Tour Hosts Showcase Sydney To 4,000
The Rocks precinct on Sydney Harbour is the perfect showpiece for international visitors. With just the right amount of heritage, charm and spectacular views, Tour Hosts transformed this famous foreshore strip into a festivity of food, wine, entertainment and shopping for the XXII International Congress of The Transplantation Society social dinner, writes Crystal James.
Titled ‘Dinner at the Rocks’ the client brief for the XXII International Congress of The Transplantation Society social dinner was to provide the 4,000 delegates and accompanying guests with a taste of Sydney’s culture that was outside the restrictions of a four-walled gala dinner with a band and an MC, says Tour Hosts’Corporate and Special Events Department Manager, Paul Boustani.
“The very unique challenge with this event was very much in terms of delegate numbers. In the very early stages of planning, which was 18 months ago, we were expecting about 2,500 delegates and this number just steadily grew over the 18 month period to reach 4,000 delegates, as well as accompanying persons and their guests.
“The challenge for us was how do we provide them with a local cultural experience and deliver this in an obviously very smooth, effective and safe way. So we actually designed an event that really allowed delegates to sample a number of different events within the one major event, but all in a very cohesive way.”
Delegates and their guests arrived at the central venue for the evening, the Overseas Passenger Terminal, and what began as a welcome cocktail party with canapés and drinks, slowly evolved into a night of festivities.
Premium wines from the New South Wales region, coordinated by the Department of State and Regional Development (DSRD), were available for tasting and purchase, shortly followed by entertainment by the Maddi Hall jazz band.
Depending on which stage of the night you were there, Fresh Catering’s menu also changed, progressing to more substantial canapés including sweet corn madeleines, caviar and crème fraiche, Thai beef tart, sugar cured salmon and pickled ginger square, duck confit and poached quince on brioche, artichoke truffle and parmesan tarts, caramelised pear with feta on gorgonzola biscuit and prawn, avocado, rocket and tarragon rotolino.
From 9pm onwards dessert canapés were also served including chocolate and hazelnut flourless torte, mini meringues, passionfruit curd and raspberries mini gelato cups, and mini schnapps silver jellies, followed by an array of Australian cheeses.
Guests were also invited to take an exclusive tour of the James Craig, a 19th Century iron barque tall ship, berthed alongside the Overseas Passenger Terminal, and wander around a purpose built Rocks Market on the Campbells Cove Foreshore, which showcased carefully selected traders from the traditional Rocks Markets who set up shop for the evening to provide guests with the opportunity to purchase their cultural wares.
“What we were hoping to achieve is to have the correct mix of products on offer at the markets for the transplant surgeons and their accompanying guests, who are a very specific demographic; very much into quality, into their food and wine and authenticity. We ensured all the market stallholders were providing great Australian-made products and everything was made by local artisans, so we didn’t have anything that was imitation,” explains Boustani.
As the evening rolled into dinner, guests were able to choose from four restaurants situated in close proximity including Wolfies, Waterfront, Italian Village and Imperial Peking, with the aim to provide a diverse range of cuisines to cater for delegates travelling from Spain, China, Japan, Europe and the Middle East, among others.
“The format of the night required a strategy that ensured delegates weren’t all bottlenecking in one component over the four or five different areas where guests had the choice to attend, so we designed a system that allowed for two seatings at each restaurant,” adds Boustani.
This system included two different coloured tickets indicating the first and second dining periods and the changeover was cleverly punctuated by a fireworks display orchestrated by Fonti Fireworks over the harbour, which gave the guests a visual cue and encouraged them back onto the foreshore to view the show.
Another solution to reduce any potential service delays was the introduction of branded ‘Congress Money’ in the form of poker chips to replace the use of credit cards, which guests received prior to the evening upon their payment for the event, and could then purchase additional chips on the night.
Although the evening’s program was advertised to delegates prior to the event with a brochure also distributed on the night, another challenge was catering for the 15 or so different languages. To overcome this barrier, Tour Hosts hired roving entertainers, who were positioned outside each of the four restaurants, dressed in the theme of the cuisine, with large menus on display and photographs of the signature dishes.
“One of our biggest challenges in planning this event, although we were very confident of how it would run on the night, was how this changeover period was going to happen and how the ebb and flow of service was going to take place between the cocktail party at the arrivals hall, the two seatings at the restaurants and the market, and given that we had 4,000 people traveling between these three areas at all times, it was really amazing to see how fantastically smooth things ran,” says Boustani.
Working with the Business Development and Venue Hire team at the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority, Tour Hostswere able to deliver a seamless event, which ensured all contingencies were allowed for, including safety lighting of the market stalls, added security, and a St John’s Ambulance onsite.
