It comes with great disappointment that we will not be going ahead with the Australian Events Symposium in 2020. After extensive planning and discussion, we have decided to postpone the Symposium for when events start back up.
“The aim of the events symposium is to teach and innovate new ideas for the industry. As we don’t know how long we will be living without Australian events we would rather plan a bigger and better Events Symposium for when the industry starts making a comeback. Even though we don’t know when that will be, the Symposium will return when the industry does.” said Ian Steigrad, Managing Director of the Australian Event Awards.
Register here for updates in regards to the Events Symposium.
The below speakers presented at the Australian Event Symposium 2019 in Perth.
Events Don’t Just Happen: A Case Study
This Case Study session will look at three major Australian events and how they were pulled together behind the scenes. It will provide insight into how the events have evolved: the challenges encountered navigating multifaceted groups of invested stakeholders; pressure points in managing a growing event; the struggles choreographing a smooth event; how these pro’s overcame catastrophe; the importance of planning and, of course, where do we go next?
Tug and Yacht Ballets Don’t Just Happen – Alastair Lyall
Find out how the Australia Day Council of NSW choreographs 10 yachts, a 45 piece orchestra, 2 flyboarders, 2 tugs, 10 jet skis and an RAAF Hercules to perform Grieg’s Hall of the Mountain King as part of the Australia Day Live concert. The ballet is staged in the water and the air between the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge in front of 65,000 spectators and a live national television audience.
Alastair Lyall is an Event Producer with 14 years experience working with the NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet. DPC manage Australia Day and Anzac Day in Sydney as well as staging sporting celebrations, large-scale projections, state funerals and commemorations. Before DPC, Alastair worked in Canberra, London, the USA and Wollongong on local government, charitable and sporting events.
Events Don’t Just Happen: A Case Study
This Case Study session will look at three major Australian events and how they were pulled together behind the scenes. It will provide insight into how the events have evolved: the challenges encountered navigating multifaceted groups of invested stakeholders; pressure points in managing a growing event; the struggles choreographing a smooth event; how these pro’s overcame catastrophe; the importance of planning and, of course, where do we go next?
Growing, Growing, Are we there yet? – Gabriella Filippi
Over the past 15 years, the Town of Bassendean has presented a NAIDOC Family Fun Day in collaboration with Derbarl Yerrigan Health Service Aboriginal Corporation. This event has grown and grown to become one of the largest NAIDOC week events in Perth.
Gabriella Filippi is an experienced Arts Manager with a demonstrated history of working in local government and performing arts organisations. Currently the Cultural Development Officer at the Town of Bassendean, she has 15 years’ experience coordinating community events in local government, ranging from 500 people to 20 000 people.
Game on! Level UP your next event
Take your event to the next level with gamification. Key to a memorable event is the ability for attendees to engage, to participate, to make connections. Eventium will illustrate how empowering attendees through the use of simple or complex gamification can achieve the outcomes for all stakeholders. Debunking the myth that gamification is just a fun add on to an event.
Skills & Outcomes:
Suzie and Simone Badcock are the founders of Eventium. With over 25 years combined experience in a multitude of the areas in the Events industry, it seemed only fitting to bring this knowledge together to support the industry with powerful event technology solutions.
Our event technology in the form of mobile apps, engagement tools, audience response, attendance tracking, lead retrieval, registration and badge printing solutions has been developed and built here in Australia. As the technology can be applied to a vast array of event formats, our clients are wide ranging from PCOs, Councils, Universities, Large Global Corporations to small start-up Event Organisers and everything in between.
With a reputation built on quality service during all stages of events, Eventium understands what it takes to create a successful event. Having a supportive supplier, we are known as subject matter experts when it comes to all things event tech, working in unison with the event team to develop technology based solutions ensuring conferences run seamlessly, whilst maximising attendees engagement and ensuring a ROI for all stakeholders.
Game on! Level UP your next event
Take your event to the next level with gamification. Key to a memorable event is the ability for attendees to engage, to participate, to make connections. Eventium will illustrate how empowering attendees through the use of simple or complex gamification can achieve the outcomes for all stakeholders. Debunking the myth that gamification is just a fun add on to an event.
Skills & Outcomes:
Suzie and Simone Badcock are the founders of Eventium. With over 25 years combined experience in a multitude of the areas in the Events industry, it seemed only fitting to bring this knowledge together to support the industry with powerful event technology solutions.
