Caricatures Ireland » conference cartoons

Caricatures from the Health Improvement Academy

Allan — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 20:10:38 +0000

Sir Muir Gray

I also got quite a few caricatures done of the speakers from the Health Improvement Academy. Above is Sir Muir Gray, who gave a lecture in the Cardiff National Museum on technology and the future of the NHS. I had dinner with him and the other speakers before the lecture, and he immediately liked what I was doing when I explained it, quoting Wittgenstein: “ideas are pictures”. Not to get too deep, but I thought that rocked.

The lecture hall in the Museum.

More of the speakers:

Cartoons from the Quality Improvement Academy, Cardiff.

Allan — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 19:48:54 +0000

Last month I was invited over to Cardiff in Wales to help document the Cardiff Centre for Health’s pilot Quality Improvement Academy. This was a three day long course, attended by health care professionals and students, of talks, case studies and role playing investigation into accidents in healthcare, and it was equal parts fascinating and terrifying. I actually learned a lot about the anatomy of needless deaths in healthcare, and like so many accidents it’s a series of systems failures and lack of proper communication that contribute to fatalities. One of the speakers, Philip Higton, is a former airline pilot who now coaches on accident avoidance. He showed a video of a colleague, also a pilot, whose wife died undergoing routine surgery because proper communication protocols were not in place. In airlines, pilots specifically tell the co-pilot what they should say if they see the captain messing something up. They give licence for the co-pilot to disregard their superior rank. No such protocol was in place in the case of this gentleman’s wife. Three consultants were involved, and all three of them went back to work. This was exactly what the pilot wanted to happen: the three consultants would never make the same mistakes again, and would disseminate the knowledge of what went wrong among their colleagues. It was raw and upsetting to watch, and had a really deep effect on the attendees.
I drew cartoons on the spot as the concepts and issues were being discussed. More of the cartoons based on the themes of the academy follow:

Caricatures from O&B Launch in Sligo

Allan — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 10:03:57 +0000

And there I was entertaining the friends of O’Neill and Brennan in Rosses Point, Sligo, on Tuesday night. Lovely bunch of people to work with, I’ve another couple of gigs with them as they introduce their new O&B brand in Sligo, Galway and Limerick. More next week!

If you’d like my brand of Corporate Entertainment at your event you can email by clicking “Contact” opposite.

Cartoons from SPAN meeting, Dun Laoghaire

Allan — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 10:38:14 +0000

I was conference cartooning for Southside Partnership in the Royal Marine Hotel, Dun Laoghaire recently. They’re entering the last phase of the European SPAN project. It’s nice at this stage as I know a lot of the attendees through having attended several of these meetings- while I meet hundreds of people every month I rarely meet anyone more than once (awww!).

If you are having a conference and are looking for alternative ways to document the themes and discussions you can contact me here.

Conference cartoons- a humorous way to document your conference!

Allan — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 15:31:00 +0000

I’ve been getting a lot of enquiries about my conference cartoons as the season begins to warm up so I’m going to take the opportunity to explain the process.

I attend the conference with my sketchbook and over the course of the event I take notes on the major themes and issues that are coming up. Simultaneously I produce large black and white cartoons based on those notes and these are put up around the conference area as they are produced. During breaks delegates can browse the cartoons and as well as being a humorous take on the day’s discussions the cartoons also serve to crystallise certain issues. I often have delegates saying to me “that’s exactly what I was trying to say!” when they see a certain cartoon. And of course they’re often thrilled when I choose their pet issue!

The cartoons can then be used in the documentation arising out of the conference such as reports and action plans.

Below are some more samples from conferences, and if you’d like to make an enquiry just click CONTACT opposite.

For more conference cartoons click here.

Beleagured Galway Mayor gets even more beleaguered…

Allan — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 18:15:00 +0000

…or is about to! Mayor of Galway Niall O’Brolchain gets a caricature makeover at the Mayor’s Youth Conference today.

Photo courtesy of Aengus McMahon.

Galway Mayor’s Youth Conference

Allan — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 15:12:00 +0000

Just back from the Mayor’s Youth Conference in the Galway Bay Hotel. I was doing my conference cartoons based on the responses to the themes of the conference: mental health, transport and anti-racism. There were 300 young delegates from all over Galway and it always amazes me how articulate and confident many kids are today (at 32 I’m old enough to be of the speak-when-spoken-to generation!)
I got some good images and I should have them up next week.
I’m also doing caricatures for the Mayor’s Ball in the Galway Bay Hotel this Saturday 29th April. I’m doing it gratis and I’ll be collecting donations for the charities for each one I do. If you’re going come over to me and get a lovely caricature!