Melbourne airport passenger delays

What is it with Melbourne airport security.
Qantas appear to have lifted their game with processing passengers checking in but then there is an unacceptable wait in another queue to go through the security checking system.
Returning from AIME on Wednesday I experienced a wait of around 15 mins to get through

AIME 2010 welcome party

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 was excellent - plenty of it and plenty of variety.

The entertainment was the big letdown - it was mostly youngsters doing hip-hop dancing - so last century! It was also too loud. The main focus of these events is meant to be on networking and while many persisted it was oftentimes too hard - so people just moved as far from from the stage as they could so they could converse.

Last year's event at the Victoria Markets was in a very similar venue to this year's - so unfortunately that detracted from the spontaneity of the choice of venue for this year. But that would not have mattered if the entertainment had been chosen more carefully to suit the event.

The benchmark for AIME welcome functions was set 2 years ago when Jon Smith produced the event at Atlantic Group's then new venue at Central Pier.

the best of the entertainment featured some very talented and acrobatic drummers

more pix from the welcome reception

Vale - William May - founder of No 12

Entertainment Icon Dies - SSO 5th Jan

William H. “Billy” May, world-renowned entertainment producer, director and composer, died on New Year’s Eve at St Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. May’s death follows a recent illness.

He created Melbourne’s iconic special events centre in an 1890s warehouse in Kensington, which became one of Melbourne’s top special events venues. It was known as No12.

William May, dinosaur creator, dies - The Age 6th Jan

WILLIAM H. ''Billy'' May, the theatrical producer who created the Walking with Dinosaurs arena show, died in St Vincent's Hospital on New Year's Eve, aged 56, due to complications from pneumonia.

A showman who trained at the New York High School of Performing Arts, May moved to Australia in 1972 at the age of 19 to be with his life partner, producer Malcolm Cooke. Together, the two men worked on more than 40 productions in Australia, London and New York, including the Arts Centre's 2002 production of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, a 1983 Broadway musical about Marilyn Monroe (Marilyn - a Fable) and a 1997 West End musical, Always, about the love affair between Edward VII and Wallis Simpson.

A tribute to the life of Michael Milburn from the Australian Event Industry

Michael Milburn passed away on 3rd of December 2009 following an extended illness.

Michael spent over two decades in the restaurant, catering, venue and event management industry and was highly regarded for his innovation and involvement.

In 1990 Michael joined Epicure Catering as Executive Manager Brand & Marketing Development. He soon took the business to a pre-eminent position in the off-site catering industry.

As part of his commitment to the industry Michael served as board member of Restaurant & Catering Victoria and ensured the business’ continuing involvement in industry associations including the Melbourne Convention + Visitors Bureau (MCVB), Meetings Events Australia (MEA) and the International Special Events Society (ISES)

Michael was a driver of innovation in the catering industry especially in promoting the use of seasonal and as far as possible, locally grown produce and then ensuring that food wastage could be minimised by entering into an agreement with Second Bite to assist those in our community who are less well off than ourselves.

The Green table imitative was launched in Australia in October 2008 by Restaurant & Catering Australia. In conjunction with the City of Melbourne and Restaurant & Catering Victoria, Epicure at the Melbourne Town Hall was granted accreditation as a certified Green Table Australia Business.

ISES Sydney goes for gold - but just what is "The Gold Standard"?

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 development of the Sydney Chapter.

The August ISES connect proved to be extremly popular, particularly as it featured the creative brains behind the recent hugly successful Vivid Sydney (not to be confused with Canberra's Vivid National Photography festival, also hugly successful by the way) and of course members were there to hear Jeremy's announcement.

So with much fanfare chapter president Jeremy unveiled The Gold Standard.

Well this got quite a bit of discussion going among those present - would this be a new form of accreditation for event managers - along the lines of a Gold Licence caterer? who would administer such an accreditation system? why just Sydney? how about the rest of Australia?
MEA have an excellent system for Accredited Meetings Manager (AMM) so why not something similar for ISES.

We were advised that all our questions would be answered in a media release to come out the following day the following day - and here it is.

But hello - did we miss something?

So first up let's consult wikipedia - "The Gold Standard is a monetary system in which a region's common medium of exchange are paper notes that are normally freely convertible into pre-set, fixed quantities of gold". Nope don't think that's it!

So what about just plain standard?