Our event technology in the form of mobile apps, engagement tools, audience response, attendance tracking, lead retrieval, registration and badge printing solutions has been developed and built here in Australia. As the technology can be applied to a vast array of event formats, our clients are wide ranging from PCOs, Councils, Universities, Large Global Corporations to small start-up Event Organisers and everything in between.
With a reputation built on quality service during all stages of events, Eventium understands what it takes to create a successful event. Having a supportive supplier, we are known as subject matter experts when it comes to all things event tech, working in unison with the event team to develop technology based solutions ensuring conferences run seamlessly, whilst maximising attendees engagement and ensuring a ROI for all stakeholders.
What a Difference a Decade Makes – David Etherton
10 years is a long time, things change and grow, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. This visionary closing session will take a look at the evolution of the events industry over last decade, the challenges that the industry faced as well as the ones we overcame. In addition to this, David Etherton will cast a glance into the next decade, where the industry is set to be going, opportunities that are presenting themselves now along with ones that could be available in the future.
After studying Economics at UWA David Etherton worked in Tourism for 15 years in Visitor Servicing, Industry Development and Events. David has spent the last decade as Chief Executive Officer of VenuesWest and is responsible for a portfolio of sporting and entertainment venues that is now amongst the best in the country. After starting with four venues valued at $180m, servicing 2 million visitors a year VenuesWest now has a 13 venue portfolio valued at $2.2billion and saw 6 million customers last year with a 92% satisfaction rate. The VenuesWest growth story reached a crescendo in January 2018 with the Fans First Optus Stadium becoming a welcome addition to the portfolio of Fans First venues. 2019 will be remembered by many as the best ever for events in Western Australia with a plethora of World Class Events
Thinking outside the box: Leading Innovation and Change
There is a real opportunity to learn new ways and thinking and possibly have your perceptions changed. Innovation is coming from everywhere. Almost anyone can be an entrepreneur. We will need to be more creative and innovative than ever before, thinking “outside the box” and using techniques to stimulate creativity to overcome challenges, build new concepts and reinvent existing ideas to keep events and your work ahead of the game.
Skills & Outcomes:
Tania de Jong AM is a trail-blazing Australian soprano, award-winning social entrepreneur, creative innovation catalyst, spiritual journey woman, storyteller and global speaker. Tania is one of Australia’s most successful female entrepreneurs and innovators developing 5 businesses and 3 charities over the past 3 decades including Creative Universe, Creativity Australia and With One Voice, Creative Innovation Global, Mind Medicine Australia, Dimension5, MTA Entertainment & Events, Pot-Pourri and The Song Room.
She works across the public, private, creative and community sectors. Tania speaks and sings around the world as a soloist and with her group Pot-Pourri releasing ten albums. She is Founder and Executive Producer of future-shaping events series, Creative Innovation Global. She was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in June 2008 and named one of the 100 Women of Influence and the 100 Australian Most Influential Entrepreneurs in 2018.
Relight your Fire
Anyone can throw together an event, but it’s the creativity and difference that will make yours stand out from the rest. Creativity isn’t just about the design and look and feel, it delves right back to how you can get creative with your budgets, marketing, programming and management of the event.
Skills & Outcomes:
Creative director, producer and consultant with more than 30 years experience in festivals and large-scale event direction. Known for her innovation, creativity, inclusiveness, financial effectiveness and strategic direction, Gill delivers memorable experiences that increase visitation and build profile for destinations through creative activity.
Her company, Gill Minervini Creative, provides festival and event direction, creative and strategic advice to a range of clients including the Adelaide Festival, Museum of Old & New Art (MONA), Barangaroo Delivery Authority, Rugby League World Cup, Transport for NSW, City of Melbourne, Arts NSW, Events and Tourism Tasmania.
Formerly Creative Director/ Producer for City of Sydney Events, Gill directed the City’s major event program, including Chinese New Year Festival – the largest celebration of the lunar new year outside of China; Art & About Sydney – an international public art festival; and Sydney’s Christmas Celebrations, attracting a combined annual audience of more than two million people.
Project Management: Practical advice from creative people
The key to a successful and growing event starts in the foundations of the Project. It then develops in the People and inspires Passion resulting in Success. Getting these three right from the beginning is essential and this session will help you get there.
Skills & Outcomes:
Hailey Mason and Chris Toward are Directors of Project Nine Event Group consisting of Sorted Events and Wingman Marketing, 2018 winner of small event company. Between them they have over 40 year’s experience in the Events industry in Australia and the UK. Both of them have managed International projects in-house and for clients such as Reebok, Red Bull, Vans, Casio, Mito Foundation, Rabobank and others.
