Encore Event Technologies took 250 attendees on a wondrous journey, for the annual Medtronic China ‘OP’ Gala Dinner at Cordis, Auckland.
The theme ‘Glory Awards’ challenged Encore to create an atmosphere that embodied honour, splendour and beauty, through unique styling, innovative lighting and projections.
Upon arrival, a red-carpet lead guests past two intricate customised flower photo walls, designed and constructed by Encore for the event, where a medieval King, Queen and Wizard, posed with the attendees. As guests entered the event spectacular custom lighting and styling highlighted the theme. The primary colour used on the night was gold, which is the most prestigious colour in Chinese culture.
Also contributing to the overall splendour of the room was the unique stage setup. A 12m x 3m LED screen took position centre stage, surrounded by star cloth on either side, giving the room an ethereal vibe. The customised stage and catwalk meant the guests could clearly see all the entertainment and presentations, including a traditional Maori welcoming, magic show and a 7-piece band.
Gewoo Communication Co., the event organisers were thrilled with the production and delivery from Encore.
“Without Encore’s professional service and cooperation, we could not have had such a wonderful and successful night for the ‘OP’ Gala Dinner. Thank you for everything again. I am very honoured for this opportunity to work on this event together.” Wind Cheng, Gewoo Communication Co.
“Thank you very much for your support and your team’s professional performance. The dinner was a great success. Customers are very satisfied.” Julia Chao, Gewoo Communication Co.
Encore partnered with Hyatt Australia to deliver a unique visual culinary experience for this year’s Living Grand Dinner hosted at Grand Hyatt Melbourne. The 48 VIP guests were treated to an immersive experience that stimulated all the senses using audio visual theatrics, custom lighting and creative styling. Each course was complimented with beautiful table projections, sounds and lighting.
Grand Hyatt Melbourne General Manger, Ilan Weill
“We of course appreciated your innovation and hard work to meet the deadlines and listen to us. However, the special thank you I would like to convey is for your partnership and amazing spirit working and having fun with us on what was a last-minute idea and turned out to be a fully produced wow type of night. Your patience, great attitude, talent and how you joined forces with us on the night was felt by everyone involved and we really appreciated working together as one team.”
Delivering a big stage solution for Volkswagen
Encore was set the challenge to create a memorable high-end audio-visual feast communicating the ‘Iconic’ theme for the Volkswagen Customer Xperience Summit 2019. The event welcomed over 800 delegates in two streams from across the Volkswagen dealer network at the Royal International Convention Centre, Brisbane on 19-21 February 2019. Conceived and convened by Volkswagen Australia Director of Customer Experience and Marketing Jason Bradshaw, more than 800 Volkswagen Group Australia staff and delegates from the nationwide dealership network have attended Xperience Summit, what is believed to be the biggest customer training exercise held by an auto importer in this country.
The commanding stage set delivered a massive impact. Encore’s technical team created a mammoth screen consisting of 5 custom borderless screens combined to form one large canvas of 48m wide, this included two curved screens at either end to frame the 28m custom black acrylic stage. Over 150 pixel mapped LED neon tubes encased the top and bottom of the screens creating a futuristic feel and complementing video content. Two circular stages made of black reflective acrylic built either side of the screens created a platform for two of the latest Volkswagen vehicles launched at the event.
This impressive event delivered a series of captivating on-screen animated experiences on the huge projection surface which flowed thru to the pixel mapped lighting effects adding an extra level of excitement and drama. The central screen was also recessed to enable the speakers to make a dramatic entrance from behind the stage set.
By day the impressive stage was beautifully lit with red and blue with spotlights shining on the cars and reflective stage. During the conference the dramatic staging hosted Omar Johnson VP of Marketing for Apple, followed by presentations by a number of guest speakers and dealers. During the gala event in the evening the premium dealer awards were presented. The lighting show was ramped up to the maximum, plus pyrotechnics, the release of thousands of streamers and CO2 canon blasts to celebrate the major awards.
Michael Magafa, National Sales Director for Encore was delighted with the impact created by the giant stage set and the overall seamless delivery of Xperience Summit.
“The brief was to create a big impression, so we delivered a huge solution! The stage encased the entire room and the team designed an impressive lighting and projection solution to captivate the guests. I am very proud of the team’s flawless delivery for our client.”
