determined to raise as much as she can for Children’s Liver Disease Foundation (CLDF) the charity which has been close to her heart ever since her six year old son, Ted, was given a life-saving liver transplant when he was just 22 months. Now Maeve has come up with a novel idea to keep her on track with her training and boost her fundraising – it’s the Tedathon!

“I want people to pledge to walk, run or cycle for 5K or 30 minutes each day during December,” says Maeve. “It’s only £10 to join in so it’s a simple way both to raise money for a fantastic cause and to improve health and fitness during a month of over-indulgence. I’m lucky to have got a London Marathon place but I appreciate not everyone can do that. However, anyone can join in the Tedathon I’ve got friends and family both here and overseas who have signed up.  With a choice of a Tedathon medal (that doubles up as a Christmas tree bauble), or a pair of glow in the dark laces (as well as a ‘fit’ December) upon completion, I would love if as many people as possible could get on board and get Tedathon done!”

“To have a child suffer liver failure and go through transplant at such a young age is truly traumatic but Children’s Liver Disease Foundation have been there for us with information and emotional support all along. We want every family in our situation to have that kind of support and this is my way of giving something back.” 

“I would not have been able to launch Tedathon without the support of Declan and Emma Leung at Virtual Run NI.  They have provided guidance and ideas, and are designing the most amazing medals,” said Maeve.  Declan said, “At Virtual Run NI, we want to encourage people to get fit and active, we want to motivate and encourage runners (and in this case walkers, cyclists and swimmers too!) of all abilities and ages.  We always reward all finishers with the most fantastic medals and we are really excited about our Tedathon medal!”

Jacqueline Mc Gonigle, Chair of Termoneeny Running Club said, “We are proud to support Tedathon, and would encourage all runners, walkers, swimmers and cyclists to sign up for this very worthy challenge.  Termoneeny Running Club is only too happy to promote this fundraiser, and have enjoyed coming up with lots of ideas to support Maeve and Tedathon.  We wish Maeve all the best with her London marathon training.” 

Alison Taylor, Chief Executive of Children’s Liver Disease Foundation commented: “CLDF is the only UK charity dedicated to fighting all childhood liver diseases, by providing information and emotional support, funds for research and a voice for all those affected. In order to do this however, we rely on voluntary donations, so we are delighted to hear about the Tedathon. What a fantastic and fun way to get people involved in raising awareness.” 

Click HERE to sign up to #tedathon19 and good luck!

You can join in the conversation on Facebook and Twitter and use the hashtag #tedathon19

For more information on CLDF visit childliverdisease.org.