Project Overview
The AHRI annual Convention social highlight is the black-tie gala dinner and this year's theme was the Moroccan spice market. Our scope included developing the theme and styling to ensure that it was integrated across all key design areas of the printed invitation & program, the room appearance, props, the lighting design, the screen graphics and entertainment.
Project Commissioner
Australian Human Resources Institute
Project Creator
Team
Executive Producer - Tara Byrne
Associate Producer - Cindy Houlihan
Technical Director - Kevin Beacham
Graphic Designer - Nicole van Dijk
Multimedia Designer - Raechel Harding
Project Brief
Australian Human Resources Institute (AHRI) 2011 Conference
The annual Convention, the largest event for HR managers in the Asia Pacific region,
features the best international and local thought leaders. To juxtapose the intellectual pursuits of the day, the gala dinner is designed to be fun, exciting and sheer entertainment. And with an impressive reputation, the gala dinner is always a sell out so it's important to maintain the quality of the event.
Immediacy's scope was to collaborate with AHRI to provide an environment that took the Moroccan spice market theme to make it visually rich and exciting as well as allowing for the guests to socialise to the max. Every touchpoint carried the theme and graphic design - from the invitation, to the props in the pre-dinner function space, to the room lighting design, the onscreen graphics, the table setting and the choice of entertainers. All of these elements came together to create an elegant and fun-filled night of fine food, wine, dancing and laughs.
Project Innovation / Need
The gala event is a highlight of the annual convention and whilst it takes a back seat to the more serious presentation given by some of the world's finest thought leaders, the gala is viewed as a contrasting night of fun and informal networking.
There is no doubt that people are open to receiving messaging when they are happy. So the gala event provides a strategic link for the sponsors to be recognised and associated with a convention event that has the full gamut of experiences for the guests.
From and event perspective, the challenge is to create a relevant business event with a highly designed aspect to create the backdrop for elegant and memorable socialising.
Design Challenge
There were several design challenges. We needed to think of a fresh application for the spice market theme, and one that could translate to all of the event elements consistent with a black-tie evening event.
We are a Melbourne-based company and the event was staged in Sydney so we needed to source themed props and entertainment locally. We then needed to carefully manage this process to ensure a cost efficient approach and that the elements were seamlessly blended for a culturally-rich experience.
Sustainability
The major aspect was to ensure that as many of the elements were sourced locally. As it turned out we were able to find simple and existing props to recycle.
Moreover, we were able to employ the services of local technical crews and entertainers which is a major consideration in the reduction of the greenhouse emissions with the avoidance of air travel.
Immediacy also has its own green practices in our offices; recycling is paramount, we use green power and electronic media as much as possible.
Event Experience - Business
This award recognises the best design event for businesses and the design industry.
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