The Association of Australian Convention Bureaux (AACB) Inc released its strategic plan at AIME 2013. Following the release ASE spoke to AACB Executive Director Andrew Hiebl – see below this media release. Andrew Hiebl, Executive Director AACB said “the strategic planning process has added much needed focus to the organisation, as any like process does, and [...]

“Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who’s the safest of them all?” We all love a good fairy story, the fantastical propositions, the subtle disassociation from reality and the warm secure feeling that no matter what happens that it is all make believe and no one really is going to get hurt. The above values apply [...]

Dear Australia, Let us be the first to congratulate you on the birth of your bouncing infant Workplace Health and Safety Act & Legislation. Like any new parent you are probably experiencing that time-honoured mixture of anticipation for the future mingled with abject confusion about what to do with them in the meantime? As an [...]

We seem to be a nation divided By Bespoke Safety* Call it Catch 22 or a double-edged sword but currently in the Australian events industry “it is the best of times; it is the worst of times.” In the turbulent wake of national WHS Harmonisation, the Australian events industry is in somewhat of a dilemma. [...]

The Proposal That one of Australia’s capital cities should stage an Indigenous Arts Festival of world standing every two or four years, to honor and celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, and indigenous cultures from around the world, as a major new visitor attraction. Rationale In a country in which indigenous culture has such [...]

(Address by Sandy Hollway to launch the 2012 Australian Event Awards and the 2012 Australian Event Symposium, 15 May 2012) I would like to thank you all for being with us this evening for the joint-launch of two of the most important fixtures on the calendar of the Australian events industry — the 2012 Australian [...]

Trevor Connell reports on SES and ABEE Some exhibitors I spoke to at SES/ABEE thought it time for the two shows to merge – I disagree. Although the delineation between the halls has all but disappeared there was a considerable difference in the feel between each hall. The Australian Business Events Expo (ABEE) is retaining [...]

The MEA conference welcome reception was held at the Adelaide Town Hall and featured performances by Opera singers Antonio Villano and Kate Lara followed by the Town Hall’s resident organist – all quite fitting in this venue. South Australian food and wine was enjoyed by the guests courtesy of Epicure Catering. The welcome address to [...]

Industry comment by Darren irvine “TOD fees” or “Contractor Supervisor Charges” were a subject brought up in the “AV Unravelled” session at the MEA National Conference, held in Brisbane. What are TOD fees? Are they necessary? Can you avoid them? Many hotels now charge a fee when a conference organiser brings in an Audio Visual [...]

By Jaid Hulsbosch, Director, Hulsbosch Communication By Design. Think of place you’d like to visit for business or a holiday. Chances are it is already a well recognised brand destination. The brand of a town or country is important whether you are a struggling regional city or a developed and advanced community. Prosperous and successful [...]

This is the fourth Sydney Festival First Night and so having missed the other three I thought I had better take it all in. Rocked into the city late afternoon so I could do a tour of all the venues, the first thing that grabbed my attention was just how many road closures were going [...]

It is now six weeks since the Delhi Commonwealth Games Closing Ceremony.  The Opening and Closing Ceremonies were a spectacular success due in large part to the technical expertise of many international suppliers. However those suppliers are still not only awaiting final payment but hundreds of thousand of dollars worth of their equipment is still [...]

commentary by Trevor Connell Despite Channel 10’s best efforts to ruin a good show, the CWG Delhi Opening Ceremony was just wonderful to watch. I was particularly impressed by the apparent simplicity of the whole production.  The obvious technology was restricted to the aerostat and the projections thereon. The three most striking effects to this [...]

The Sydney media was abuzz last weekend as NSW Opposition leader Barry O’Farrell committed to extend the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre when they win government next year. This is certainly a commitment that would be welcomed by the convention and exhibition industry. As for the Entertainment Centre – wherever a new Centre is built [...]

Events NSW has been very busy promoting Sydney and has picked up an award in the International Festival & Events Association (IFEA) World Festival & Event City Award. The award judges considered the submission from Sydney as the best in the category of Population Level over 1 Million. There is no mention on the website [...]

Sporting events on the other side of the world play havoc with Australian’s sleep patterns – Soccer World Cup, Wimbledon and then the Tour de France. The TDF is definitely my favourite, and it got me thinking about the possibility of something similar in Australia.  The Tour Down Under I have witnessed, spending a day [...]

