Yesterday I attended the Interfaith Dialogue organised by the Law Dept of the Australian National University as part of the tour by the Dali Lama. A few things that struck me. The presentation attracted over 4000 attendees to the AIS arena – pretty standard for an ANU Law lecture quipped the instigator of the the [...]

Back in the 80’s I ran a small production company and went on the road with a particular dinner theatre show. The producer of the show went bust and I finished up not getting paid – I dumped a couple of grand. That producer was Kerry Jewel and he is back in the news this [...]

In a very cheeky move Hobart’s new AV company Scene Change managed to attract plenty of attention at the MEA conference. First up they postered vantage points such as bridges along the route from the airport to the city and they had more posters around the CBD area that the conference was being held in. [...]

This year’s Meetings & Events Industry conference in Hobart was well received and we have many of the delegates gracing our social pages along with a full coverage of the industry awards. One sour note was the standard of production for the plenary sessions in the Concert Hall. The sound was patchy as was the [...]

This year I attended my 10th Meetings & Events Industry conference. A number of those conferences have been attended by Federal Tourism ministers. Jackie Kelly won the seat of Lindsay from Labor in 1996 and was rewarded by John Howard with the Sport and Tourism portfolio. Kelly had represented Australia in rowing and is a [...]

What’s in a name? Or more to the point, what’s in a web address? Sydney on Sale has now become the Australian Events Expo and when those words are run together in a lowercase web address it is just too easy to read it as australian event sexpo. Now I know the organisers are looking [...]

by Jon Smith – Creative Services Manager – Staging Connections Melbourne There has been a fair amount of media surrounding Staging Connections over the last twelve months. While I can understand that a company as large as ours is always going to be a talking point I am somewhat amazed by some of the things [...]

The media told the fans that bans would apply to the Aussie flag at Big Day Out and the Mexican Wave at the cricket. However the flag was never to be banned at BDO as the organisers stated “We are not banning the Australian flag but are simply discouraging its use for anti-social purposes at [...]

In 2000 protestors caused disruption to the leisurely pace of Melbourne when they blockaded Crown Casino, the venue for the World Economic Forum. Then in August last year protestors once again caused disruption to Sydney’s Circular Quay precinct during the Forbes Conference. In both these instances considerable areas of each CBD were “locked down” by [...]

Recently I had my first close quarters experience with a band using in-ear foldback, and it was very disconcerting. The band was playing a corporate event at SCEC’s Bayside Grand Hall, the exhibition and function space under the main convention hall at Sydney’s Darling Harbour. The FOH sound system in the hall has been “upgraded” [...]

The second Sydney RSVP has created quite a buzz, with people I’ve been talking to this week saying they are very busy just trying to get through their follow-ups. A number of industry old hands were likening the event to Sydney Destination One – the precursor of Sydney on Sale (the first Destination One was [...]

Visited Melbourne this week and took in some of the Commonwealth Games preparations – here are some observations. The Opening Ceremony Andrew Walsh is the artistic director for the Opening Ceremony on behalf of Jack Moreton Worldwide. People in the Melbourne event industry are confident that Andrew will produce a fitting spectacular. Andrew has rejected [...]

It is now a week since Katrina ripped apart one of my favourite cities in the US.  I have only spent a week in New Orleans, but I enjoyed it thoroughly when I attended The Special Event tradeshow in January 2001.  So here are a few random thoughts on the current situation based on my experience of [...]

Did anyone else notice the attitudinal shift on the SCEC loading dock recently? After waiting in the queue to get into the dock it was such a delight to be greeted by helpful security, who could also smile. No longer the surly Neanderthals who have dominated this patch of concrete for the past 15 years. [...]

Sydney’s latest trade show premiered last week at Wharf 8.Anyone in the industry who is Sydney based could hardly have missed the PR blitz that proceeded RSVP.The trade show focussed on event management, production and services. Exhibitors included caterers, florists, entertainment, technical services, staging and speciality venues.The venue lent itself to the event quite nicely [...]

Over the past decade we have seen an explosion in the number of event management courses available around Australia. This had led to many discussions within the industry regarding the worth of such courses. At ASE we receive many requests asking for recommendations regarding courses along with the inevitable “how do I get into the [...]