The OED provides eight meanings for the noun.
1 a level of quality or attainment. 2 a required or agreed level of quality or attainment. 3 something used as a measure, norm, or model in comparative evaluations. 4 (standards) principles of honourable, decent behaviour. 5 a military or ceremonial flag. 6 an upright water or gas pipe. 7 a tree that grows on an erect stem of full height. 8 a shrub grafted on an erect stem and trained in tree form.

So back to the media release:

The Standard focuses of three main principals:

Creative: ISES people represent the highest echelon of creativity in events. Event specialists, they continually challenge the boundaries of what is possible in event concepts, quality, experience and communicating messages to our audiences.

International: We are the conduit to the international group – the largest association of event professionals in the world. We draw on the experience of our globally diverse colleagues and keep abreast of the latest trends, technologies and developments.

Connecting: To be connected is to be ‘in the know, to be ahead of trends and to lead your industry’. We connect with each other, our clients and the latest ideas to continually deliver innovative and well executed solutions.

and then: The ISES Gold Standard is a symbol that informs clients and peers that they are working with someone who is committed to providing the highest quality of service and ethics

Well that fits with OED meanings 1 to 4 and maybe versions 6, 7 and 8 don't apply at all.

But what about OED meaning number 5? - a ceremonial flag - like a banner perhaps? - or a symbol maybe?

But yes, there it is after all "The ISES Gold Standard is a symbol" - just like a ceremonial flag - gold in colour.

I'm glad we cleared that up.

RSVP and ABEE at SCEC

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 of visitors was just what they wanted.

While both shows had space to spare they each managed to sell more floorspace than they could in Melbourne.
Interestingly the attendance figures for RSVP were considerably greater than for ABEE. I assume this meant that more visitors came in via the RSVP entrance than via ABEE and it is interesting to see just what crossover ensued (I did note that there were ETF staff clicking counters at the crossover entrances). see ETF media release

Two exhibitors stood out in RSVP. Staging Rentals who once again sponsored The Hub which was built with their AllyStage and Decorative Exhibitions (the new expo stand division of Decorative Events) who custom built nearly 30 stands in RSVP and ABEE.

What's in a name? Most people are pronouncing the name of the former Sydney On Sale as Abby - no! it is A - B - E - E (Gab will reinforce that)

One of the notable exceptions on the exhibition floor was Staging Connections who were absent from both Sydney shows and RSVP Melbourne. Considering that SC owns ETF who in turn own RSVP and ABEE one would have expected them to be there with bells on. But they are now promoting a 10% + 10% discount offer so I guess that works better for them than promoting themselves through their own trade shows.

RSVP Sydney Party After Dark

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 finally twisted around to Pitt St to get to Martin Place – a distance of around 6 Km. The walking distance is 1.7 Km

One of the issues is that private buses are not allowed to park in George St – hence they have to go all around the town to get into Pitt St

The GPO bar is located in the basement of the old Sydney GPO with a large bar area and the smaller nightclub style Crystal Room. Guests were certainly ready for a drink following the scenic bus tour to the venue.

GPO served their signature food – a sushi train and pizza.

Plenty of networking opportunities were presented as the guests mingled then entertainment by the excellent Velvet Set – very impressed by a group of young musicians who can deliver the Miles Davis classic “Kind of Blue”.

Following a floorshow by The IT Girls featuring Natalie Conway (very Cabaret and Chicago) it was off to the Crystal Room for the after party – very loud and raucous.

RSVP Melbourne stages a Mini seminair with bite

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 producers for a real product for a real client.

It opened with Georgia Hobart - Events and CRM manager for MINI who went through the history of the marketing strategy that has been used to promote MINI outside the Motor Show. Essentially they took the product out of the Motor Show and created experiential events to attract buyers - I won't go into all that but essentially it has been a very successful strategy.

Hobart then detailed the target demographic, desired outcomes, budget, etc to the three contestants, who until now had no idea what the brief would be.

Then contestants had 15 mins to brainstorm with their teams and to come back to make the pitch.

The teams were Peter Jones Special Events, Jack Morton Worldwide and Great Southern E-vents.

During the 15 min brainstorming session MC Nic Yates kept the interest up for the audience by quizzing Georgia Hobart on the marketing of MINI and taking questions from the audience.

Then came the pitch - each team leader had 5 mins each to put their case and they were then voted on by the audience using responders.

Hobart was obviously impressed by each of the pitches and you could tell that she now has an extended pool of event producers to call on for future events.

So what were the pitches - here are just some highlights...