“The only security challenge, which is a great indicator of how the various bodies worked together, was a Chinese protest group, the Falun Gong, who were protesting against the transportation of illegal body parts. They actually registered themselves with the local police who notified the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority and ourselves about a week out from the event…so there were 50 peaceful protestors at the event that we had to keep an eye on because transplantation can be quite a controversial topic for these people, so it was very important that we were aware of this,” explains Boustani.
Peaceful protests aside, the post-event report reveals an incident-free evening that saw just over the estimated 4,000 delegates and their guests soaking up the harbourside festivities and generating over $60,000 in market sales. “We really wanted to immerse the delegates in the local Sydney culture,” adds Boustani.
“The Rocks Dinner really represented a quintessential glamorous Sydney lifestyle, it had waterfront dining, the famous Rocks Markets, a tall ship, a cocktail party and fireworks over the harbour, which really showcases the best Sydney has to offer.”
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NBC and Google form Ad Partnership
NBC Universal has signed a multi-year advertising, research and technology deal with Google which will see some of its cable TV airtime sold through the internet giant’s TV Ads platform.
On a national level, NBCU will offer ad time from several of its cable networks to Google’s TV Ads platform.
Inventory from Sci Fi, Oxygen, MSNBC, CNBC, Sleuth, and Chiller will be made available to Google in the coming months, with the potential to be joined by other NBCU properties in the future.
With the addition of NBCU inventory, advertisers using the Google TV Ads platform will be able to reach NBCU Cable’s national audience and gain access to viewership data.
Mike Pilot, president of NBC Universal sales and marketing, said: "We’re extremely pleased to join forces with Google on this effort, which will help us develop better accountability and ROI metrics for our advertisers and attract an entirely new group of clients to television advertising."
NBCU and Google have also agreed to work together on adapting the Google TV Ads platform for local market use.
Tim Armstrong, Google’s president of advertising and commerce in North America, said: "The Google TV Ads platform is making television advertising more accountable and measurable and we’re pleased with our progress to date.
"Our partnership with NBCU will help us bring the power of television to a broader set of advertisers as well as give our current advertisers increased reach through our system."
As part of the agreement, NBC Universal will maintain its direct relationships with agencies and advertisers and will be able to set parameters around the purchase of the available ad time.
NBCU will also gain access to the advertisers using Google’s AdWords online ad program, many of which are not currently television advertisers.
The two companies will share all ad revenue.
NBCU and Google will also collaborate on research projects using the Google TV Ads platform and intend to develop more effective advertising metrics.
This partnership follows Google’s move into selling radio ads in 2006 after it acquired dMarc Broadcasting for $1bn, which allows advertisers to connect directly to radio stations through its automated ad platform, giving brand owners an easier way to track their campaigns.
Google also entered into the newspaper ad business that same year after it launched its Print Ads service that offers customers the chance to place ads in more than 50 titles in the US, including The New York Times and The Washington Post.
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Oasis to get fans playing new songs through NME giveaway
Oasis has got together with NME to give music fans the sheet music to three of their future singles and is inviting them to post videos of themselves playing the songs to a special website.
Ahead of the release of new album ’Dig Out Your Soul’ on October 6, the September 17 issue of NME will include a free ’Dig Out Your Soul’ songbook and a CD-Rom of extra material including photos and artwork.
The songbook will contain the sheet music and lyrics to new tracks ’Bag It Up’, ’The Turning’ and ’[Get Off Your] High Horse Lady’.
Oasis wants fans to play the as-yet unheard tracks themselves, film their efforts and upload them to a dedicated site.
The initiative is backed by Arts Council England’s ’Take It Away’ scheme, which encourages young people to learn and play musical instruments by offering interest-free loans to buy them.
One winner personally chosen by the band will win a VIP experience to the Oasis gig of their choice anywhere in the world.
The partnership was developed by marketing manager Emma Greengrass at Oasis’ label Big Brother Recordings and Tim Pearson, marketing head of NME, with the involvement of Arts Council England.
The special issue will also be promoted with on-air support on NMETV and NME Radio, and in-house advertising in NME and Nuts and online at NME.com and Uncut.co.uk.
Greengrass said: "We have always been a bit sceptical of covermount opportunities in the past. Oasis are not keen on just giving away their music but this is a great idea that offers a lot more and allows the band to interact with their fans while giving them something really exclusive and engaging."
NME has often teamed up with artists and labels in the past to find new ways to promote albums and release singles.
NME’s Pearson said: "This partnership is a perfect example of the modern musical arena that we all operate in now.
"A truly innovating artist such as Oasis comes to us with a great idea [and] open-minded third parties are then approached with a unique way to market their brand."
