TUS Event Management students win Shannon Region bursary for unique sustainability project

TUS Event Management students – Shannon Region Conference & Sports Bureau sponsored a bursary for students from the TUS Event Programme to design an event that could be used to deliver a sustainable message. Pictured are students Sinead O’Brien, Esther Johnson, Marie Mitchell, Lecturer Faculty of Business & Humanities, Danielle Devaney, Shannon Region Conference and Sports Bureau, Kiernan Smith and Alison Sheedy. Picture: Richard Lynch/ilovelimerick.

The first-year students came up with the idea to hold a demonstration on how to recycle used glass bottles by turning them into drinking glasses

A group of Events Management students at the Technological University of the Shannon have won a €300 bursary from Shannon Region Conference and Sports Bureau for their innovative sustainability centred event idea. 

The first-year students came up with the idea to hold a demonstration on how to recycle used glass bottles by turning them into drinking glasses and other items. The group elected to work with the restaurant Spitjacks on Bedford Row, running the demonstration in a place where the public could arrive by public transport, reducing carbon emissions.

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The TUS Events Management students were encouraged to develop an impactful sustainable event of choice based on music, sports, live, arts or cultural events. Students were tasked with designing an event that the group believed could be used to deliver a sustainable message to the public.

“What we wanted to do was highlight the importance of sustainability and get students to understand it in a way other than reading it out of a book,” Events Management lecturer Danielle Devaney told I Love Limerick.

“I came up with the idea of using the theme of sustainability to develop an idea for an event around. I contacted Karen Brosnan of the Shannon Region Conference and Sports Bureau, which is so supportive of sustainability. Karen kindly offered us a €300 bursary for the winning students.”

The winning team of Events Management students were Sinead O’Brien, Esther Johnson, Kiernan Smith and Alison Sheedy. 

Esther explained where the idea came from, saying, “I came across a hotel in Singapore that is really into sustainability, and they were repurposing their empty bottles as drinking glasses. I thought that was something really innovative and creative that would appeal to any age group. 

“In general, people consume a lot of alcohol, so there are always empty bottles lying around. This idea takes that extra step forward into living sustainably. The practise itself is something everybody could get involved in, with whole families helping to repurpose the glass. It’s not just about sustainability, but also about community and family.”

It is hoped that the students will take the lessons they learned about sustainability and apply them to events they plan in the future.

For more information about TUS Events Management course, go HERE 

For more information about Shannon Region Conference and Sports Bureau, go HERE

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