The co-location of RSVP and ABEE in Sydney seemed to work exceptionally well this year with a much freer flow between the exhibitions while both still held onto their separate identities. The biggest challenge for these exhibitions has been how to deal with live entertainment and that challenge has been met.  The ABEE entertainment was [...]

I hate booking furniture for expos! I’ve just completed a booking where the cost of the furniture looked like it would be $329.  Well it isn’t actually.  There are addons -  for “cartage & placement, damage waiver and then GST”  bringing the total to $456 which is around 50% more than the stated price – [...]

Last week I was in Adelaide and took the opportunity to catch a show at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival.  That show was Cabaret Whore, a one woman show featuring Sarah-Louise Young – a very funny and clever performance. Following that show I got to the Festival Bar to catch the final appearance of Mark Nadler [...]

Giving a presentation to the Business Events Sydney Ambassadors dinner recently futurist Morris Miselowski was showing off his new iPad and predicted that in the not too distant future the cost of similar devices would be so low that they will be included in conference satchels. So just ponder the possibilities of what you could [...]

Meri Took is renowned for straight talking and at the RSVP Melbourne ISES breakfast he had a bit to say on sponsorship. Now Meri is someone who totally gets the value of sponsorship and has been a great supporter of RSVP right from the outset.  This year for Melbourne his company, Staging Rentals, supplied the [...]

Sometimes it can be quite hard for an ex lighting designer to watch a show.  I was quite impressed with the lighting rigs installed on the various stages at the National Folk Festival.  I was less impressed with the operation of the lights for a number of the shows. Some young operators seem to think [...]

Last night’s AIME welcome party was a mixed bag The venue was great – utilising old/unusual buildings for events is always a great idea and the public transport goods shed on Collins St (extended) is just great for events. Plenty of space and a historic aspect to it as well. The food by Atlantic Group [...]

Hi there Trev I am over in a place called Al Khobar in Saudi Arabia   – thought you might like this photo of the Sydney Bridge picnic  event that made front page here in the Arabic press. They did a great job  – so good to see an event that is creative, whimsical and shows [...]

The ISES Sydney chapter has a new management committee and they were determined to hit the ground running as they took over the reins last month. During the presidential handover at the RSVP breakfast incoming chapter president Jeremy Garling promoted the next ISES connect as one that would feature a stunning announcement regarding the future [...]

RSVP and the Australian Business Events Expo (nee Sydney On Sale) have made their co-location debut. So did it work?The overall feedback appears to be a very resounding yes! The two shows managed to maintain a different look and feel with RSVP really buzzing on both days while exhibitors in ABEE reported that the quality [...]

If it weren’t raining it would have been much quicker to walk from SCEC to the RSVP party at GPO in the Sydney CBD. Because of the time of day (i.e. traffic) and Sydney’s one-way streets the buses travelled from SCEC up to the Entertainment Centre then down Hickson Rd to the Harbour Bridge, then [...]

Over the years I’ve seen lots of hypothetical seminars on the subject of pitching for a job. This week I watched one of the best I’ve ever seen.The opening session of the RSVP Event Talks in Melbourne was entitled Life’s A Pitch. This was a real life pitch to be delivered by three leading event [...]

RSVP Melbourne is over for another year and although a bit flat most exhibitors seemed satisfied with the response considering this event has been staged in the Year of Austerity. Interesting to note how most of the bigger players have scaled down the size of their stands this year and more interesting was the absence [...]

I’m intrigued by awards and the process of working out who wins what. Film and book awards are pretty straight forward – the judges get to view or read the entries and base their judgment on what they observe first hand. This also applies to sports, singing, dancing, etc. Even hairdressing and other esoteric pursuits [...]

In 2000 I reviewed the Sydney Cabaret Convention and had this to say about David Campbell “David Campbell is young, talented, charming and gorgeous and has just returned to Australia after a meteoric career in the USA, where he toured nationally and performed at all the major cabaret venues in New York. He has also [...]

Recently Sofitel Brisbane sent out a letter to AV suppliers advising that they would start charging them $75 per hour to cover the costs of electricity, loading dock, escalators etc. This got the Brisbane ISES chapter fired up and they sent out a media release decrying the action. The Sofitel have not indicated whether or [...]

The long awaited new Melbourne Convention Centre has opened the doors. It would be most usual for such an occasion to be marked by a spectacular opening ceremony – and even fireworks. But no, as 2009 has been declared the Year of Austerity it was marked by a lunch. For the owners – the Victorian [...]

