Client: Tourism Australia
Event Title: Dreamtime 2015
Event Type: Business Session & Showcase Dinner
Dreamtime is Tourism Australia’s signature biennial business events showcase, bringing Australia’s outstanding incentive experiences and expertise to an audience of international business events buyers. In 2015, BLE worked with TA in Adelaide to break the mould of previous events and create an original and engaging concept for the Dreamtime Business Session and Showcase Dinner.
For the Business Session, we challenged the traditional expo layout by creating an organic, free flowing floor plan inspired by a journey through the Australian landscape. Exhibitors were arranged around large, colourful fabric cylinders, creating an environment where the outlook constantly changed as delegates moved between appointments. We worked to create a sense of theatre, delight and surprise throughout the day, starting with a very unique ‘Welcome to Country’. Delegates entered a darkened hall to the sounds of the pre-dawn Australian bush. A custom choreographed sunrise sequence and aboriginal dance performance opened proceedings. Mid session breaks were also treated as performance pieces, with a flight of miniature hot air balloons delivering morning tea, and afternoon refreshments circulate by besuited tricycle riders with live musical accompaniment.
The Dreamtime theme for 2015 was ‘Welcome to Our Home’. For the Showcase Dinner, BLE created a concept built around the personal stories of three inspirational South Australian food and wine producers, who welcomed guests to their ‘homes’ via custom created video pieces filmed on location around SA. The produce from each personality then formed the basis of a course during the dinner, culminating in a magnificent dessert degustation delivered live in the room via a surprise reveal from legendary Adelaide chocolatier Steven ter Horst. Personalised welcomes and messages were woven into the evening from start to finish, to make our guests feel appreciated and right at home.
Client: Tourism Australia
Event Title: ATE15 TA Welcome Event
Event Type: Cocktail Function
For the 3rd year in a row Belle Laide Events event managers worked with Tourism Australia to host a night showcasing Australia at their annual Australian Tourism Exchange. Partnering with the host city, Melbourne and Tourism Victoria a night of exploration was created to let guests find their favourite slice of Australia.
Described as a place for the eternally curious, Melbourne is best known for what is hardest to find – secret laneways and rooftop bars, award-winning epicurean icons, fashion and art. It is all waiting to be discovered. To us, this was a chance for guests to choose their own adventure in a quirky yet stylised setting.
Delegates from all over the globe were treated to a night showcasing the best that Australia has to offer. The best wines, produce and hospitality experience. The 2,000 strong crowd took over a wharf in Melbourne’s Docklands. Four distinct spaces were created where guests could Party, Play, Relax or Indulge. With something for everyone showcasing the best of Melbourne’s artisan food culture.
Guests interacted with live food stations including a cheese station showcasing a selection of Australian produce including a Salumi Station, Seafood Station and a live Wok Station. The Donut Wall installation was created for those with a sweet tooth.
Overhead two hot air balloons were suspended – projected with imagery of Australia’s top destinations. The content took guests from Margaret River wineries to the adventure of the Red Centre, to Queensland’s stunning coastline. Guests were entertained throughout the night with Flipbook creation, DJs playing and live bands. When guests wanted to relax a live harpist played while guests sampled Sparkling and Sticky wines.
Client:
Event Title: Exhibition where Art meets Science
Event Type: Sit-Down Dinner
A series of dinners hosted to celebrate their new campaign “tiny things”, featuring the work of celebrated British sculptor Willard Wigan. Making microscopic art, Wigan’s sculptures are typically placed in the eye of a needle, so minute that they are only visible through a microscope.
The event design used proportion and perspective to mirror the work of the artist. An exhibition for Willard’s work was on display as part of the event, backed by giant quotes of the artist and surrounded by oversized lamps and microscopic builds by Belle Laide Events. The ‘tablescape’ was layered with an intricate custom designed table top, outlining individual guest place settings and key quotes from Wigan. A continuous centrepiece of terrariums with miniature tableaus (echoing Wigan’s work) ran down the centre. Individual place cards where printed in the tiniest of fonts and then placed in front of microscopes to echo their legibility, again echoing Wigan’s work.
The highlight of the event design was a bespoke logo created from 15,000 hand placed needles by BLE. It took a small army of crafty hands and a whole lot of patience.
Not many corporate event planners can move an internationally acclaimed artist to tears. But in an emotional speech, Wigan said he’d never seen such an outstanding level of detail used to showcase his work.
Client: Virgin Australia
Event Title: ATE 2016
Event Type: Corporate
Virgin Australia approached BLE to create a brand activation at the 2016 Australian Tourism Expo on the Gold Coast. There were two key objectives. The first was to provide delegates with a taste of the Virgin Australia premium service offering throughout the course of the multi-day showcase. The second was to produce a vibrant, original and attention grabbing hospitality experience around the ATE Happy Hour event, in conjunction with Etihad Airlines.
The first challenge was met via the Virgin Australia premium service points that we created around the venue. These custom designed installations were centred around a wireless call button system that BLE developed specially for the event. Delegates pressing the illuminated blue buttons would be surprised by the sudden appearance of uniformed Virgin crew, bringing refreshments, rejuvenating head and shoulder massages and branded gifts.
The second challenge, to make the Virgin Australia and Etihad brands stand out amongst the crowd at the Happy Hour event, was met with some ‘out of the box’ thinking. We created a show stopping moment by hiding a circular bar in the roof of the venue, disguised as a large VA branded banner. On the stroke of Happy Hour, accompanied by a custom created soundtrack, the bar descended from the sky into the middle of the exhibition hall, grabbing the attention of the entire room. On cue, a live band kicked off, our team of cocktail bartenders took their positions and drinks and food began to flow. The crowds around the Virgin Australia stand suggested that we hit our mark in helping our clients to get cut-through for their brand at ATE 2016.