This is our sort of event. Take a performance style with great legacy – burlesque – and then refresh it with something hugely popular but very left of center – a homage to Star Wars. The results are sensational and really good fun. Check out the promo video below.

Currently being performed in Sydney Australia, we reckon this would be a very memorable night out and setting aside the raunchy aspects, has huge potential for a corporate event cross-over.

We’ve been told it’s a sellout but with demand, who know’s – they might bring this one back for all of us dance fans and sci-fi geekoids!

Source Notes: The event page can be found here.

Sensational Events through Powerful Experiences.

FACTOR168 Creative Event Company delivers creative, strategic, and tactical event management and event production services across Australia and throughout Asia.

With that I took the opportunity to sit down in Hong Kong recently for a coffee and a chat with a long standing friend and business associate – Bert Li from Amway.

Bert has for the past decade plus been charged with the responsibility of delivering a series of annual events throughout the world, many of considerable scale, on behalf of Amway Greater China.

In doing so Bert occupies a unique position in being able to comment directly on the experience of engaging and working with a variety of diverse event company partners, large scale and boutique, not only in Europe and North America, but also with companies like ourselves operating within Australia and Asia.
Are there any significant differences in the working style from region to region?
In a word – yes. According to Bert, he has found that event companies stationed within Asia are more flexible in their overall approach. They display a greater willingness to accommodate his organisation’s very specific needs and have a greater appreciation for his guest’s expectations.

On the other hand, he found that working, for example, in the United States and in many parts of Europe, that it was more a case of an ‘Our Way or No Way’ position being adopted.

Many seemingly creative event outfits were often hamstrung by their own process ‘sophistication’ rather than being focused on being more client-centric showmen. This was often further compounded by their lack of knowledge discovery and empathy for the host organisation’s culture and event legacy. Not surprisingly, many proverbial wheels have had to be reinvented over time.

Bert was quick to add however, that despite Asians being more accommodating with their working style, they still functioned with a different set of standards which often translates into an inconsistency in terms of delivering fully on their service promise. He nominated China as being particularly challenging, Thailand and Malaysia as being challenging, and Hong Kong and Singapore as being less so. He conceded that this was not as big an issue within western businesses.

By way of an example, Bert shared with me an occasion where a number of high-end projectors were ordered for an event in Southeast Asia. Technically they had the capacity to be very bright as promised, however no allowance had been made for the actual age of the bulbs inside. Turns out the projectors were not so bright at all but the vendor felt they had delivered, technically, on what was promised. It is often said that it’s the devil in the detail and this is certainly the case in some parts of Asia depending on your vendor.

I asked Bert for his take on events within Australia. Bert describes Australia in pre-and post-Olympic terms. He believes that the games contributed to the local event industry adopting a more mature international outlook.

In doing so this event helped transform Australia into a nation open to adopting an attractive blend of Western and Eastern practices that makes it well suited to Amway Greater China.
This led me to ask – so what makes a good vendor for Asian events? This is difficult to determine but Bert lists three personal must-have points – the person, the culture, the creative.

Bert places a huge amount of stock in the creativity and energy of individual event personalities, their ability and leadership, and their collegiate manner.

The event lead needs to be someone who is easy to work with, brings value and expertise to the table, and proves to be a quick good fit with Bert and his team.

Ultimately Bert and his vendor need to share, as Bert puts it – a ‘You Die I Die’ shared outlook on the event outcome.

Naturally the event company needs to demonstrate its capacity to deliver on what are at times very complex events. Just as importantly, it needs to also be seen to inhabit a real creative culture that is passionate and energised about designing and delivering a uniquely memorable event. This is no small challenge when one also has to allow for and overcome the massive creative legacy of guest experiences already in place from previous events and the competitive nature these sort of big scale events attracts.

Bert tells me that as part of his duty of care, he often counsels his fellow colleagues sitting on the tender selection panels not to be taken in by too much overt displays of creativity. He cites extensive animated 3D rendering as an example – pretty but often without substance. Instead he advocates concentrating on what the key creative thread running through the entire event concept actually is and how this will translate into achieving their primary goal.
That goal is to generate unique and enduring Amway event memories. Ensuring guests feel valued and have enjoyed a unique event memory that will excite and “incent” them along with their colleagues, friends and family into the future.

This sits at the heart of any good event and we agreed that the keys to a successful Asian event rest with an acknowledgement of audience identity and the application of considerable showcraft expertise.

