Creative executions

Three convention centres, three innovative event deliveries, and some ideas for the bag

Guests milling about ACC’s South Australian wonderland

World Routes 2019 Networking Evening & Awards
World Routes is the world’s largest B2B aviation conference, bringing together the world’s leading airlines, airports and tourism authorities for three days of meetings, industry presentations and social events. Significantly, it chose to celebrate its 25th anniversary in Adelaide last September, the first time the event had been held in the Southern Hemisphere.

Guests milling about ACC’s South Australian wonderland

 

Working with Lumino Events, Adelaide Convention Centre (ACC) played host to the outdoor welcome reception.

But its showcase function was the finale Networking Evening, where the brief was to deliver a “taste of Adelaide” with “big impact” and “lots of fun”. In response, ACC transformed their FGH Halls, a pillarless space that accommodated the conference’s 1800 guests, to resemble some of South Australia’s most iconic festivals and destinations.

The idea was to create a South Australian wonderland that let guests choose their own adventure at their own pace between four distinct zones.

To mark a departure from an otherwise usually structured evening, guests arrived to see a giant big top tent for a “wow” factor before moving to the Awards proceedings, which was condensed by half the usual time to just 20 minutes and opened with a 44-piece flashmob.

The programme then seamlessly transitioned into an entertainment mode with four event zones, designed to inspire curiosity and networking. These four divided zones feature Adelaide’s cabaret and fringe festivals, outback South Australia, local world-class vineyards, and a Side Show Alley with nostalgic fun games like a milk can toss.

Food was also themed for each zone, with the cabaret section featuring a giant grazing station, and the vineyard showcase offering seafood and premium wines, for example. As a grand finale, delegates enjoyed a performance by a Billy Joel Tribute band, which was chosen for its global appeal.

Following the successful event, ACC received feedback that the evening exceeded expectations for World Routes’ agreed objectives and vision. – Adelaine Ng

Singapore FinTech Festival
SingEx took advantage of its resident event, Singapore FinTech Festival (SFF), to parade the capabilities of its new culinary innovations.

SWITCH Startup Zone during Singapore FinTech Festival

 

Held in November 2019, the show was combined with the Singapore Week of Innovation and Technology (SWITCH) to form SFF x SWITCH 2019, which drew more than 60,000 participants from 140 countries.

Visitors at the festival experienced six halls packed with immersive stages and bustling exhibition booths, with each space customised to suit the event’s various segments and meetings. These included the massive Plenary Stage, the SLINGSHOT Stage for start-up pitches and the SWITCH Startup Zone. The event also tapped into the culinary team’s expertise and catering network to deliver tasty local fare in the style of a communal hawker centre.

A dedicated event app was also created, providing a one-stop platform for attendees to discover conference themes, understand speakers’ profiles, engage in live Q&A, navigate the event floor, keep up to date with upcoming highlights through push notifications and connect with other businesses for business matching. – Pamela Chow

Asialawyers
As one of Asia’s largest convention centres, IMPACT Arena and IMPACT Exhibition and Convention Center is no stranger to catering to a wide spectrum of events.

Lawyers participating in a friendly competition

 

One memorable event that stood out last year was the Asian Football Cup for lawyers, bar associations and law firms.

Held in April 2019, more than 500 participants from eight Asian countries – such as Mongolia, Japan and Nepal – attended, and the 23 teams competed in over 65 football matches over four days.

Every participating team was greeted with a special welcome at the airport, and the event kicked off with a draw ceremony on the first night, to see who would square off in the first round.

Matches were staged at a football stadium adjacent to IMPACT, and attendees were accommodated at the Novotel Bangkok Impact Hotel. The welcome cocktail reception and gala award ceremony were hosted in IMPACT’s Sapphire room.

To ensure that guests would recall the experience fondly, organisers hired a professional videography and photography team to capture the event.

All the teams also got to wear their football gear to the buffet dinners and award ceremony, during which everyone enjoyed a slideshow and reel of all match highlights. The winners and runner-ups were also given trophies.

Loy Joon How, general manager of Impact Exhibitions Management, shared that planners are increasingly looking to incorporate sports and fun related-activities in their meetings.

The IMPACT Sports Club and Tennis Academy is a result of this, and offers event organisers various ideas and ways to engage their meeting participants.

For instance, they can arrange for teambuilding activities with a wellness slant such as gym glasses like Zumba or yoga, to tennis lessons, all conducted by its in-house professional trainers.

The activities can be tailored to requirements as well depending on the event’s aims.

Currently, IMPACT is looking to expands its portfolio of in-house experiences.

“We are looking at establishing an international cooking school. Equipped with a fully-fledged kitchen, classrooms and living quarters, this facility will provide us the opportunity to design and incorporate cooking classes and other cooking-related activities into our meeting & event offerings as well,” shared Loy. – Anne Somanas

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