Ballina 2023, in partnership with Volunteer Ireland presents a Capacity Building Workshop, ‘Managing Volunteers at Festivals and Events’ with Stuart Garland, Learning and Capacity Building Manager at Volunteer Ireland on Thursday, February 9, 2023 at 6pm in Telus International, Emmet St, Ballina. 

Volunteers play a key role in making events a success. They can fulfil a range of roles such as managing your social media, welcoming your guests, finding sponsors or capturing video footage of your event allowing you to promote the work you do. The event is designed for community groups and organisations that work with volunteers to deliver events and festivals and who would like to develop the skills and knowledge to effectively recruit, manage and make the most of event volunteering!

Stuart will share his own experience of managing event volunteers – from small events to national festivals, share volunteer engagement ideas that will help ensure your volunteers have a good experience and will explore the event volunteering lifecycle.

Stuart Garland

Stuart is the Learning and Capacity Building Manager with Volunteer Ireland.  Previously he was the manager of a local Volunteer Centre and was a Volunteer Manager with a leading homeless charity for a number of years.  Stuart has worked in a wide range of roles in the not for profit sector since 1993 and has a background in youth work.  He was a Volunteer in Scouting Ireland for over 24 years.

He has direct extensive Volunteer Management experience with managing volunteer teams of over 1,400 event volunteers.

Stuart was part of the Volunteer Management Team for the Yorkshire Stage of the Tour de France Grande Depart 2014, Giro d’Italia Big Start in Ireland and Northern Ireland, World Police and Fire Games 2013 in Northern Ireland and also supported the volunteer programme for the Eurovision Song Contest 2017.  He was the Volunteer Programme Manager for the European Sandyacht Championship 2017 and Volunteer Manager for the KBC Dublin Marathon from 2017 onwards and Dublin Pride LGBTQ+ 2019. He has worked on volunteer programmes for over 110 different events and festivals.

Stuart is recognised as Ireland’s leading specialist in the field of volunteer management and engagement.  He has delivered workshops and training in Ireland, Croatia, England, Romania, Spain, Slovenia, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Mexico and Australia and has spoken at a number of conferences and seminars across Europe.

Stuart holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Volunteer Management and Leadership, a Diploma in Human Resource Management, a Diploma in Event Management, a Diploma in First Line Management, a Certificate in Training & Learning, as well as qualifications in health, safety and welfare at work.

Stuart moved to Rappacastle, Ballina in March 2022.

This training will be invaluable to many organisations in our community and shows the dedication of Ballina2023 to empowering those groups and individuals. If you would like to attend this event please reply by 6th February 2023 to info@ballina2023.ie.