An Amway guest list is drawn from across all the provinces of China. There is a huge degree of diversity at play in terms of language, cultural and social mores. So it comes as no real surprise then that Amway events pragmatically place a huge amount of importance on the creation of a compelling and visually rich event environment above anything else.
This then translates into a programme featuring the universal appeal of music and dance. The creative also tends to favour audience favourites such as special effects, including pyrotechnics and stage mechanics, as well as innovatively embracing new show technology applications.

In terms of identity, guests do not travel from Asia with the expectation that they will then engage in what is for all practical terms a common Asian event experience. They don’t want same same, they want different. An example of this, and a common mistake made by event companies catering to Asian guests, is to try to emulate a Cirque du Soleil styled event programme which would normally go over very well with a western audience. It’s just not that effective in the east.

Incredible costumed performances with awe-inspiring feats of strength, acrobatics, and aerial skills are… well commonplace and just not as special within Asia. If you manage to secure the opportunity to attend either the Red Theatre’s Kung Fu show or the Tiandi Acrobatic show – both in Beijing, you’ll never look at Cirque the same way again. Better to remain true to the event hosts’ cultural strengths where possible.

Identity however, can be utilised well with some tweaking. Bert tells of the time he staged an event in Austria that featured a massive temporary ice rink featuring a Chinese national skater. One of the other highlights of the show was a performance by the world famous Vienna Boy’s Choir. By all accounts they were sensational but unfortunately the Chinese audience was left feeling indifferent. There was no cultural reference and it apparently lacked showcraft in terms of how they were presented – which was simply so as not to detract from the voice.

Bert returned to the choir concept in Melbourne.

This time around however, a new choir was assembled and featured two important additions. The application of identity and showcraft.
To the delight of the audience, the choir were schooled in a number of Mandarin language songs and importantly the performance was also given a stronger showcraft treatment – cascades of dry ice fog and an artful lighting design. Not surprisingly, the reception second time around was hugely positive from the audience.

This checklist of the person, the culture, the creative makes good sense to me and could or should be applied to most client-vendor partnerships within the Asia Pacific.

The other key learning take-away from our catch-up was to never underestimate the importance of cultural identity and to never forget that an event is all about business theatre. These two factors were certainly in place when Bert and I first met. He engaged me to produce Australia’s largest inbound corporate event series on his behalf.

This memorable event featured iconic Sydney event sites where we entertained and mesmerised over 13,500 guests. This event has since served as a quality benchmark for both our organisations. Since then Bert has revisited Australia with smaller events on the Gold Coast, Melbourne and a return visit to Sydney is currently being mapped out and planned for.
Knowing Bert and his team, I have no doubt it will be another amazing event that innovates and motivates and will, without question, require Bert and I to share another Causeway Bay coffee together into the future.

Darren Kerr is a partner and producer at FACTOR168 Creative Event Company. He has been delivering creative, strategic, and tactical event services throughout Asia and across Australia for almost two decades for clients as diverse as Amway, Westfields, NCR, The Walt Disney Company, EMC Corporation, Swire, and Oracle.

Source Notes:

For the published version in the September issue of Micenet Asia – please click here.

FACTOR168 Creative Event Company delivers creative, strategic, and tactical event management services throughout Australia and across Asia.

Sensational Events through Powerful Experiences – www.factor168.com

We are delighted to be named a Finalist in the Australian Event Awards for 2010. It is always nice to be recognised by one’s peers. Our two esteemed competitors for the ‘Best Export’ award are David Atkins Enterprises and Maxxam International. We reckon that we are keeping pretty good company with these two. 

The award of ‘Best Export’ is awarded to an individual or organisation that makes a notable contribution to the Australian events industry through activity in the global arena.

So who are our category ‘competitors’?

David Atkins is a legend in musical theatre who has since built a world class creative organisation that designs and deliver incredible theatrical spectaculars on the world stage. David and his team were behind the hugley popular opening and closing ceremonies for the Sydney Olympics 2000. They have since repeated this effort with the 15th Asia Games in Doha, Qatar, and again with this years Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, Canada. This year they also delivered the opening cermony for the Shanghai Expo. He’s personally been awarded the Gold Olympic Pin and the Order of Australia Medal. Yup. They are good.

Maxxam International won this same category in the awards inaugaral year for their efforts in ensuring the Olympic Torch Relay for the Beijing Olympics went off without a hitch. This year they are engaged again in what appears to be their speciality – another baton relay this time for the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games.

