Our Team

Naomi is based in Ireland and is Co-Director and Co-Founder of Connect the Dots. Naomi brings deep domain expertise related to all aspects of engagement and events. She has wide and deep experience in marketing and communications, event design, as well as logistics and production. Her degree in Creative and Cultural Industries and subsequent Masters in Design Practice means that she approaches engagement in a more innovative, imaginative way – through a creative, collaborative and user-led design lens.

Before Connect the Dots, Naomi has been involved in planning and delivering over 80 events with budgets of over ½ million euro, developing her own as well. She was previously Head of Operations at national pop-up community events platform, Happenings, working for clients such as 7Up, Dublin Waterways, St Patrick’s Day Festival, Dublin City Council, and many more.

Orla is a communications expert with experience across UK and Irish landscapes. She works closely with co-founder Naomi on deciding the best approach and opportunities for the team. Orla brings nearly 10 years experience in communications and engagement across both public and private sectors.She believes that from inception, every project is about getting people engaged and involved at the right time. She believes change should happen with people, not at them. Orla has a MA in Communications and recently completed a PDip in Leadership and Management.

Cathal has over ten years experience within architecture and design. His knowledge and experience includes delivering planning for large scale residential housing schemes on challenging locations. He has extensive involvement with collaborative, creative solutions to stakeholder engagement and brief development.

Cathal is a collaborator with A Playful City – a non for profit organisation creating more playful, engaging and inclusive cities with and for communities. He is currently delivering co design projects for Local Authorities and Youth Services.

Cathal has a masters in Architecture from the University of Greenwich, and received the Blueprint for the Future Blue Riband Award from Blueprint Magazine for his work.

Rachel is a socially engaged, empathy and research driven designer with a BA in Product Design and Visual Culture from NCAD, Dublin. Specialising in design for social impact, she is passionate about injecting more creativity and collaboration into community engagement and policy making.

Rachel is passionate about working alongside people to challenge the status quo in order to drive change and enable us as a collective society to imagine and build the futures we desire. Her work relies on close and constant collaboration with users and stakeholders and pushes the boundaries of what design might be and where it might exist.

Ellen is a Project Engagement Officer with Connect the Dots. She completed her BA in Sociology, Politics and English before gaining her MSc in Climate Change: Policy and Media. Ellen’s previous role within Climate and Sustainability consulting allowed her to work with various corporate clients on social and environmental projects.

During her time in sustainability consulting, Ellen gained extensive experience in workshop development and facilitation, delivering sustainability workshops. She is passionate about engaging communities through inventive and creative ways encouraging active participation and learning.

Fiona is a senior executive in the non-profit, local development and social enterprise sectors, and is currently CEO of Innovate Communities (IC) – an organisation she initiated working within a multi-stakeholder environment. Her organisation helps people solve old problems in new ways, in the places they live, work and play.

It brings an exciting blend of fresh thinking, design, technology and common sense, and works with communities to create and deliver projects that work in real life and create a lasting impact. Fiona has a proven track record in building successful relationships for strategic and operational gain across a diverse range of sectors; non-profit, private, statutory, academic, local government and government.

An advocate for assessing and trialling innovative social solutions, Fiona has demonstrated a nuanced approach to developing engagement with target groups, delivering programmes and results whilst working within formal corporate governance structures and best practice, and has the ability to access funding from multiple sources.

Joanne Griffin is founder and CEO at AdaptIQ, a boutique consulting firm helping companies, and their employees, thrive in a world where change is the new constant, and Co-founder at IrelandTogether, a non-profit business support network, committed to finding innovative solutions to the unfolding economic uncertainty impacting Irish businesses.

With a passion for problem-solving and an agile mindset, Joanne has extensive experience in finance, business transformation, automation, innovation management and organisational change. She is a frequent speaker on the topics of emerging technologies, crowdsourcing, and how we respond to change.