Peter Jones' started with cars on a platform at Southern Cross station that then headed off down Collins street which has been closed for the event (on a business day). Teams of dealers then had to "kidnap" potential buyers and take them to a location where they could experience the Mini first hand.

Jeremy Garling from GSE had potential buyers taken to an indoor test track in the shape of the Union Jack - this was in acknowledgement of the 50th anniversary of the launch of the original Mini. The main selling points would reflect the attraction of the original Mini - fuel efficient, compact, etc.

The pitch from Katie Chatfield of JMW was based on street art and very funky feel.

Everyone involved got their money's worth out of this session.

Nic Yates, Jeremy Garling, Georgia Hobart, Katie Chatfield and Peter Jones

RSVP Melbourne down on last year

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 of some of the bigger players from previous years - especially Staging Connections - not a great vote of confidence from a division of the company that actually owns the show. (RSVP is owned by ETF which in turn is owned by Staging Connections Group)
And I don't see Staging Connections in the exhibitor list for Sydney RSVP either.

The exhibition this year appeared to be at about 80% occupancy of floor space compared to last year.

So in a couple of weeks time we will see how the co-location of RSVP goes with the Australian Business Events Expo. It would appear that both shows still have floor space available.

The real test for the organisers will be how well they can attract quality buyers - and lots of them.

See you there anyhow

Industry Awards - are they worth it?

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 are judged by people who actually see the creations.

However in our industry awards are presented for the production of conferences and events of all sorts and in a huge variety of locations. Those hoping for an award put in a submission to a panel of judges who are most unlikely to have observed any of the process of the production of the nominated event.

People are also nominated (or nominate themselves) for best sales, marketing, technical, operations, etc person of the year and for the most part the judges would have know idea who they are or how accurate their submission actually is.

Then there are awards for various venues – at least venues get visited by more people.

Now while I appreciate that judging panels for the various industry awards do the best they can based on the information before them, surely, in the end it comes down to who can produce the most convincing awards submission.

I’m not suggesting that there is a better way – just that the system is flawed.

The most established is the Australian Meetings and Event Industry Awards run by MEA and they are only open to members – but let’s face it the membership fee could just count as part of your submission costs.

ISES members are encouraged to enter into the Esprit Awards conducted by the international office, and a number of Australians have been successful in this competition.

MICE.net run another competition - the e-awards - that is open to all comers no matter what association they may or may not belong to and according to their latest bulletin they have increased entries over last year.

So along comes the Australian Event Awards to fill a void that no one knew was there.
MEA and ISES have released a joint statement stating in part “Awards programs that are run for industry by industry have established a high standard of submission guidelines and judging process that ensures winners are true industry leaders and professionals in their field.”

The Australian Event Awards team struck back with a media release stating “The 23 Award Categories are the only opportunity for Australian events, event organisers, products and services to be acknowledged across the entire industry regardless of event type, size or association membership.”

The Australian Event Awards appear to follow the commercial model of the many business award programs around such as the Small Business Champion Awards run by Precedent Productions – even their award logos have a similar feel.

Incidentally the entry fee for the MICE.net e awards is $110, for the Australian Event Awards the fee is $220. The MEA awards entry fee ranges from $120 - $230 depending on the category.

In other award news a winner in the Telstra Business Awards for 2008 is Atlantic Group [v] who won the 2008 National Winner of the Panasonic Australia Medium Business Award. Atlantic are the owners of the very successful specialist event venues at Melbourne’s Central Pier Docklands

I look forward to industry feedback on the subject.

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 starred in a Broadway musical, Stephen Sondheim’s Saturday Night. David will perform with the legendary Barbara Cook at the Sydney Opera House for the Olympic Arts Festival in September.
Suitable for corporate? You bet. But get in quick, this boy is going to be a big star."

Also at that event I remember sitting with some people from Adelaide who were having a very good look at what Sydney had to offer. Then in 2001 they launched the Adelaide Cabaret Festival with great support from the Adelaide Festival Centre.

The Sydney event lost the support of the Sydney City Council and died after the 2003 event.

This year's Adelaide Cabaret Festival was curated by David Campbell.

I was in Adelaide last weekend and took to opportunity to catch a show.

The show I saw was Julia Morris in "Don't you know who I used to be". As she pointed out right from the outset Julia does not do cabaret - she is a stand-up comic. That said the show was still most enjoyable - a slide show with commentary on many misadventures and a couple of songs (almost) to make the show a bit more "cabaret"

After Julia's show we headed to the Piano Bar - a venue that was a lot more bar than piano. The act on this night was Mahalia Barnes (Campbell's half sister) with a fairly large soul band that filled the stage (no piano but Rob Woolf on the Wurlitzer keyboard was great).