Pretty impressive. Now… if we were the sort to place a wager – with Maxxam as the incumbent that would be a big call, so you’d have to say that David and his team would be odds-on favorites to take out this category. And seriously, why wouldn’t they? The standard and scope of their work in terms of public events is sensational.

And I guess this is the key distinction – Maxxam and David Atkins Enterprises work almost exclusively on public events.

We don’t.

We work almost exclusively within the corporate environment and certainly don’t consider ourselves as direct competitors with either organization. Public events are a very different animal. Although on some projects we’d be a perfect slot-in partner for them.

Will FACTOR168 Creative Event Company take out the award? Could this be a not-David (err pardon the pun) versus the Goliath(s) scenario? I guess at some deep level we’d like to think so but, and I know this is a bit cliched, we are just delighted to be finalists against an initial heavy field of nominations. To stand shoulder to shoulder with Maxxam and David Atkins Enterprises, yup… we are okay with that too.

The winner will be announced on the 7th October in Sydney.

A big thank you to the judging panel, the team, our supports and partners, and of course to our clients.

A little bit about the Australian Event Awards, courtesy of the blurb on their website,  for those that are curious:

The Australian Event Awards is the pinnacle awards program for the events industry in Australia.

The program is guided by ongoing industry consultation to answer the need for cohesiveness across the entire Australian industry, to develop industry identity and to assist Australian operators in cross-development of opportunities between events and event disciplines.

The program is all-inclusive, being open to all Australian events, event managers and support service providers regardless of:

• event type or audience
• event size or attendance
• event location or association membership

It is the only opportunity for Australian events and event organisers to be acknowledged on a level playing field, across the entire national events industry. We welcome entries from all members of the events community in Australia.

Source Notes:

For a full listing of all 2010 finalists – click here.

FACTOR168 Creative Event Company delivers creative, strategic, and tactical event services throughout Australia and across Asia.

Sensational Events through Powerful Experiences – www.factor168.com

The #eventprofs Blog Awards were presented this year at Event Camp Twin Cities thanks toFreeman. The winners were announced LIVE by Lara McCulloch-Carter (@Ready2spark) on the 9th at 5:00 pm for event professionals all across the globe to see.

Winners Announced

> People’s Choice Award: This blog received the most overall votes of all votes submitted. Therefore, this blog is the people’s choice.

Winner: Liz King Events

> Best Thought Provoking Blog: This blog provides high quality, unique education that challenges the way you think.

Winner: Liz King Events

> Best Eye Candy Blog: A blog that is visually inspiring and pushes the limits of your creativity.

Winner: Design Dawgs

> Best Corporate Blog: A rockstar corporate blog that knows how to connect, converse and add value to its clients.

Winner: Factor168

> Best Wedding Blog: Serving either brides or other wedding professionals, this blog represents the best the that wedding industry has to offer.

Winner: A Big To Do Event

> New Kid on the Blog: New on the scene, this blog is a force to be reckoned with – providing a new, unique and valuable perspective to the industry (to qualify for this category a blog must have been started in 2010).

Winner: Engage

> Best Industry Advancement Blog: Dedicated to propelling our industry forward, this blog is irreverent, provocative and challenges convention.

Winner: Velvet Chainsaw’s Midcourse Corrections

Source Notes:

The above copy provided by Event Camp Twin Cities and a ‘live’ stream of the event can be replayed here.

For more FACTOR168 Creative Event Company ‘applause’ – check it here.

Sensational Events through Powerful Experiences.

FACTOR168 Creative Event Company delivers creative, strategic, and tactical event services throughout Australia and across Asia.

Event Management = www.factor168.com

In designing an entertainment program that would be powerful, impactful and yet sympathetic to the historical surroundings, it was felt that instead of another tenor, the headline performers for this event had to be more contemporary and in keeping with the feminine spirit of the Apsara.

Australian classical stars excelled in this role, with The 7 Sopranos and the electric strings trio Maske delivering a collection of world class performances that had this international audience enthralled, moved, and delighted.

Other highlights of the event included the Godfather of Asian Jazz – Jeremy Montierio in concert, along with carefully choreographed theatrical appearances by Khmer Knights, traditional drummers, beautiful Apsara dancers, and a heartfelt prosperity blessing delivered by the local brotherhood of Buddhist Monks.

Guests were also spoilt with a selection of local Khmer and international cuisine prepared by a host of special guest Chefs who worked alongside the fabulous hospitality team from the Raffles Grand Hotel D’Angkor.