Encore served up an incredible holographic-like experience for some of Australia’s leading event industry professionals, at the “Love and Desire” themed Top Secret 2019 Dinner. Hosted by the National Convention Centre Canberra (NCCC), as part of InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), this dinner was part of a 3-day program run by the Canberra Convention Bureau (CCB). The theme for the 3 day familiarisation was “Love and Desire”, based on the current exhibition on display at the National Gallery of Australia.
The hero of the night was Encore’s expert use of a holographic mesh screen, highlighting the venue as a premium event space and showcasing the technology available when holding an event at the NCCC in conjunction with Encore. Using the holographic mesh screen, Encore created animated content such as a hot air balloon that appear as though it was floating through the air.
On each table were large 2D Scenic Panels on custom frames, designed to look like garden lattices in the shape of hearts as a nod to pre-Raphaelite theme of the “Love and Desire” exhibition.
Amway China returned to Australia for the sixth time with more than 6,000 guests for their annual 2019 Leadership Seminar, this time held in Cairns. Seven waves of guests attended the 4-day seminar and incentive program between 21 March – 15 April 2019. Designed and organised by Encore, the business sessions and concluding Gala Program treated guests to a spectacular experience including a special blended reality sequence created using layered multimedia, holographic effects and choreographed robotics show with a live performer.
The challenge was designing a never-before-seen experience for a well-travelled client whom has seen almost everything. Amway China chose the Australian Artillery and Armoury Museum (AAAM) as the venue to add an unexpected element to the program. As the largest privately owned collection of military vehicles in the Southern Hemisphere, it offered guests a rare tank show experience. At 4,280 square metres, the venue was also large enough to accommodate the production equipment for both the gala and business sessions, catering and other suppliers.
The Rainforest to Reef theme allowed Encore to design four distinct experiences: rainforest, beach, reef and river. Each environment was themed using a 270-degree screen that wrapped around the venue walls, customised soundscapes, roaming performers and reef-inspired table styling which incorporated lighting design. A key performance brought each environment to life and were each enhanced with creative technical production.
The ‘rainforest’ environment included a thunder and lightning performance by the Million Volt Man, one of the most extreme live performers who uses high-voltage Tesla coil in his stunts. For the ‘river’ component, Encore created a custom ‘Fish Medley’ act which included singing and dancing animated fish on computer-controlled robotic LED screens that moved with the music. The ‘beach’ environment included an artistic Fabric Ballet performance featuring 18 DMX controlled fans with choreographed dancing, while ‘reef’ featured a game simulation of an underwater treasure hunt made possible using a range of AV techniques. The journey saw a live performer participate in the underwater adventure using layered multimedia with a holographic mesh screen, LEDs and choreographed robotics show.
The end result was a memorable gala dinner that ended the international incentive on a high. Encore show producer Andrew MacColl said guests were blown away by the 270-degree multimedia projection, holographic projection and synchronised robotics.
“The creative event design was matched with cutting-edge use of technology to create an amazing experience for guests,” he said.
“Working in such a unique venue had its challenges, but also many benefits in that it allowed our team the opportunity to maximise their creativity to bring to life a blank canvas. Special Event Director, John Schryver, designed a truly unique and immersive experience which will undoubtedly be remembered long after the event. The team bought his design to life and delivered the series of events flawlessly.”
See also:
- News Release: Encore produce nature inspired Leadership Seminar for 6,000 guests in Cairns for Amway China
- Highlight events of 2019
In May our Encore team in Auckland partnered with real estate brand, Barfoot & Thompson, to deliver their annual awards night in recognizing high performing staff and offices. Held in the Ballroom at SKYCITY Convention Centre Auckland, we delivered a very grand, decadent awards setting for 520 guests. Providing an end-to-end solution for this long-term client, we designed a big Hollywood awards style evening – big custom stage set, with custom on-screen content, red carpet, lots of gold and warm tones. Encore provided a total production solution from initial concept through to execution and management on show night. Upon arrival guests were ushered down a glamorous red carpet posing in front of the 4m media wall to have their ‘paparazzi’ shot taken. Being an awards night, the hero of the event design was the bespoke stage set comprising of 2 x 15m wide screens, 8 hexagonal panels and a large 15m x 4.5m low res LED screen – the entire design spanning a total of 32m wide! A challenge in the production process was finding projector fabric large enough for the screens, leaving our team to import it from the UK as there is no seamless fabric tat large in New Zealand. Leading up to this impressive stage set, our team built a custom grand staircase in a hexagonal shape to complement the hexagonal screen panels and the gold wire hexagonal table centrepieces.