In contrast this after show venue was larger than the regular venue used for the SCC - which was Sydney's Lower Town Hall.

The space is very awkward though as it is usually the foyer area to the main venues and I would say on 25% of the audience would get a good view of the stage. The biggest issue however was the audio - it sounded great in the area in front of the stage but off to either side the sound did not reach which meant that the punters seated there kept talking and anyone (me) who wanted to hear was hard pressed to do so. A few delay stacks would have helped immensely.

And the former Tin Lid? Great voice, nice stage presence, good band - as I said just a shame we couldn't appreciate it.

And sometime soon I'll spend a week in Adelaide to take in a whole cabaret festival.

Bump-in fees for AV companies

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 not the fee will also apply to other users of the facilities such as staging and decorating companies, entertainers (bands for instance), etc. But we have put the question to them and will post that when we get the reply.

It is interesting to note that AVPartners have recently become the in-house AV suppliers to the Sofitel. AVPartners is owned by Garry Hackett - the former owner of Staging Connections where he was quite diligent in getting his services ensconced in hotels and other venues and for endeavouring to stitch up exclusivity deals with those venues.

Probably just a coincidence.

Please have your say on this matter.

New Melbourne Convention Centre opens

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 Government; the building consortium (The Plenary Group) and representation of the big end of Melbourne town.

Also in keeping with the YoA the room lighting was fluros - yep the work lights, no attempt to create any sort of ambiance.


The state government held a caucus meeting at the venue before the whole cabinet then joined the lunch. The Premier performed the opening noting that the venue already has 48 international and 190 national conventions, meetings and seminars booked in. In his speech the premier also quipped that the venue would be ideal for a party conference, particularly with the retractable seating, ideal for removing pesky delegates.

One observation that the premier made that I totally agree with is that the new centre has more in common with an arts centre rather than a traditional convention centre. I for one certainly look forward to seeing the a convention opening ceremony staged by the like of Peter Jones - the venue is right, the staging and technical facilities are right - now just move on from the GFC and the Year of Austerity.


The MCECs Food and wine manager Frank Burger oversaw the lunch of Red Hill goats cheese with a roasted baby pear, onion jam, brioche and micro cress, followed by char grilled certified Black Angus rump sourced from Gippsland and Yarra Valley salmon which is cured on-site by MCEC’s own chefs.

Premier John Brumby did a media stop before lunch - he talked about the green cred of the building, the events already booked in, etc. Then the hacks asked about anything else except the new centre. Maybe they were pissed off because they didn't get invited to lunch.

The foyer are is very spacious and flooded with natural light - and is very much like that of an arts centre.

Meetings & Events Industry Awards for 2008

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 of high profile events over the past few decades and this was a no-brainer for a man of his experience.

The event was tightly scripted and with the excellent Toby Travanner MCing the night all went very smoothly and even finished ahead of schedule.


The Adelaide Convention Centre staff showed great technical flair and expertise including projections onto spheres and portrait screens.

Ding Entertainment provided the floorshow in the form of their very tasty "come to the cabaret" production that bookended the conference - their "bandstand" show opened the conference.

Full list of award winners

MEA conference casual dinner at Adelaide Showground

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 out around the event space making it very difficult for any chance to keep warm.

Fortunately though the band really got the guests warmed up and there were some fancy demonstrations on the dancefloor.

Maclaren Vale wineries provided sampling of their products and I’m sure did a good trade with follow up orders. While there was plenty of wines to keep us going the queues for food were totally unacceptable.

The after-party for this event was held a nightclub called Swish On Terrace - certainly did not have the ambiance of the previous night and with no DJ on duty it was left to the guests to pump up the music - much to the chagrin of the manager.

The interaction with a couple of Sydney detectives who happened to be in Adelaide for some reason was interesting to watch.

ASE Out & About for this event

MEA conference welcome reception at Adelaide Town hall

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 delegates was presented by Martin Hamilton-Smith MP, who gave us a very long winded preview of a wonderful plan that he was to announce at a media conference the following day. Riverside West is a plan for an entertainment, sporting and cultural precinct between the River Torrens and North Terrace. However, Mr Hamilton-Smith is the leader of the SA opposition – so unless he can topple the Rann government pretty soon his marvelous plan is nothing more than a pipe dream and quite frankly wasted on the delegates at this event.

