Wet and windy it might have been in Prague but the JobsIreland gig in the Czech capital last week turned out to be a roaring success, with more than 4,000 turning up in the Ambassador Hotel in Wenceslas Square to check out the jobs position in Ireland.
The fact that the average local salary for a qualified techie is about £5,000 (€6,348) a year - about a fifth of the starting rate in Ireland - was no doubt one of the main attractions, not to mention the prospect of an all-expenses paid trip to Ireland for those picked for further interviews.
Newspapers and radio/TV stations showed an amazing interest in the fair - to the extent that FAS public affairs man Greg Craig had to do 10 separate interviews. Seems that altogether press conferences are not the done thing in Prague.
One Irishman - well known in the financial community - who has gone the opposite direction is Frank Haughton. Frank used to run one of the money-broking houses in Dublin until a few years ago when he sold out to NCB. Now he owns no fewer than five Irish pubs in Prague. It must be something about Irish brokers that they like to diversify into Irish pubs abroad. Former Riada boss Pat Plunkett owns Sean Og's in Heidelberg.
