The challenge was to create a central digital destination to encourage participation in the most ambitious of tourism initiatives.
The Gathering Ireland 2013 sought to energise and inspire people & communities around Ireland to send invitations to friends & family to join in a year long celebration of all things Irish.
thegatheringireland.com was a multi-functional, interactive hub enabling visitors to organise, promote and discover local 'gatherings'
Due to the ever evolving nature of The Gathering Ireland 2013 project, from invitations being sent by Irish people & communities followed by actual Gatherings being created, the website needed to adapt several times throughout the campaign from initial launch in April 2012 leading up to the official launch in September 2012.
During the initial months of 2013, allowing people create and promote Gatherings was the site's core function. As visitors arrived and the Gatherings got into full swing,thegatheringireland.com grew to become a resourceful listings destination that had the tools and search functions to allow visitors discover gatherings and organise their visit.
Universally acclaimed as a huge success, the Gathering Ireland has won multiple awards integrated design, art direction, travel & tourism best practice and the Grand Prix award at the Digital Media Awards 2014.
The Gathering Ireland 2013 website outperformed all of the campaigns initial projections in terms of numbers of gatherings created & invitations sent – with 5,000 gatherings created on the website alone. This contributed to the reported 280,000 extra visitors to Ireland during 2013 and a reported revenue injection of €180m to the Irish exchequer. The digital hub was lauded for it's contemporary styling and effective UX design & usability by industry peers and sector experts.
