Selling advertisements for trade magazines might seem odd preparation for a career in arts management, but Maureen Kennelly knows otherwise.

The 32-year-old manager of the Kilkenny Arts Festival, which opens today, was probably destined for a role in her current profession. She comes from the same Kerry village, Ballylongford, as her unrelated namesake, the poet Brendan, and began attending Listowel Writers' Week in her school days.

"The Druid Theatre from Galway used to tour to the town hall in Listowel so we had relatively good access to events, and if you do come from the same place as Brendan Kennelly, it raises your awareness of the arts because he's such a high-profile figure."

Yet, having graduated from UCD with a degree in social science, she went into advertising after spending a year in telesales and working as a waitress in the United States. "You could say I worked in publishing," she jokes about her return to Ireland, "but basically I was selling ads by telephone for trade publications for about two years.

"It was actually fantastic experience. I developed such a brass neck and I now have no fear of the telephone whatsoever. That kind of work is really good for building up your tenacity and there's quite a buzz when you're doing well. In the good times it's brilliant." For a moment she almost sounds nostalgic.

As manager of a festival that has more than tripled in size in recent years and had a turnover of £390,000 (€495,550) last year, she uses all the skills acquired in her sales career and a few more besides.

She met The Irish Times on a typical pre-festival day, which began with a board meeting at 8.30 a.m. followed by a production meeting for Austrian artist Gottfried Helnwein.

Next was a meeting with sponsors, then a radio interview, followed by a meeting with a potential host of the festival club.

There's another production meeting after this interview, and her mobile is ringing constantly.

"It's very much a team effort, though. There are two full-time staff, myself and the administrator, Teenagh Cunningham. At festival time we bring in publicity and production people, a box office manager and a crew, and it's important for us all to keep in close contact."

Bringing the event in on budget is no easy task, especially given that this is the first year in three that it has to get by without substantial funding from the Government's Millennium Festivals body.

This sponsorship facilitated a radical growth in the size of the event and a broadening of its audience appeal.

While retaining the classical music and visual arts programmes, which have been at its core since it was founded in 1973, the festival added new elements, such as free open-air events, and expanded beyond Kilkenny city into rural areas.

Audience numbers increased accordingly, from 20,000 in 1998 to 72,000 last year.

While Arts Council funding has more than doubled since 1999 and is now allocated on a three-year cycle to facilitate advance planning, there is no disguising the gap left by the departure from the scene of Millennium Festivals. Nearly half the overall budget of £327,000 in 1999 came from that source and a further £73,000 was allocated to Kilkenny last year.

That's where the brass neck and sales skills come in. "Fundraising is a huge part of the job. It's about getting proposals into people before the budgets are set for the following year and making sure they land on the right desk," Ms Kennelly says.

The arrival in Kilkenny in the recent past of major enterprises such as the VHI, Deutsche Bank and Infoscore has expanded the potential sponsorship base, and all three have supported this year's event.

"The changes in Kilkenny have been phenomenal, with new industries and new people coming, and that makes a dramatic difference to us in terms of our audience and getting more volunteers."

Ultimately, however, she believes the festival needs a main sponsor and securing one for next year is a priority aim. A potential partner would be looking at expenditure of between £50,000 and £100,000.

"We're offering an association with a very high-quality festival that's attracting more and more people," she says.

Would such a deal involve a change in the festival's title, to incorporate the sponsor's name? "That's something we would approach cautiously. It would have to be for more than one year and there would need to be a good understanding by each partner of what the other is about."

Her decision to give up her last sales job and turn to a career in the arts was anything but cautious, but she has no regrets.

"I realised my career was going absolutely nowhere and I started working voluntarily for the James Joyce Centre in North Great George's Street with Joyce's nephew, Ken Monaghan," she says.

Ms Kennelly went back to college and completed a one-year diploma in arts administration in UCG.

After working for Druid, Fishamble Theatre and other organisations, she did public relations for the Kilkenny Arts Festival in 1998 and became full-time administrator the following year, before moving into the new role of manager. She reports to a board of business and arts representatives, which meets about eight times a year.

Staying within budget, which the festival has managed to do to date, is not a straightforward task. As well as buying in events, Kilkenny puts on its own productions, so costs can rise all the time.

"Keeping spending in check is a challenge. When you have creative people they may not think about money at all. You want to encourage the creativity while telling them 'look, you have £2,000 and that's it'!"

Kilkenny's own productions this year include the Irish premiere of the Steven Berkoff play Kvetch, directed by Conall Morrison. The festival may tour, for the first time, with the play next year.

The festival ends on August 19th, but an immediate holiday is out of the question. On the morning after Kilkenny, she'll be on a plane to Edinburgh to view potential shows for next year.

And it's not simply a matter of going to plays and deciding which ones you like. "The British Council uses the Edinburgh Festival to showcase UK drama and it's paying for me to go over, so there are a lot of breakfast meetings and so on to attend. It's all about business; I'm shopping, they're selling."

While no contracts have been signed, some of next year's festival line-up is already beginning to take shape, she says. "Some of the names for the classical music and writers events next year are in place. Organising the festival is a very long-term process."

She has planned a holiday in the United States in October but even then she will take in some theatre with future festivals in mind.

"That makes me sound like a complete martyr but it's not true really." Martyrdom may be overstating it but the job is something of a vocation.

"Well, you wouldn't want to be in this career for the money. But it's a two-edged sword. The sense of achievement you can have is enormous and I can't imagine ever matching it in the corporate sector."