Mackay - New Convention Centre!

I was lucky enough to visit Mackay recently to check out the new Mackay Convention Centre which is still under construction.

Mackay is going off! I remember going there about ten years ago, and it was like a ghost town. I looked at the Entertainment Centre back then (the new Convention Centre is being built adjacent to the Entertainment Centre - it will all be one building eventually).

I ran an event there about three years ago, and I didn't recognise the place.

Going back last year, I didn't recognise it AGAIN. It has changed so much. There is so much construction and change going on.

Grinders Catering, who has the contract for Catering for the Convention Centre is fantastic - we got to sample a fantastic array of morning & afternoon tea pieces (the vegetarian tart was my absolute favourite). They will do an awesome job. It is fantastic to find such great food in a regional centre!

Events in a Global Financial Crisis

I know, everyone is talking about the GFC. We have had our first conference fall over because of it! So I thought maybe it was time I did a list of things you can do to keep the costs down for your event - so you can still have it.

1. Don't print anything. Do it all via email. Invest in the design for a cool e-newsletter that will catch people's attention, and save the postage.

2. Cut back on theming for dinners. You can be really creative with props from Crazy Clarks, and let's face it, your guests will probably nick the centrepieces anyway. Perhaps invest in the services of a good creative person, but tell them to think outside the box with what you use for the theming. Or try having your dinner at a unique venue, that doesn't need to be themed!

3. Try using edible centrepieces - check out Edible Blooms. That way you can pay for a two course lunch/dinner, and people can eat the choccies (or fruit) from the middle of the table.

4. Twin share your staff accommodation. If they are used to being in single rooms, just tell them that the economy is dictating this. And it might be fun!

5. Some hotels are really feeling it, so now is the time to get some fantastic special deals!

Now is the time to keep your meetings going. The tough times are when everyone needs to band together and move in the same direction. Meetings give you the platform to spread some optimism instead of the doom and gloom, even if you do it on a budget.

J ;-)

Blogging Event

Ok, I have been shamed. After last night's Networx Event, where we had a fantastic panel of new media experts, I realise that I haven't been blogging nearly as much as I should be.

Yaro Starak was our blogger expert, Dale Rankine the mobile phone apps developer from Moket, and Darren Sutton from digital agency XComm opened our eyes to what is coming up in the digital future.

Very cool was being able to project from Dale's Nokia phone on to the big screen - we've never done that before! Death by powerpoint, yes, but I've never seen anyone play a game on their mobile for the whole audience to see! Thanks to Fairchild Multimedia, who always make these things work.... (thanks John!)

Have also been inspired to get on to Twitter (yes, Dale, I'm one of your tweeps!)

Promise, I'll be back soon. I saw a lot of cool new stuff when I went down to AIME (the Australasian Meetings & Incentives Expo) - will update soon!

J ;-)

The Conference for Conference Organisers

Emma & I have just come back from the inaugural PCO conference on the Gold Coast. We had a fantastic time for a whole range of reasons:

1. I don't think I've ever been a delegate before! I LOVE being a delegate. It's so easy! You don't have to get up early, particularly. And you get fed ALL the time. I can't believe I had about 2 hours to get ready for dinner! That's unheard of.

2. Besides just enjoying it, I learned a lot. It was a really good, sharing kind of atmosphere. I got to meet a lot of people (competitors) that I've heard a lot about, but have never had a conversation with.

The content had a couple of different streams -one being for owners, and others being for people who worked in the industry. There were a couple of presentations which were a bit off-topic, but overall, I found it really interesting, and I'm really glad I went. PCO's can be so defensive of their clients and how they do things - it was so refreshing to have this kind of atmosphere around it.

I'll be going next year, and I'll be taking some of my staff too.

Sandstorm - Beach Volleyball Venue in Brisbane

I had the opportunity a little while ago to check out Sandstorm - the Beach Volleyball (and other sports) venue at QEII stadium. How cool is that?? You could do some serious themed beach parties there. And some great teambuilding. Beach Volleyball. Beach Cricket. Touch. Netball. You can play them all here.