The band is currently on tour in North America. During a set this week at Toronto’s Virgin Mobile V Festival, Noel Gallagher suffered damaged ligaments after being shoved in the back by an unruly fan who had scrambled on stage.
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Apple expected to unveil new range of iPods
APPLE is expected to unveil new versions of its iPod music players tomorrow at a theatrical "Let’s Rock" event as rival Microsoft strives to focus the spotlight on its Zune products.
Apple set devotees and the internet abuzz with a trademark minimalist invitation to a press event in downtown San Francisco.
The email invitation sent late last week says "Let’s Rock" and contains a brightly coloured silhouette of a person leaping enthusiastically while listening to an iPod.
The only other information given is the time the press conference starts and directions to the theatre where it is taking place.
"The best bet is they are going to refresh the iPod Touch and the iPod Nano," said analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group in Silicon Valley.
Mr Enderle and others tracking the market expect Apple to raise iPod Touch technology to the level of the California company’s iPhones, offering all capabilities except mobile telephone service.
Apple is expected to switch the shape of its Nano models back to slim gum sticks from the squat design it tried in order to feature a small screen for video viewing.
Speculation preceding the event includes the possibilities that Apple will announce another software patch to fix connectivity problems with its new iPhone 3G models.
Analysts are also wondering whether Apple will also announce new versions of Macintosh laptop or iMac computers.
There have been reports of shortages of iMacs, and Apple is known to let supplies of devices clear out of warehouses and stores before introducing new models.
Microsoft is also evidently anticipating Apple plans to invigorate its iPod line for the year-end holiday shopping season.
On the same day Apple’s press event was announced, the US technology giant announced its own plans to revamp its line of Zune music players and software upgrades that make listening to music on the devices even more "social".
The Zune line-up is being expanded to include devices with 16GB of flash memory selling for about $US200 ($248) each and a $US250 ($310) model with a hard drive offering 120GB of memory.
Free software updates will let people instantly buy songs they hear on the player’s built-in FM radio and wirelessly download music from the Zune Marketplace without having to connect to computers.
"We’ve always known that radio is the primary source for discovering new music," said Clear Channel Radio chief executive John Hogan.
"Microsoft’s decision to marry music discovery and delivery does two things: enables consumers to instantly satisfy their passion and enables FM song tagging to be enjoyed by all radio listeners, everywhere."
Microsoft software will also let Zune users customise radio "channels" that pick songs based on their tastes. Zune software will also enable listing to audio books.
Users will have the option of buying songs individually or paying $US15 ($18.39) a month for "Zune Pass" subscriptions allowing them to download or stream as much music as they wish.
The new Zune models and features will begin rolling out on September 16, almost two years after Microsoft launched the devices in November of 2006.
"Zune has been on the market a while and it is about time for Microsoft to refresh that line," Mr Enderle said.
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Digital media and face-to-face marketing present the most compelling combination for brands to focus their media activity
Digital media and face-to-face marketing present the most compelling combination for brands to focus their media activity – making the future for exhibitions and live interactive events rosy, according to Trevor Foley, Chief Executive Officer, Events Industry Alliance, UK.
Foley is recognised as one of the world’s leading authorities on the exhibition and events industry. Recently in Australia to address senior exhibition executives at their annual EEAA Leaders Forum, he said media spend is starting moving away from traditional print and broadcast media. In the UK revenue from events is already overtaking media spend generated by magazine publishing, and in 2006 the US reported that event revenues had surpassed print revenues, he said.
“Media fragmentation means companies can’t reach audiences in the same way anymore. Consumer empowerment means we, the target audience, can decide when to consume media,” he said.
Exhibitions are changing from static exhibits to interactive, experiential events and combined with digital are today’s preferred marketing media, he said.
“This is because digital cannot replace live events. People still want to get out and enjoy the experience.”
Events represent the opportunity for conversation and engaging with prospects. As a forum where the buyer comes to the seller, an exhibition is both ‘permission’ and ‘participation’ marketing offering a mix of interactive and face-to-face opportunities.
Foley said that events are winning the hearts and minds of both b2b and b2c consumers because they are increasingly delivering relevant content.
“A successful event has educational, networking and entertainment elements. As an industry we need to shout loud about the power of face-to-face and point out the USPs. Clients and agencies don’t spot these benefits, we have to tell them.
“The best support for a digital economy is live interaction. Live events will grow as companies increasingly realise the inadequacies of other forms of marketing.
“Direct marketing, advertising, commercial TV and radio all have massive issues and I don’t see how they will hurdle these problems.”
Australian exhibition organisers are increasingly changing the nature of their events to offer more hands-on, interactive opportunities for visitors with most recognising that the way of future is to offer fun, engaging, educational experiences.
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