About Us
How we got started...
Having had my first child Mia, I was determined to be the best parent I could be... I was surprised and disappointed by the limited choice of fun developmental and educational activities there was for us to do, so I talked to all my friends and then their friends (and even some strangers on the street!) and everyone seemed to be in the same position - there was very little on offer for very young children and parents / nannies / expecting parents.
I was looking for something both educational and fun, I wanted to have a social outlet for both of us, if I was going to join a group it had to have something that would interest me as much as my daughter. It definitely needed to be in a clean, comfortable and visually interesting space, but most of all I wanted to enjoy playing with my daughter and to meet other parents. So I set about collaborating with the people and experts who could make this happen.
A little about me... I graduated from the Samuel Becket Centre of Theatre Studies in1990 and having worked for many years in the theatre, film and television worlds (both in front and behind the scenes) I crossed over into the corporate world of IT and Business Information Systems. For a while I was very happy living in the high flying business world but having given birth to my daughter Mia, my creative side was reawakened!
We developed the PlayLabs with our customers, and work-shopped the PlayLab with more than 50 families over a six month period - watching, listening and learning, seeing what interested the little ones, what worked, what challenged and engaged them, and more importantly what didn't work!
Since starting our first venue in Sandymount, Dublin 4, we have grown steadily and now run over 25 PlayLabs every week across Dublin and have a team of wonderful, enthusiastic PlayLabs leaders (many mums themselves).
Shortly after launching our PlayLabs we were asked by our customers to start running First Aid Courses for parents, so we joined forces with Responder Training to deliver our First Aid courses. To date we have trained nearly 1,000 parents in First Aid.
And that's the story so far, I now have a new little boy and we just love going to the PlayLabs together (as customers of course!), we have four other fabulous and enthusiastic PlayLab leaders who are out there playing every day (someone has to do it!).
Our customers (both big and small) are our inspiration, so if you can, why not come to one of our PlayLabs and be inspired to play more.
Thanks for all the play,
Liza