High Times at the Australian Event Awards
The glitzy Australian Event Awards night was held at Doltone House on Elizabeth Street, Sydney…it’s their newest venue and very flash.
The ambience was flushed in blue…not only blue eyes, blue O2, blue fish and blue dress shirts. Black looked pretty much like black.
Excitement abounded…of course, many of those present were combining their hopes for an award, after lots of hard work, with a near end of year release of tensions and out to enjoy. And enjoy they did…well, most.
There were winners…and unfortunately those who did so well to be finalists but didn’t quite make it. Hey, 2014 is just a step away!
For me, the big ones that were taken out included the great awards to Vivid Sydney – Event of the Year and Best Tourism Award.
And I guess in a context of homage, the Best Venue award to Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre.
There were four particular winners that thrilled me…Because it means real recognition of their lines of work, each of them being very international as well as local and showing they can match up and indeed stand above their global competitors. Now that’s real feat.
Who are they?
► Auditoria, who won two awards! Technical Achievement Award for their work on London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games Ceremonies and Best Export Award for their work in London, Mersin, Sochi and Dubai
► The Electric Canvas – for their work on White Night in Melbourne, snared the Best Achievement in Design, Look or Theming
► This Space Studio + Event – for their incredible AGL 175th Gala Celebration event, received the Best Corporate Event Award
► Byron Bay Bluesfest – which won Best Regional Event.
All the awards were well-deserved and this goes to show just how vital is Australia’s events industry – which counts at more than $20 billion value.
To cap a marvellous array of recognition were three lifetime achievement awards to people who have dedicated themselves to events in quite extraordinary fashion, both locally and internationally. Recipients were Di Henry, Mary Lopez and Sandy Hollway. Di Henry, renown for redefining and executing the Olympic Torch Relay; Mary Lopez, founding producer and director of the Schools Spectacular; and Sydney 2000 Olympic CEO Sandy Hollway were presented with Lifetime Achievement awards for their incredible creativity, innovation and dedication to Australia’s iconic events culture.
The full list of awards is at http://eventawards.com.au/news/78/107/2013-Winners-Finalists-Announced.html