Event production, event styling and signage, staging elements, massive ice carvings, transportation, and site facilities including an extensive power generator farm were provided by combination of local Cambodian vendors and specialist expertise drawn from the FACTOR168 Creative Event Company trusted network of partners based in Bangkok, Singapore, Hong Kong, Bali, Brisbane, and Sydney.

This very special event experience was produced by FACTOR168 Creative Event Company on behalf of one:fortyseven communications for a global information technology corporation with strong corporate social responsibility ties within Cambodia.

Source Notes:

Special thanks goes out to Scott at our valued agency client one:fortyseven communications.

* Selected event imagery can be enjoyed by invitation in our Showcraft Image Gallery.

If you’d like to keep in touch with us – than go to our social media page full of twits and facebookery here.

FACTOR168 Creative Event Company delivers creative, strategic, and tactical event services throughout Australia and across Asia.

Sensational Events through Powerful Experiences – www.factor168.com

The article he wrote titled “Creating Great Events in Asia” was published in the June 2010 issue as part of the International Special Events Society experts column and is reprinted here.

Many of your organisation’s best and brightest may soon be flying out to a destination of choice within Asia for a series of incentive and recognition events.

Business events carry a huge degree of strategic importance to the hosting organisation and in turn can attract a considerable amount of stakeholder input and competing budget demands.

You will need to call upon a broad array of specialist disciplines as you tackle concurrent challenges including travel, venues, catering, pre and post-tours, team-building, gifts, program collateral, and entertainment, AV production, set designs, signage, branding guidelines and messaging objectives and so on.

By their very nature, events have lots of moving parts that constantly evolve. They require a huge amount of planning, thought, and applied expertise to ensure it all comes together as a seamless and powerfully engaging event experience.

Expectations are high and the pressure is on for people charged with this strategic, creative, and tactical responsibility. So extra careful consideration needs to be given to who will help you deliver. It’s okay if at this point you need to let out a deep sigh. I am.

Now add to this mix a whole host of regional variables that are at constant play within the business of delivering events throughout Asia.

South Korea is one of the few places where English is not the universal language of business – common elsewhere across global event practices. Neighbouring Japan presents an added challenge with many layers of communication protocol needing to be addressed and worked through to make simple things happen… simply.

Although hugely improved, the Philippines is still sadly beset by implied ‘corruption’ practices, and when working within Indonesia and Malaysia one needs to keep front of mind religious sensitivities in everything you do.

The island city of Singapore remains a great introduction to Asia for many western corporate event clients but rarely sustains a second or third visit. With the opening this year of Marina Bay Sands and Universal at Sentosa, the city will refresh itself as a MICE destination of choice.

Hong Kong, gateway to China, still labours under former past MICE glories as it continues to confront challenges in terms of offering diverse event space that doesn’t look like another exhibition hall while outdoor events are on the extinction list due to unreasonable government noise ordinances.

Bangkok, despite current political instability, still remains MICE attractive although the provision of event services often reminds me of Bangkok traffic – slow and convoluted despite always appearing to be incredibly busy.

The emerging MICE destinations of Vietnam, Nepal and Cambodia offer great potential for the brave and well resourced who are not easily spooked by little pre-existing infrastructure.

And China. Sometimes producing events in China feels to me like walking a movie set of an infamous ‘spaghetti western’ as an unarmed extra who’s been given poor street directions.

It is not so much the Wild West as it is the Wild East with plenty of people willing to ‘help’. As your on the ground event experience deepens, the more you value having a reputable ‘Sheriff’ at your side to better help with the safe navigation of your event.

Of course this is not to say that all these sites don’t offer massively attractive attributes for MICE projects. They, in fact, present as fabulous settings for the delivery of some truly amazing and memorable event experiences. It is more a question of approach.

You could tackle the challenge by jumping straight into the deep end with all guns blazing as you spend an immense amount of time hunting out and engaging vendors. Haggle endlessly and issue deposits to companies you suspect may not really exist in this dimension. Combat the challenges of working remotely with different time zones and fall foul of unexpected cultural nuances while wondering what exactly is going to happen (and for the matter not happen) on event day.

It comes as no surprise that the entire experience of delivering events within Asia can wear many down very quickly. Like constant water against stone. Nice lemongrass smelling water… and a very polished stone.

