This year’s logo is based on Newgrange  – an ancient Irish passage tomb about 40 miles South of Dublin.  It was chosen as the logo because it has a light passage which is aligned to the rising sun on the Winter solstice so one day in the year the light will travel all the way down the light channel. It was thought that this was a nice link to the content of the conference and exhibition and also showcased Ireland’s heritage.

Newgrange is best known for the illumination of its passage and chamber by the winter solstice sun. Above the entrance to the passage at Newgrange there is a opening called a roof-box. Its purpose is to allow sunlight to penetrate the chamber on the shortest days of the year, around December 21st, the winter solstice. At dawn, from December 19th to 23rd, a narrow beam of light penetrates the roof-box and reaches the floor of the chamber, gradually extending to the rear of the chamber. As the sun rises higher, the beam widens within the chamber so that the whole room becomes dramatically illuminated. This event lasts for 17 minutes, beginning around 9am. The accuracy of Newgrange as a time-telling device is remarkable when one considers that it was built 500 years before the Great Pyramids and more than 1,000 years before Stonehenge. Find out more at http://www.newgrange.com/