Westport Conference

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" background="04b785a3.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>Councillor Keith Martin </B></FONT><B>     |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Councillor Keith Martin "><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="news21.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="News"><U><I><B><U>Back to news page</U></B></I></U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <IMG SRC="07189bd0.jpg" border=0 width="137" height="189" ALT="Large photo Councillor Keith Martin" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>Westport Conference</I></div> <div> Town, Borough, City and County Councillors from all over Ireland are expected to travel to Westport on the 19th May to attend Westport Town Council's upcoming conference. The Irish Times' Environmental Editor Frank McDonald will be just one of the many speakers taking part in the conference entitled "Council and Community-The challenge ahead". Other speakers lined up include Liam Scollan CEO of Knock Airport, John Concannon Chairman of Ireland West Tourism and Sean Staunton, former Cathaoirleach of the council and editor of the Mayo News. Mr Staunton will be speaking on Westport's experience as a tourism resort.</div> <bR> <div> Cllr Keith Martin was brought onto the Conference Committee to assist with organisation and arranging speakers at the request of the Cathaoirleach.  Cllr Martin was able to get journalist and environmentalist Frank McDonald to speak at the conference and this is to be the highlight of the day and a bit of a coup for Cllr Martin.</div> <bR> <div> The Conference has been organised by Westport Town Council's Conference committee under the stewardship of Cathaoirleach Cllr Peter Flynn. Cllr Flynn says "It is vital for the success of Westport that we continue to showcase Westport as an ideal destination for both business and leisure needs and this conference gives us an opportunity to do both. It is also an ideal chance to develop this as a high profile annual conference and assist in bringing people to the area in what would be generally perceived as the low season. This conference should not only attract a significant number of people to the area but has the potential to create other follow on business and opportunities through the many other agencies and organisations that will attend the conference".</div> <bR> <div> The conference has been organised by the council with the aim of establishing an annual conference in Westport which will address the issues that councillors face in modern local government. This inaugural conference will address how best council and community can work together. The conference is broken into four separate stages beginning with 'Community and the Commercial Challenge', this is followed by the debate on planning and heritage which will feature Frank McDonald and the head of the Irish Planners Institute Mr Iain Douglas. The two afternoon sessions will deal with community development and with the case study of the relationship between Westport Town Council and the community.</div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>