Based on close to two decades of producing events of scale within Asia, the team at FACTOR168 Creative Event Company recommends to anyone considering an event within the Asian region to make it a mission critical priority to seek out and engage a reputable and seasoned events professional; an events expert experienced within Asia who will work with you as a partner invested in a mutually positive outcome rather than just trawling through endless vendors or waving the proverbial white flag and handing the entire process from start to finish to the nice people in the catering department at the hotel who seemed okay in return for a more generic outcome.

Engaging a strong events professional is the most assured way of achieving your event goals on the ground regardless of the nation and city you visit.

So how do you assess who this outfit should be? Who will serve as your China sheriff? Well don’t go looking for a tiny little tin cowboy badge… look instead for four little letters – ISES.

This represents credibility and a service promise bound by a professional code of ethics. An expert not only within the events profession but an expert in getting the best results on your behalf within a region that is often complex, always evolving and very mercurial in temperament.

Seek out a shortlist of partner candidates from the ISES membership directory, or if you’re engaged within a specific region, query your potential partner and vendors on their professional affiliations and red flag those that fall short.

Your ISES partner will be able help you best navigate successfully through the region, provide informed advice and recommendations, and ultimately add value and diminish your exposure to risks. In my mind I always regard working with fellow ISES members who are well positioned to reduce my exposure to risk as a smart form of event insurance. But without the premiums.

It really is this simple: engage a professional to do a professional job.

So from Hong Kong it is cheers for now… or if you prefer, Yung Sing or even Kong Chien.

Darren Kerr is a founding partner of FACTOR168 Creative Event Company, www.factor168.com. He is a proud member of the Queensland chapter and Hong Kong board member of the International Special Events Society www.ises.com.

Source Notes:

For the online version of this Mice.net.au article – click HERE.

For current and timely information about the meeting and events business within Australia.

FACTOR168 Creative Event Company

Creative. Strategic. Tactical.

Sensational Events through Powerful Experiences.

In terms of the design and production of events – both public and private, it has become a mission critical tool in terms of building interest and anticipation as well as leveraging on branded communities.

So with that in mind and having worked up endless social media campaigns for our clients, we have set forth our talented techno elves to work up our own dedicated social media page. While they tinker away down the hallway within the fabled FACTOR168 department of widgets and webby activities, we thought the graphic below kinda maps out the whole social media thing rather  nicely. Seriously, who doesn’t like a good graph now and then!

In the meantime, feel free to get all facebooky with us by doing the CLICK HERE thing and when you there, don’t forge to click the ‘like’ button on the page.

And if your really keen – you could also do the twitter thingo @FACTOR168 and you’ll get random tweets from members of FACTOR168…. perhaps you have a strong streak of curiosity.

Actually to be fair some things that take his fancy really are random but other times he finds diamonds amongst the coal… he has his moments I guess. You can always break his heart by doing the  ’unfollow’ him. haha.

Before we close off on this ‘Social Media Revolution’ – for those that are still getting their heads around it all, like most of us, I found this little video from the people at ‘Say It Visually’ was really straight forward and clear without resorting to all the buzz words.

What is really clear to me is that this is all well and good in terms of the distribution and display of communication but ultimately like all things – content is still and always will be king.

Source Notes: The small post image is from Spoon Graphics with thanks.

The big graphic featured above is courtesy of www.infographicworld.com

Although we have never engaged them we understand that they can ‘help you develop a cool visual marketing graphics to enhance social media presence’. Handy.

FACTOR168 Creative Event Company
Creative. Strategic. Tactical.
Sensational Events through Powerful Experiences.

Celebrity New York wedding planner David Tutera has found himself in a spot of PR bother. A number of newswire reports claim he took more than AUD$224,000 from a Singapore couple in return for his creative expertise but didn’t actually show up at the event.

In fact – it is further claimed that he sabotaged the wedding by instructing vendors not to fulfill contractual obligations.

“There is no more money,” the dad supposedly said. “Don’t get on the plane.” “Tutera did as advised,” said spokeswoman Eda Kalkay. “He looks forward to clearing up this matter in court.”

Hmmmm. There seems to be more to this that what is being reported but we are not surprised – one potential Bridezilla and one celebrity TV star who seems to spend an awful lot of his expertise centered on floral arrangements, crockery and flatware…. tears were bound to happen.

It does strike me as odd that someone would spend a coupla’ hundred grand and a couple of pair of business class New York to Singapore tickets for a wedding planner to provide – a bridal bouquet, tablecloths, a dance floor or a VIP table.