We collaborated closely with B&Ts marketing agency who was responsible for producing their on-screen content. It was important we met week in the lead up to the event to review the content and provide technical feedback to make sure it was feasible and provide creative insight as to what could be possible. Our production team brought this content to life on stage using our Watchout media server and some of the largest projectors in the country – 4 x 30K projectors – which included some projection mapping prowess to line up the single image across the entire set including the hexagonal panels. Lighting design comprised of static, amber-coloured pin spots lighting each onto each table, 8 profile lights rigged to the ceiling with 16 from the floor, casting beams of light around the room with gobo beams breaking them up. During each award a ballyhoo lighting effect was used giving it that Hollywood awards feel “similar to a lighting drumroll effect”.
We created a beautiful canopy effect on the ceiling using luxurious gold draping interspersed with warm fairy lights with black draping to dress the venue walls. Guest were treated to a mesmerising performance by a trio with the Grand Piano as we all as a special performance from popular New Zealand singer-songwriter Lizzie Marvelly. The choice of gold tones, warm lighting, a flashy dramatic stage set with big, orchestral music all worked beautifully together to create one memorable awards night.
The 1,600-person event called Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend is now in its 19th year and was held at Crown Palladium. It is presented by the Women for Challenge Committee and Bed Bath N’ Table. The 2019 theme, Let’s Fiesta, incorporated bright colours, a fun atmosphere and big personalities. The event saw the Encore team supporting an all-female event by incorporating colourful paper flowers made by mothers and their children living with cancer into beautiful centrepieces. It was a small touch that told a significant story.
Catrina Bennell, General Manager Victoria, Encore said the centrepieces are just one piece in a large event that shared the important journey of families who have a child with cancer. “We wanted to create an event where potential donors and sponsors are inspired to give money to support this important charity.
“When the event manager for Challenge, Jane Rainey asked us if we could include the flowers made by the children and their families, we thought this would be a fantastic way to connect the children with the event. It made a real connection between our guests and the reason they were there,” said Bennell.
The Tourism Accommodation Australia recently hosted 750 guests at The Star Sydney, for their annual Tourism Accommodation Awards (TAA) night. The much-anticipated evening was again assigned to Encore Event Technologies, who created a beautifully styled event. The awards provide a platform for measuring and promoting service excellence by hotels. The client requested a concept that complimented the design of the annual logo created for the event. This year was a swirling gold logo which our team translated into a glamorous look for the event through a staging and theming solution including stage design and multimedia. The team created a custom stage set comprising custom projection screens shaped like the Sydney city skyline. Beautiful animated artworks were projection mapped on to the screens throughout the night. Event Feed was used on the night to enable guests to post their photos to the big screen during the night and tag the event #TAAAwards2019 to integrate the shots onto the TAA’s social media.
For nearly a decade, Encore have had the pleasure of working with Tourism Accommodation Australia (VIC) to deliver their annual awards. As with every year, the brief is to deliver a totally new and immersive experience, and this year’s theme gave Encore the permission to deliver just that. Nearly 500 esteemed guests, nominees and representatives from Victoria’s finest accommodation hotels attended the awards night at Grand Hyatt Melbourne in late June. Driven by the night’s entertainment Encore were engaged to design an evening to emulate the experience of attending the theatre. Taking a fresh approach to a ‘theatre’ themed stage set, Encore chose to incorporate both the back and front of house of a theatre as a homage to those in the room. Looking not only at the glitz and glamour, but all the hard working people behind the scenes.
From the client,
“I want to extend a big thank you to Encore for all your help and dedication on our TAA (Vic) Awards.
Your flexibility with last minute changes, and an ever changing event brief, all the video content – I know it was a lot to ask, and you really made the whole process so easy and flawless come the event night.
Thank you. We look forward to next year!”