Outback backdrop for unforgettable Family Business Australia conference

Family Business Australia (FBA) held its 20th National Conference in Alice Springs from 9-12 September 2018. Bringing together nearly 400 FBA members, the conference was held at the Alice Springs Convention Centre as well as a number of picturesque venues in the region, making the most of the unique location.

Encore Event Technologies made sure the four-day event ran without a hitch, supplying all audio, lighting and projection for the whole convention, including numerous key-note speaker sessions, masterclasses and workshops that ran simultaneously. As well as the conference program, delegates attended a number of social events throughout the Alice Springs region.

To kick things off, the Welcome Function on Sunday night was held at the stunning Simpsons Gap, a dry river bed surrounded by lush native greenery. An entrance statement, comprising a large truss arch as an entrance feature with flood lighting in the event colour scheme, greeted guests as they made their way down to the river bed. This elegant touch allowed the natural beauty of the surrounding area to shine, while focussing the space where delegates mixed and got to know one another.

Taking advantage of the fantastic Central Australian weather and scenery, most of the social events were held outdoors. At the first outdoor dinner, at Telegraph Station, Encore constructed a giant custom-made projection screen, allowing award winner images and videos to be projected from 30m away while maintaining perfect visual quality. This delivered an engaging experience and created an emotive sense of pride for the winners. This gave the client provided content of award winner video stings and slides an impressively large canvas to work on.

The final evening of the conference ended in style with an event at the Old Quarry. Surrounded by walls of red rock, guests were treated to a performance by Tommy Crowe, who played his didgeridoo on a ledge overlooking the crowd before the live band got delegates dancing under the stars. Encore created an immersive atmosphere for Tommy’s performance by dramatically lighting the rock behind him creating a glowing silhouette on the quarry and drawing all eyes to the performer.

The spectacular experience concluded after Tommy’s performance with him painting contemporary aboriginal art in his unique style on a large canvas. Encore filmed Tommy painting and projected his work onto the rock wall in real time, which gave the illusion of the painting being created directly onto the cliff.

Danielle Ricato, National Events and Sponsorship Manager, Family Business Australia was thrilled with Encore’s work.

“I don’t even know where to start when talking about this event, it was sheer perfection, from start to finish.

“There were so many moving parts to this event, and I am in awe of the enormous amounts of work that went into making this all look effortless!” said Ms. Ricato.

Brien Keys, Regional General Manager for Encore Event Technologies remarked,

“The Encore team was proud and honoured to go the extra mile, working with such an amazing client in the FBA for an event attended by amazing people. It was truly a privilege to produce the

event at some of Central Australia’s most spectacular settings. The technical challenges posed by the locations were a great opportunity for our technical teams to showcase their talent.”