Project Management: Practical advice from creative people
The key to a successful and growing event starts in the foundations of the Project. It then develops in the People and inspires Passion resulting in Success. Getting these three right from the beginning is essential and this session will help you get there.
Skills & Outcomes:
Hailey Mason and Chris Toward are Directors of Project Nine Event Group consisting of Sorted Events and Wingman Marketing, 2018 winner of small event company. Between them they have over 40 year’s experience in the Events industry in Australia and the UK. Both of them have managed International projects in-house and for clients such as Reebok, Red Bull, Vans, Casio, Mito Foundation, Rabobank and others.
About the “Ask the Experts” Facilitator – Leigh Farnell
For the past 30 years Leigh Farnell has coached, trained, facilitated and consulted with over 300 clients throughout Australia, New Zealand, and the Asia Pacific on:
He has helped clients generate an additional $300 million in profits including Telstra, Choice Hotels, Channel Nine/WINTV, Community Newspaper Group, The West Australian Newspaper Group, BSI – British Standards Institution, Century 21, Metcash-IGA, Time Conti, The Property Gallery, Amcom, Optus, BHP Billiton, Australia Post, the Health Department of WA, Western Power, Verve Energy, Deutsche Bank, BankWest, Nicheliving Property Group, Blackburne Property Group, ANZ Bank, National Australia Bank, Financial Planners Association of Australia, Bain and Co, TAFE NSW, McDonalds, Lockwood Security Products, Mobitel Sri Lanka, Aktel Bangladesh, Dymocks Books, Woodhouse Timber, Edge VL, Stirling Capital, Wesbeam and hundreds of other large and small organisations.
Ask the Experts – WA’s Best of the Best
An opportunity to hear from leaders in the Australian event industry from a varied range of fields. A panel discussion lead by specialist facilitator Leigh Farnell followed by an opportunity to ask questions of the panel.
Panel Inclusions:
With a background in exclusive International VIP events, Special Event Production and brand activations, Abbie’s ability to develop and deliver an incredibly unique and seamless event is second to none. An events specialist with more than 15 years experience, she has honed her skills across an extensive range of events both within Australia and Internationally.
Abbie is passionate about creating engaging live experiences for brands that wish to communicate to audiences in a creative way. Her ability to develop creative ideas along with skills in managing the multi-faceted production and logistical elements of large-scale events make her a well-rounded and highly skilled events professional.
Abbie has spent time living in China as well as the East Coast of Australia and now has a base in wonderful Western Australia with her husband, two small children, and an incredibly busy events calendar!
Ask the Experts – WA’s Best of the Best
An opportunity to hear from leaders in the Australian event industry from a varied range of fields. A panel discussion lead by specialist facilitator Leigh Farnell followed by an opportunity to ask questions of the panel.
Panel Inclusions:
Dave Green is the MD of award-winning agency DG global and founder, recently winning Australian Event Awards Event Management company of the year and NSW Event of The Year for Qatar Airways launch Sydney.
Passionate & creative is best to describe Green with 1000s of events produced in the Asia Pacific region, Green excels and delivers inspiring and rewarding event experiences. over 30 years in the events game from pop to rock to theatre to sport spectacular and corporate events including charity he is the go to guy with an impeccable team of visionaries!
Ask the Experts – WA’s Best of the Best
An opportunity to hear from leaders in the Australian event industry from a varied range of fields. A panel discussion lead by specialist facilitator Leigh Farnell followed by an opportunity to ask questions of the panel.
Panel Inclusions:
Michael was appointed the director of events and conferences at Crown Perth in 2002. He commenced his career with Starwood Corporation in 1981 at the Sheraton Perth and progressed through the Sheraton Management system until he was appointed the director of catering and conventions. As director of events and conferences at Crown Perth Michael has the opportunity to preside over and direct its convention facilities and specialize in the events and convention market.
Ask the Experts – WA’s Best of the Best
An opportunity to hear from leaders in the Australian event industry from a varied range of fields. A panel discussion lead by specialist facilitator Leigh Farnell followed by an opportunity to ask questions of the panel.
Panel Inclusions:
Greg Sleigh is a twenty year veteran of the Australian Event & Venue industry, currently located in Perth as Optus Stadium’s General Manager, Commercial.
In his role he is responsible for the commercialisation of the ‘Most Beautiful Stadium in the World’, managing the portfolios of Event Procurement, Sales, Marketing, Membership and Partnerships.
His work in touring of European Football teams was recognised at the 2016 Australian Event Awards, with the 2015 Tour by Chelsea awarded the ‘National Event of the Year’ and the Tottenham Tour receiving awards for ‘Tourism Event of the Year’ and ‘Best Achievement in Marketing & Communications.’
