Gemma Gallagher is an award-winning Visual Artist and the Founder of Design & Dine, a Creative Workshop company based in the UAE and Northern Ireland. The aim was to create an event where guests could discover their creative abilities and learn to make art in a fun, sociable environment. What started as a small workshop has now grown to become the UAE’s largest interactive, creative experience with consistent sell-out events and over 7000 guests having attended so far. After founding Design & Dine in 2015, she has built the company up to operate across multiple cities with a team of Artists from around the world working with her to make Art fun and accessible to everyone. Her vision is to grow Design & Dine to be a global brand, allowing anyone to have fun and connect through the joy of creativity. In today’s episode we talk about: Growing up on the Antrim Road in the 90s Working on a banana farm in Australia What brought her to Abu Dhabi in 2014 Her experience working as a teacher in the Middle East Where she got the idea to start her business How she scaled her events from 15, to 25, to 50, to 100 people The secret to incredible in-person events What she misses most about home And her greatest highs/lows of the journey so far. Check it out. // https://bestofbelfast.org/stories/gemma-gallagher-design-and-dine