What an excellent night. The Adelaide conference committee went all out to ensure we had a great conference this year and they topped that off with an excellent awards night. Following his very vocal criticism of last year’s awards presentations Meri Took was invited to produce this year’s event. Meri has produced a great number [...]

Adelaide turned on great variety in the weather department during the conference. The weather for the outdoor party at Adelaide Showground was rather chill and then the rain came right on cue as the event wound up. Unfortunately the event was designed for summer and this was not a summers night. The event was spread [...]

The MEA annual conference curtain raiser event for accredited members was held at Penfolds Magill Estate on the outskirts of Adelaide where the suburbs meet the hills. Exploring the cellars and drooling over huge vats of Grange was a great experience. The estate was established in 1845 and although the vast area of plantings has [...]

The biggest television event of the year took over our screens on Friday night and the Beijing opening ceremony was pretty much as we expected. We were expecting masses of performers and we got 15,000 of them. We were expecting history, and we got 5,000 years of it. We were expecting fireworks, and we got [...]

So now the Staging Connections owned ETF is in turn the proud owner of both RSVP (Sydney and Melbourne) and the Australian Events Expo. RSVP Sydney and AEE will be run separately this year (AEE in May and RSVP in July) but what of the future? There is some industry speculation that one or the [...]

The O’Neill report has certainly stirred up things in Sydney regards exhibition space in that city. The basic problem is that SCEC is constrained on all sides regarding expansion without resorting to some desperate measures. One of those measures being considered is the redevelopment of the Entertainment centre site while Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore [...]

If you couldn’t answer that question then just how well do you think Sydney’s hosting of the event will benefit the city over the next three years. Remember how in the lead up we were promised that the inconvenience would be worth it because of the exposure Sydney would receive in the world of business [...]

It is common practise for national and international conferences (whether corporate or government) to include a Welcome to Country by representatives of the local indigenous mob, so one would expect that an important meeting like APEC would include such a welcome. But no! Despite all the posturing by the Howard government over intervention into indigenous [...]

Some years ago I was photographing a demonstration in Sydney. I cut through some back streets to get to the head of the demo and was surprised to come across a number of buses packed with police with riot gear at the ready. It was quite a hot day and the buses were not air [...]

Spotted this article by Jennifer Whaite in the Heckler section of the SMH. Any one else have similar bureaucratic experience? Once upon a time we used to have a Christmas street party. We have an ideal street for it: long enough so we don’t know the people from the other end of the street; small [...]

These leggy lampshades do keep popping up don’t they? The Australian Events Expo party (right) and John Symonds 60th Birthday (below)

The last few weeks have been rather busy with conferences and trade shows for the events industry and next year it will be insane! This year it started comfortably enough with AIME (back to the regular slot in February), Brisbane’s Event ConneQion (it’s not a typo, remember, to Queenslanders XXXX spells beer) in March followed [...]

RSVP’s Cory Watson has developed a reputation for producing edgy parties. This year the RSVP Party After Dark went retro with sex the dominant theme – and that theme oozed from every pore of the labyrinthine venue. Home is one of Sydney’s best-known nightclubs and is just a short walk from the expo venue at [...]

I’m in Melbourne for the ISES REC and we have just enjoyed the welcome party at the legendary Princess Theatre. Even for someone who has the theatre background that I have it was quite a thrill to be taken into the circle to have a look at the set-up for Phantom of the Opera. Our [...]

The major event for Sydney next year will be World Youth Day featuring the Pope. And a major spat has erupted over the choice of venue. Randwick Racecourse has been the traditional venue for Papal visits in the past but with what is involved these days in presentation, staging and security organisers need control of [...]

The editor of Staging Connections newsletter – Showtimes – has sense of humour. Their latest edition includes this little gem… It’s a Small World It’s Easy To Have A Scene Change. But When You’re Planning Your Event – Wouldn’t You Prefer Some Inspiration? Pristine sandy beaches lapped by turquoise water. World Heritage listed National Parks [...]

John O’Neill has finally been named by Premier Dilemma to head the NSW Major Events organisation and the Melbourne media has gone into meltdown claiming that he will be targeting Melbourne’s iconic events. This quote from The Age… “Victoria’s Formula One and motorcycle grands prix and the Australian Open tennis are in the sights of [...]