Bring your Event to Life with AR and VR
Augmented reality and virtual reality, although not brand new technology, is rapidly developing to take on the events industry. Explore the differences between augmented and virtual reality, how you can use them from the outset in your marketing of the event, how venues can adopt the technology to help organisers make venue decisions and how you and the organiser can integrate with this technology to fast-track and virtually ‘see’ your event space designed – what’s working, what’s not before you actually get in the room. Discover the opportunities exhibitors can engage in by providing an ‘experience’ of their product or service, enabling attendees to walk around the product, get a feel for it and how it works / looks / what it can do in 3D. It’s an opportunity to take your event beyond the standard and provide a unique experience to your attendees.
Saxon is one of Australia’s top Real-Time Artists and a leading Experience Director for AR & VR. With a background in computer games, Saxon was one of the first in Australia to work in Mixed Reality. He designs striking and optimum user experiences in everything from Mobile AR to Virtual Reality. Saxon’s expertise lays in Mixed Reality User Experience Design and Level Design/ World building. User Experience is an art form – the success of each experience will be judged on the user journey. Was it intuitive? Was it easy to navigate? Was it engaging? Saxon’s skill is ensuring the answer is a resounding ‘Yes’ to all of those questions.
Beyond the Sell Out
Single-mindedly looking to sell out a festival or event with digital advertising is short sighted. The successful events of the future need to think beyond the sell out, and understand their full customer journey. The forward-thinking event organiser shouldn’t just measure success by ticket numbers, but consider overall growth, brand building and how they’ve crafted a genuine point-of-difference in a crowded market place. This session by Bolster’s founder and tech director Alex Zaccaria will look at how events can future proof themselves by increasing brand awareness, improving brand sentiment, building loyalty and encouraging advocacy through digital.
Skills & Outcomes:
Alex helms Australia’s leading music and entertainment specialist digital agency Bolster, alongside fraternal co-director Anthony. His success is born from an intrinsic understanding of data and the ability to identify meaningful relationships and opportunities within.
Named by B&T as one of 2017’s 30 Under 30 Entrepreneurs, Alex is also the founder of socially-geared app Linktree and recently launched content platform LNWY.CO which is widely regarded for its innovative take on publishing.
Bolster works across Digital, Creative & Content strategy for clients such as Splendour In The Grass, Laneway Festival, Groovin The Moo, Falls Festival, Beyond The Valley, Chugg Entertainment, Warner Music, Fairfax Events, GABS beer festival, Sydney Comedy Festival as well as brands such as Youtube, Blundstone and JBL.
Using Events to Change Behaviours or Perception for Your Brand
Events allow people to experience brands on a whole new level. This session looks at how to build an event which engages consumers with a brand’s key messages and carries these messages beyond the bounds of the event itself.
Skills & Outcomes:
Katie is an experiential marketer with 14 years Australian and UK experience. Katie currently works as Events and Sponsorship Manager at Synergy, where she manages a program of strategic partnerships, customer experiences and brand activations. Previously, Katie delivered the City of Mandurah’s major events program and worked as a Corporate Events Manager in the UK for 5 years.
She has won several awards including a Tourism Council Gold Award for best Major Event & Festival, a Gold Skull from the Perth Advertising & Design Council for best Digital Installation and Best Experiential Campaign at the PR Institute of Australia. Katie has a Bachelor of Commerce (majoring Marketing, Management), an MBA (majoring in Innovation and Entrepreneurship) and is qualified in CX, Prince2 and Agile Product Ownership. Since 2018 Katie has volunteered as the Production Director for TEDxPerth, Australia’s second largest TEDx event, leading a production team of 15.
Teamwork Makes the Dream Work
A great team makes all the difference, especially when planning events. An event environment is unique with specific staff and team challenges that need to be carefully managed. It takes work and effort to find the right combination of skills and personalities. Each team member brings a unique perspective and set of skills which help with problem-solving, new perspectives on the attendee outcomes and a pool of creativity. And these requirements may well change event to event.
Skills & Outcomes:
Chris Loftus-Hills is the General Manager of Events & Operations, Optus Stadium at VenuesLive. His port-folio includes venue management, event management, venue operations, asset management, risk & safety management, event staffing and ticketing operations.
Prior to moving to Perth Chris delivered 11 seasons of international cricket events at Cricket Australia as Head of Match Operations & Events.