The after party was a hoot as delegates cut loose on the dance floor at The Cavern Club - Adelaide's centre of Beatles memorabilia

Social pix from this event are in the ASE social events section

Penfold's Magill Estate

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 gradually been reduced there are still around five hectares of vines and historical buildings.

Our palettes were tantalized by a selection of wines that included the Bin 28 Kalimna Shiraz – often referred to as the poor man’s Grange – well it is made in the same winery.

However the surprise of the night was when I commented on how much a bargain Koonunga Hill Shiraz is. So a bottle was produced and offered to the “wine buffs” among the guests who insisted it was a fine drop and probably worth in excess of $20 per bottle (it can be picked up for around half that)

Sue Pearce is impressed with the Koonunga Hill

Photos from this event

Shock and Awe in Beijing

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 them to excess.
• We were expecting to be wowed and we were not disappointed.

However the opening section (and a number of the other massed sections) looked like it could have been created in CGI. The technology and military precision seemed to drain the human element from the production and it certainly lacked any sense of spontaneity, as it was choreographed to the enth degree.

Indeed the most human moment came when the tops of the moveable type boxes popped open to reveal the smiling human operators inside.

Looking back at the history of Olympics openings one is inclined to make some comparisons. It was in Moscow, 1980 that we first saw what spectacle could be achieved with masses of people arranged in synchronised patterns and we haven’t seen such masses since then.

The influence of Barcelona and Athens was evident as Beijing is another city with a great history to draw on.

We also see the influence of Athens, in terms of the technology and its further development. And I would venture to say that we also saw the influence of Los Angeles in that the music to this opening ceremony was like one continuous film score.

What was also evident on the technical side was that as far as I could see every performer was wearing earphones so they could keep time, and keep to their very complex cues – no messy foldback wedges here. And I would suggest that the entire performance was pre-recorded. I would doubt that we heard very much live sound at all.

There is certainly a lot of talk about the technology involved in this production, well; one expected the technology to be cutting edge and it was certainly evident but it didn’t produce a wow moment to match the incredible technological fleet that was achieved in Athens with the Cycladic head rising out of the arena then splitting into many pieces to float off around the arena.

The technology in Beijing was certainly there when you look for it, but it was primarily there in a supporting role and let's face it that's what theatre is all about.

So what about the WOW moments…

• The drummers – 2008 of them totally in unison – certainly a spectacle
• The young girl flying over the heads of the performers – out-Nickied our Webster.
• The moment when the tops of the movable type modules popped open to reveal all the operators inside. I was watching that quite closely and really thought that it was being done by pneumatics.
• The globe – not so much the globe itself but the performers running around it, some of them upside down.
• The construction of the birdcage inside the birdcage, and the costumes that those performers were wearing with the remote controlled LEDs in them.

The most anticipated wow moment in any opening ceremony since Barcelona is the lighting of the cauldron. Well the Beijing producers certainly pulled a mega-wow moment with this one.

But to me the most memorable moment is probably for all the wrong reasons – it was the moment when the children in the traditional costumes of the tribes of China who bore the Chinese national flag across the arena then handed it to the goosestepping flag party who raised the flag in true fascist style - an absolute reality check and the most jarring moment of the night.

Also interesting to ponder the whole significance of all the eights in the date of the opening. Eight PM on the eight day of the eight month of the year 2008 AD of the Gregorian calendar. So we have an officially atheist country celebrating via a Christian calendar – go figure.

The TV commentary

At least this time round Channel 7 managed to employ commentators who had some idea about what was going on without just referring to prompt sheets. Ric Birch has a history of involvement in previous opening ceremonies, while Sonia Kruger has a background as a performer.

The audio mix was a little surprising. Firstly, it may have been broadcast in HD widescreen, but the audio was only in stereo, one would have expected that with that technological marvel around them that the sound would have been delivered in 5.1

During the commentary Sonia Kruger commented on the deafening sound of the drums coming from the arena but it certainly wasn’t deafening coming through the TV set. In fact, the commentary was much louder than the sound from the arena, which was somewhat flat. Fortunately we lost audio from the commentary for a while and so we could enjoy the sights and sounds without the often unnecessary comments.

I did enjoy Sonia Kruger telling us that the soldiers were playing 1000-year-old drums. Yea right, all 2008 of them, identical too and all with remotely controlled lights in them... I bet Sonia will be picking up a few “genuine” Rolexes while she is over there too.