He’s well regarded by many – although the Singapore couple described the reality TV star as being “despicable” and “arrogant” when planning the high-priced wedding. So now they’ll all get together in a  New York court.

We haven’t sighted them but apparently the photos of the wedding show the couple beaming on their big day and reveal that, despite Tutera’s absence, the couple managed to come up with a bridal bouquet, a dance floor and towering centerpieces. Bless!

Although the reception for some reason was bathed in purple light… but apparently that was on purpose…

And for those not familiar with David Tutera – enjoy some snippets of him in action.

So there you have it. A montage snapshot of the world of David Tutera in action.

Look, if you really must get some more David, then he’d be delighted to sell you one of his massive coffee table styled books with glossy pictures of ….floral arrangements… and other floral things.. arranged….  at his website which can be found over here.

In closing off this post, I implore anyone commissioning an event – be it personal or corporate, always consider a professional event service provider. If you don’t know of one, check out outfits such as the International Special Events Society of which FACTOR168  is a long standing member.

Sources: An Australian report here and a USA report is here.

FACTOR168 | Creative Event Management Company

In the short term – no not really. Long term? Yup.

FACTOR168 works extensively overseas as well as across Australia, and in our experience it is not that uncommon for event producers like us and our valued clients to be presented with a whole host of ‘extra’ venue charges. Reasonable and not.

This can vary from city to city and site to site but can include access to service lifts and loading docks as put forward by the Brisbane Sofitel with this new fee/levy.

Although we have never been charged for ‘wear and tear’ to the building as raised and sensibly discounted by the Sofitel Brisbane General Manager – some charges we have incurred can be considered by many as very unreasonable when added to agreed general venue hire charges.

An example? Okay, working at Shaw Studios in Hong Kong, the venue insisted on charging for every car space within their private car lot (it was discovered later that the entire site was subsidized in part by the government to encourage corporate events…wow) and much to my amazement – was also keen on charging an access levy for each ‘section’ of their private road network that criss crossed the event site. We are talking the access roads here!

Shaw Studios – on a personal level, lovely to work with but as a business event friendly venue, well let’s just say that unless our clients had some really serious motivations, we would encourage them to consider more cost controlled sites such as the Hong Kong Convention Centre. Which on a sister event they did and with the money saved from all those access fees, the show got extra sizzle to everyone’s delight.

I make this point as the Sofitel, as lovely as it is,  is not the only sole venue of choice.

Without a doubt – the two biggest and mission critical venue related charges incurred overseas is air conditioning and production power consumption.

I recall staging a heavily geared technology show for IBM (USA) in Singapore on behalf of Alford Media from Texas and being presented with an estimation of power charges by the venue. It was in the thousands.

Still in Singapore – try to rehearse a hundred strong song and dance cast within the Singex Exhibition Halls without air conditioning. Madness.You wouldn’t do it. I didn’t. My client and I haggled and paid. Singex were flexible with their ‘access’ fees.

As were the Pattaya Exhibition and Convention Hall (PEACH). It was a joy to work with Thai management who were very happy to accommodate us on site fees in return for our corporate event business. We have since returned there for a follow-up event and they continued their high degree of hospitality.

The upshot – well I guess if FACTOR168 is faced with only a $75 fee at the Brisbane Sofitel, we are not thrilled but we are certainly not desperately unhappy. We’ll just regard it as ‘av corkage’.

As a sidenote - this fee doesn’t actually surprise me at all. With the new AV inhouse supplier at Brisbane Sofitel being AV Partners you could declare this inevitable. Bankrolled by former Staging Connections supremo Gary Hackett, he had previously introduced a technician on duty or ‘TOD’ fee at all his contracted venue partners. From memory it was $60 or perhaps even … cue dramatic spooky music – $75 per hour. Not that dissimilar to the tech fees I have previously been charged at ‘teamster-styled’ unionised venues notably in Las Vegas and Atlanta.

Still at least the proposed Sofitel ‘av corkage’ is a fee in return for access.

Some convention centres in Australia have some very restrictive anti-competitive policies. Sydney is not so bad as they are happy to partner, the Gold Coast is sensational and a venue of choice, whereas Adelaide and to a lesser extent Brisbane are run almost as closed shops. I’d be happy to pay $75 at either of these two sites in return for free and unhindered site access with my partners of choice.

