ANNALISA SCALAVINO, CONFERENCE CO-ORDINATOR WITH ABBEY TOURS
I FIRST CAME to Ireland from Turin as a 14-year-old. My dad thought it would be a good idea to put me on an airplane and have me learn English for a summer. Little did he know I'd end up moving here.
But the woman in my host family in Glenageary, Co Dublin, was like a second mother to me, and our families became great friends. So when I was studying business and tourism management at university, in Turin, and had a chance for an overseas placement, I came back here.
I help organise international conferences. We do up to 20 a year, on one occasion involving up to 3,500 delegates.
The conference itself is actually the end of a process that can take two years or more - we're currently bidding for events due to be held in 2014.
One of the things that makes Ireland a good conference destination is the friendliness of the people. It's still true, and as a foreigner I see it myself.
The entertainment side of conferences is very important, too. We like to run an Irish night, because you have a very strong culture here, and visitors are fascinated by it.
Very often delegates will bring their family and friends and head off after the conference to make a holiday of it, and we help them. It's a very easy country to get around: you hire a car and can see everything in a few days. The food is good, too: you just need to know where to go.
No two days are the same here. Depending on where you are in a schedule, you'll be working on various topics, such as accommodation or social events, for a variety of conferences.
A few months before an event we start producing a day-by-day, minute-by-minute itinerary. A three-day conference could generate a 50-page itinerary. I'll be on the phone constantly, talking to clients and suppliers.
One of the aims is to make sure a conference makes a profit, so we also work on behalf of clients to sort out sponsorship. One week out and it's pretty much 24 hours non-stop, making sure everyone knows exactly where they've to be and when.
There's loads of printing to be done, and everyone, including the client, is under pressure. Any one problem at this stage can delay everything else in the chain, so it's quite stressful. I'm lucky I enjoy it, because the pressure can be intense.
Once the conference starts you're on call every second, with delegates that you've spoken to on the phone wanting to come say hello. That's the nicest bit. I've had gifts brought to me from places such as India and invitations to come visit from people in places I didn't even know existed. You have to make sure each delegate feels welcome and that you were waiting just for them, so I spend a lot of time talking, in a variety of languages.
The worst thing I remember was organising a conference for 1,800 people in the RDS in July 2005. Two-thirds of the delegates were from the UK, and when the news came in of the London bombings they were all trying to ring home in a panic. It was awful.
While the conference is on we work very long hours, and you build up a very high level of energy to get through it. By the last day, though, you can feel yourself starting to slow down, your legs start to go and your languages start to mix up.
Once it's over I take two days off, turn off the mobile and go to bed, exhausted.
• In conversation with Sandra O'Connell