AND - you can have Natalie Cook helping you and your staff out, if you like! How awesome would that be? An Olympic Gold Medallist in Beach Volleyball, helping you run your company tournament?

But back to the events - corporate team building is good, but I want to throw a party at this place. It's really hard to do an organised beach party on a real beach (the councils get a bit touchy about it) - but you could certainly do it here. Play some Beach Boys music. Get everyone's shoes off. Have a BBQ. Put up some party lighting - some paper lanterns or tiki torches or something like that. It would be a great night.

I'm sure that being at QEII is a bit of a barrier for some people - but it's not really that far. Could probably be faster than trying to get to an inner city venue for a lot of people.

Let me know if you've been there - would love to know what you thought.

NETWORX Powerhouse Event

We had a great event at the Powerhouse the other week.

It was a panel on "Perfecting Partnerships" - all of whom were very knowledgeable, and contributed a lot.

But the coolest bit about the event, besides it being on the Turbine Platform, which is an awesome space to have something like that, was that we got to have Wert emcee for us.

Wert is the 3D animated character who emcees the Little Frog series - and he was lots of fun, and definately something different.

Wert is able to interact with the audience - there is a camera rigged so that Sheldon (the man behind Wert, who is backstage) can see the audience, and speak directly to them.

I would LOVE to use Wert as emcee for an awards dinner, or something like that. Very cool. Thanks Sheldon!

Beautiful Tassie

I'm in Hobart currently with the Tasmanian Convention Bureau with a whole lot of other people involved in conferencing - on a "famil" (no, that doesn't mean "junket" it means "look at every possible place in Tassie that you could use for conferencing in under 48 hours"). I've never been to Tassie before - it is beautiful. It's like everywhere you look is like one of those jigsaw puzzle kind of scenes before you.


Hobart is definately all about the food. We've been to some awesome places. We started at Meadowbank Winery, where some of our group were lucky enough to take the "How to be a wine snob" course - so they could irritate us for the rest of our stay. ;-)

The outlook and the food was beautiful, and, of course, the wine! I really loved the interesting floor at the winery - it is a work of art in itself, telling the history of the area.

Hobart seems to be all about the local produce, and local artists. Pretty much everywhere we went, they told us how they supported the local community, which I think is great. If I'm going to take a group somewhere, I want them to be experiencing the best of that area.

From there, we had a look at venues such as the Old Woolstore, and the Henry Jones Art Hotel - Henry Jones in particular is so filled with fantastic art, and just being there is a history lesson unto itself.

Dinner that night was on the top floor of the Hotel Grand Chancellor - what a fantastic view!

Breakfast the next morning was entertaining with Phil Harris from Aardvark Adventures. Some very exiting Team Building and Adventure activities to be had in Hobart and around Tassie - what fun we could have! I hope he's reading this!!! Max loved the choccies - thanks!








One of the highlights would have to be the Cascade Brewery. Beer Tasting @ 10.00 am is a bit early for some, but what a fantastic setting, and wasn't my husband jealous. He can't complain though - I brought him home a pick & mix pack of all of his favourites.

Another definate highlight was Lark Distillery. Is there a pattern here? I seem to be overly enjoying the alcohol related sites. Strange. At Lark's we got to try their special Gin (nice G&T to start the night), Whiskey, Whiskey Liqueur (which I was ESPECIALLY partial to), and the Pepperberry Vodka. Nice! I highly recommend that one. The atmosphere in there was awesome - we didn't want to leave, we were having so much fun.

The next morning, we could hang out at Salamanca Markets - which were pretty good. I'm not much of a market person after having been involved with the Spring Hill Fair (I'm a bit marketed-out), but these were nice, and had a great atmosphere.

All of the accommodation that we looked at was considerably less expensive than what you would find on the mainland - so for the cost of a flight to Tassie, you could potentially save your meeting a whole lot of $$.

I'm a big fan of Tassie now. Thanks Claire!