This included leading the evolution of the event operations of international cricket into an integrated and sophisticated world class outfit as well as driving the creation of an in-house Event Presentation Unit responsible for one of the leading match day experience programs in Australian sport.
As part of this journey Chris built and then passed on many elements that continue to be important to the business including the event marketing program, the national ticketing program, the leisure travel business, the direct marketing asset known as the Australian Cricket Family, the international match profit & loss and the venue business & venue development portfolio.
The Future of Visual Marketing
Audiences are moving towards engagement with visual marketing rather than only traditional blog posts or social content. Visual marketing takes engagement to an experiential level by enabling you to tell your event or brand’s story in a way that excites your audience on a deeper level.
Skills & Outcomes:
Harley Mitaros is the Founder and Director of Pryzm in Subiaco. He founded the company in 2015 at the age of 20, with Pryzm specialising in social media and digital strategy and features a prestigious client list including Perth Glory Football Club, Danny Green’s Coward’s Punch Campaign and Elders Real Estate.
In 2016, Harley was recognised for his entrepreneurial skillset in Anthill’s prestigious 30 under 30 Young Australian Entrepreneurs of 2016, following a highly successful national appraisal campaign executed for Elders Real Estate.
Prior to Pryzm, Harley worked briefly for Major League Soccer on 37th and 5th Avenue in New York City and at Perth Glory Football Club, where he established the club’s first ever paid digital strategy.
Today, he strives to turn Pryzm into a nimble, goals-focused specialist marketing agency.
Event Design: Balancing Risk, Security and the Customer Experience
Creating a secure, safe event is one of the most important responsibilities of any event producer. However, as important is maximising the customer experience. We want attendees to walk away talking about how engaging our event was and returning each year, and not posting images over social media about being thoroughly patted up and down on entry and feeling like they’re in a fenced in space. This workshop will explore what the key elements of risk and security for events are available, which ones apply and when and how to incorporate these into your planning and staging while also maximising the quality of the experience.
Skills & Outcomes:
Neil had a senior role in security for the Sydney Olympic Games. He founded Intelligent Risks (IR) in 2001.
IR is an international leader in the fields of risk management; infrastructure protection and delivery of security for major events. It has practices in Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and the UK.
Since the 2000 Games, Neil has been a security advisor to the 2002 Salt Lake, 2004 Athens, 2008 Beijing, 2012 London, 2014 Sochi, 2016 Rio and Tokyo 2020 Games.
IR has also been security advisers for five FIFA World Cups.
Neil has been Security Advisor to the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) since 2005 – for the Melbourne 2006, Delhi 2010, Glasgow 2014, Gold Coast 2018 and Birmingham 2022 Games (and Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune, Isle of Man, Samoa and the Bahamas).
Apart from sports events Neil has advised on security for several political summits including NATO, G8, G20, APEC, ASEAN and CHOGM. IR has provided safety and security support for a range of other niche events, including several charitable events. These include Olivia Newton John’s Great Walk to Beijing, the CEOs trek of Kokoda, Garma Festival’s and Australian Himalayan Foundation treks in Nepal.
Intelligent Risks were the 2018 Winner for Best Event Service, for their work in risk, security and crisis management.
Event Design: Balancing Risk, Security and the Customer Experience
Creating a secure, safe event is one of the most important responsibilities of any event producer. However, as important is maximising the customer experience. We want attendees to walk away talking about how engaging our event was and returning each year, and not posting images over social media about being thoroughly patted up and down on entry and feeling like they’re in a fenced in space. This workshop will explore what the key elements of risk and security for events are available, which ones apply and when and how to incorporate these into your planning and staging while also maximising the quality of the experience.
Skills & Outcomes:
Adam J Lowe is a Creative Producer with more than 25 years’ experience in creating and developing major events and festivals. He is known and respected for his ability to straddle the gamut – an exceptional 360-degree strategist and agile leader that unifies teams in production and delivery.
Adam has an extensive network of the worlds top festival and events industry creators, storytellers, collaborators and technologists. His experience ranges from designing authentic and immersive experiences for major events and festivals of every nature and scale, from the grass roots to the Olympic.
Whether as independent producer, working with government, community, or with private enterprise, his experience spans some of the best theatre, community events, international stadia spectaculars, city take-overs, major events and festivals to producing arts and cultural programs for Business Events.
Experience with partner relationships development, retention and activation with partners such as Intel, Ford, Samsung, American Express, Telstra, IBM, Jaguar, Transgrid, Canon to name a few. He has assisted brands activate and engage audiences, creating and producing brand activations ranging from social responsibility programs to large-scale experimental activation.