I’m Fiona, I’m 39 and I am the Commercial Operations Manager here at The Square.
My job is a very varied role, from marketing, events, sponsorship, community relations, social media, commercial activity and also management for the general running of the Centre. I have worked in various creative roles within retail, media and events so this role just brings everything in nicely together. I have been here nearly 4 years, 2 during Covid 2 non Covid! I love my role here, it’s creative, fun and rewarding. I get to work with a huge amount of people, I really enjoy the community element of it.
The team that we work with here is a small one and we all work closely together, it is a very supportive team that encourages you to be creative and take your ideas and run with them. There are a lot of men within the workplace but also as many women here who do very important roles, like our media team who are all women who are bringing a lot of creativity and energy and spark. We are all equals here and everyone is encouraged and valued, that’s important.
I am big into sports, especially GAA in my own community and a big Dublin fan, ladies and mens. I have seen the value of what GAA and that community can bring so that was a natural lead for me to try engage The Square with the GAA clubs here in Tallaght. We share the same values- community, having fun and engaging with families- so it is a natural fit. I was delighted to work with these clubs and bring in the likes of our Club Together sponsorship.
Since before I’ve been here, there’s been a focus on not just promoting The Square, but also Tallaght. It is very much hand in hand. It’s important to have strong links with the community and raise each other’s profile. Everyone wins with that.
It creates great opportunities too and enjoyable things to work on. Working with local artists creating more vibrant spaces, working with local role models like our recent Strong Women installation, it’s really uplifting! When you see little kids and little girls coming in and seeing those things in The Square… visibility is what it is all about. Before I came in, there was already a strong reputation for family events here and I love that element to the job. Planning events like Christmas and all of the other activities, there’s a great buzz to it and seeing happy faces is what it’s all about.
I have been here 4 years and 2 of them were heavily disrupted by Covid, but we got through and still managed to do a lot of the things that were important to us. We are now at a time where there are so many exciting things happening, Movies@TheSquare have just arrived, Penneys is coming- I came from Penneys so I am delighted to be back working with them -and the anticipation is huge of course! It’s going to be a game-changer.
So I am not going anywhere hopefully anytime soon! I think we are at a really exciting point, there are a lot of opportunities coming down the line, and I want to be here as we get bigger and better. I’m passionate about what is happening here and we are only getting started really, there is lots to come.