Now's this is China were talking about, you want 2008 copies of a thousand-year-old drum, no problem, how about a few spares as well.

Channel 7 has reportedly gained some of the highest viewing figures on record. But I bet those viewing figures dropped off considerably once the athletes started parading out. Unfortunately, although the show is supposed to be all about the athletes, the interest wanes considerably once this interminable parade starts and you can bet

Channel 7 had that figured because although they had ad breaks every 15 minutes during the entertainment part of the ceremony they didn't bother once the parade of athletes got under way.

Also intriguing that immediately before the cut to the ad breaks the vision cut to the same footage of the fireworks footprints – I didn’t pick this up properly until I watched my recording of the event. Something odd about that that I just can’t put my finger on.

RSVP and the Australian Events Expo

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 other may be dropped or that they may be merged.

But a further option is emerging – that is to run the two concurrently. RSVP would focus on the party and supplier side while AEE caters for destinations and venues. With the inclusion this year of New Zealand in AEE the latter option is looking more attractive. Indeed there is surprisingly little crossover in the attendance to the two events (around 20%) which just shows that each event has already found its own market.

So now that AIME has become a truly international event maybe AEE will become the Australasian version.

Seems a long way now from the original Sydney Destination One staged in the cargo bay of the OPT at Circular Quay, from which Sydney on Sale grew.

ETF also own the bi-annual trade show for the technology side of our industry, ENTECH. Now just imagine if that show was to also run concurrently, it would make for quite a big industry bash.

By the way, when Julius Grafton owned ENTECH he tried it for one year at Sydney Showground – nearly killed the show, so not much hope of any of these events following the O’Neill suggestion and moving west.

Review into Sydney Convention and Exhibition Space

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 is pushing for development of the airspace over central railway – can just see that being a goer. The current “link” building suffers enough from the rumble of traffic on the overhead roadways and anyone who has worked in the Theatre Royal is aware of the rumble from the trains in the nearby underground.

Then there is the practical suggestion that appropriate trade shows be moved to the Sydney Showground. There are many shows that are quite successfully staged at Homebush Bay including those involving large machinery such as earthmoving and mining along with those aimed at the general populous such as the ABC gardening show.

The most ridiculous response to the report came from Sydney’s Daily Telegraph who put forward the suggestion that a number of major shows would be moved to the Showground – these included Fashion Week (wouldn’t be seen dead west of Balmain); the Motor Show (might just suit the petrol heads out west) and the doozey of them all the Boat Show. The Terror’s journalists didn’t suggest how the Cockle Bay Marina would be duplicated on the Parramatta River (or maybe they were thinking of flooding the brick pit).

Fortunately the exhibition industry gave the report more considered thought, including….

Sydney Welcomes Plan to Expand Convention and Exhibition Space

SCVB Managing Director Jon Hutchison said the report confirmed the urgent need for more convention and exhibition space in Sydney to enable the city to continue to meet strong demand from the international convention sector.

“The recommendations of the O’Neill report recognise the need to expand our city’s meeting facilities in order to ensure Sydney continues to maximise economic returns from the meeting sector and maintains its position as Australia’s premier business events destination.

“We look forward to the NSW Government’s response to the report,” he said.

EEAA statement on future plans for major Sydney exhibition venues

The Exhibition & Event Association of Australasia (EEAA) fully supports any initiative that will contribute to the growth of the industry, such as the expansion of existing exhibition and conference facilities as recommended in the ‘Review into Sydney Convention and Exhibition Space’ report released earlier this week by John O’Neill for the NSW Government.
However, we are concerned at the lack of consultation with local industry representatives and organisations such as ours in preparing this report.

O’Neill Report deeply flawed, say leading exhibition companies

The exhibition organisers, who represent more than 80 per cent of the main business and consumer exhibitions held in NSW, welcomed the broad goals of the report by John O’Neill AO, and agreed with its key conclusion that Sydney requires a substantial increase in exhibition space and improvement of existing premises if the city were to remain competitive.

Speaking on behalf of the group, Matthew Pearce, Managing Director of Diversified Exhibitions Australia, said: “We believe strongly in securing and supporting the long-term future of exhibitions in Sydney and NSW, so we welcome the Iemma Government’s commitment to attracting large-scale events to the area and for initiating this report.

“However, we are all deeply concerned that the O’Neill report’s core assumption – that international events are more valuable and therefore the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre should exclude local events – is fundamentally flawed.”

Indeed – we all look forward to the NSW Government’s response to the report.