Ultimately – if you are staging an event in the Sofitel Brisbane and $75 is going to break the budget – I suspect you have some serious event budget issues and shouldn’t really be staging the event at all… and certainly not at one of Brisbane’s few five star venues of reasonable event friendly size.

For your reference - the ASE has published the letter announcing this policy from the Sofitel.

Perhaps the devil is in the detail with the second last paragraph of this letter from the hotel’s general manager indicating that this fee ‘may be altered at the hotel’s discretion’.

I’d like to think it could on particular circumstances the Sofitel ‘av corkage’ fee be waived outright… my gut however says that perhaps ISES are right to fight potential future fees for fear of hotels evolving into ‘closed convention shops’. I guess we’ll see.

In the interests of transparency, I should note that I have previously worked for many years developing Staging Connections overseas event footprint. Gary Hackett is a man that I respect, sometimes admired, and it would be fair to say that  I am always alert but never alarmed in his presence.

We have no commercial relationship. But I am always open to offers.

FACTOR168 | Creative Event Management Company

We came across this clip from the Today’s Big Thing and thought you might really enjoy it just as much as we did and do.

The clip presents a television performance by a South Korean lounge band – and everyone seems to be on the same safe and dull ‘musical page’ until you notice the drummer in the background. He is having a a ‘wow’ of a time…

A star performer will always shine no matter where he or she sits within the ‘band’.

* Drum image courtesy of Lilguitar – fabulous images.

FACTOR168 | Creative Event Management Company

Consider this if you are in anyway fragile, remotely prudish, or just not too keen on the French or watching people walking a lot.

For the rest of us – here is a great music track with a catchy driving beat and addictive chant like lyrics supported by a very simple concept and memorable vision.

In brief – a series of girls take turns striding down a series of streets in Paris, relieving each other relay style with Dylan-esque lyrics repeatedly masking out their genitals. Okay then.

Sure sure there is a certain degree of titillating shock value to be found here I guess but I’d counter that in this day and age… it isn’t actually all that shocking. Just enough ‘shock’ I’d imagine to ensure it reaches a global audience. The fundamentals of viral marketing appear to be all ticked here (let’s face it – this very post is testimony to this) ensuring a greater enhanced profile for this band.

As evidenced by their extensive touring now being undertaken it seems to be working out just fine for them… and having good music in my humble opinion certainly can’t hurt.

Artistically there is a lot to like about this project. It’s smart and simple.

And I love the effortlessly smooth transitions the ladies perform between each other. To be honest, I didn’t even see the first relief girl enter the scene until her dress came up.

From a purely commercial point of view, what I really love about this project is that for a relatively modest budget outlay – an allocation for a camera mounted vehicle or motorbike (or even a scooter), talent fees, and a reasonable block of edit time, this almost no-cost exercise has delivered a great result with huge ongoing potential for the band.

It is fair to say that this particular approach is not for everyone or for every business. But this notion of creating a strong vibe through an experiential event staged within the public arena is well worth considering for some.

It can certainly ensure media coverage. It can generate genuine word of mouth buzz  around the brand or product. It can seriously elevate profiles through the ‘compounding magic’ of viral electronic marketing.

A number of things to be mindful of in considering this style of experiential marketing. Safety above all else.

If staged in the public space and your undertaking a guerrilla approach like this clip – then speed and surprise are everything. If not, expect to either be shut down very quickly or even worse – public reactions may be much more studied and contrived and let’s face it this isn’t so hot. Forced moments invariably consign video productions to the edit suites as a ‘fix-it-in-the-edit’ casualty. Suddenly there’s CGI everywhere and a budget bled out all over the floor.

Other elements to consider are -a practical budget and a strong sense of what is ‘appropriate’ and what isn’t in terms of general public sensibilities and brand identity.

You’ll also need a seasoned experiential events partner to help produce, navigate, and execute the project at hand to ensure maximum value and impact is achieved from the ‘moment’.  Of course, above all else, you and your organization will need to demonstrate courage and conviction.

The music clip is not so surprisingly called “Baby Baby Baby” and is courtesy of the bands myspace website – Make the Girl Dance

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Some of us have lucky socks or undies, perhaps a handful of sunflower seeds… or a jangly keyring doo-dad…a single well worn poker chip… you know what I mean. Lucky stuff. Just to be sure.

