A year long promotion of Ireland entitled “The Gathering” will be launched by President Barack Obama next March, it has been announced.

Speaking at the Founders conference in Dublin over the weekend John Concannon, the Director of Regional Development with Fáilte Ireland, announced that the year-long promotion will be launched at the White House next St Patrick’s Day by President Barack Obama and Taoiseach Brian Cowen.

A spokesman for Fáilte Ireland told IrishCentral.com that the initiative was still in the development stages and would signify a “call home to the Irish diaspora around the world”.

The 12 month promotion will take place throughout 2012 and will include a range of sporting and cultural events at home and abroad. Some of the events will include an American Football game between Notre Dame and the Navy in Dublin, the World Surfing Championship being held in Ireland and a global computer game event.

Mr Concannon urged all Irish businesses to contribute and said he “would like as many of you to work with us as possible”.

The Fáilte Ireland representative was addressing the conference of international technology entrepreneurs including Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, Chad Hurley from YouTube, and Niklas Zennstrom from Skype.