One of our founding creatives, Darren Kerr, has a very odd ‘lucky’ practice he harbours when delivering a special event. Once he has conducted his Q2Q rehearsals, done his site walk through, greeted and briefed speakers and talent alike, and ensured everything is as it should be … he feels the need to play his lucky track through the room’s PA before he is content and good to ‘go-for-doors’… that track is “Funky Town”.

Importantly – we are not talking about the classic Lipps Incorporated 1970′s disco hit version but rather the 1980′s cover version by Aussie synth band Pseudo Echo.

We suspect it is the ‘funky’ Korg keyboard slung over the shoulder that seems to appeal most. In fact he loves the track so much he has attempted to book the band a number of times for clients eager for a really fun ’80′s themed retro event… thankfully he has so far been thwarted by the FACTOR168 good taste style police. He has however successfully engaged other ’80′s musical warriors such as ‘Air Supply’ so you can’t win them all. Oh dear.

‘Funky Town’ fast approaches. Strap in.

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It is grim. It is 1984. The Gordon Geckos are on the loose. Everything is beige.

Britain’s miner strike, big teased hair, asteroid video game (loved this thing along with the sitdown Pacman), brick mobile phones, vinyl records, leopard prints, Maggie Thatcher lurks behind the scenes and the Cold War Cowboy is at work across the Atlantic. Travel is chorelike and sucks.

Cue the Frankie Goes to Hollywood inspired soundtrack and out stride forth the Virgin Atlantic glamourzillians in their fitted bright red uniforms and sexy stilettos – cutting a swath through a sea of tired beige. Ruby Cool. Very Ruby Cool.

Yup. Based off this ad alone, I’d want to change airlines too. The promise of an attractive branded experience over a simple transactional service can be very powerful. Well done Virgin Atlantic.

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In an office poll – his recent marathon effort “Australia” with Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman was declared to have sucked the big one for being too self indulgent and long. And yet – everyone loves and admits to owning a copy of the iconic “Strictly Ballroom” starring a very young Paul Mercurio.

His other two efforts are also either adored or loathed -  “Moulin Rouge” again with Nicole and a strangely cast Ewan McGregor, and “Romeo+Juliet” with a pre-Titanic Leo DiCaprio and the Gwyneth Paltrow double, Claire Danes.

For myself personally, I can’t help but feel that Baz isn’t so much a great storyteller or a fabulous film director but rather his is a uniquely visioned cinematic stylist. His films are all stamped equally with the rich visual dimensions of his visual signature. Interestingly his partner in crime and wife Catherine Martin, is a three time Oscar nominee and a winner on two occasions for…. you guess it – costume design and art direction. Hmmm.

In any case – Baz (and or his muse Catherine) illustrate well practised artistic skills in re-visioning and re-packaging. Skills that are central to good business theatre practices. To take the familiar and the pre-existing in terms of set performances and audience expectations, and to revision (or as our Disney friends are want to say – reimagnieering) these elements into a newer, fresher and more impactful experience.

“Moulin Rouge” and “Romeo+Juliet” are both very good cases in point.

The well known Shakespeare story of forbidden love is expertly placed into more contemporary settings while “Moulin Rouge” draws heavily on the Toulouse Lautrec inspired historical Parisian setting threading musical sequences laced with distinctive and iconic pop music lyrics. I can assure you it was not just Ewan McGregor who appeared a little perplexed at this… but it worked. Which is a forced segway to today’s show and tell moment.

This music clip was employed at the time of the “Moulin Rouge” film as a great cross-platform promotional effort and what a great effort it was. Taking on a classic 1970’s dance floor hit “Lady Marmalade” by Labelle – this refreshed version starred the four biggest popstars at the time – Christina Aguilera, Lil’Kim, Mya, and the FACTOR168 fav’ Pink.

The results: a great musical cover version, a great cross-promotional experience, strong Baz inspired visuals, and a collection of distinctive thumbnail personalities presented by the girls. Not surprisingly – we’ve designed similar “Lady Marmalade” experiences and delivered them within the event context. Taking affectionately memorable moments and artfully redesigning them into even more powerful updated experiences. Good fun for all.

Enjoy the clip and the sisters in action!

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Listen carefully and for those that have worked or crossed paths with event production crew in all their strange and wonderful forms – you’ll know that Obama is on the money.

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Again – enjoy responsibly.

We really digged this clip as it had all the right ‘mix’ of components that translated into a good communication experience. Strong characters, a good storyline, a strong sense of humour, a fresh take of pop culutre (preps rapping!) and above all – much like the product – it was all good fun.

Enjoy. But of course in moderation.