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Novotel Sydney Brighton Beach required Encore’s assistance to transform their annual Christmas buffet lunch into a festive experience. Over 150 guests would be attending, including a very special guest of honour, Santa Claus. Encore had their work cut out for them as the hotel’s Baygarden Restaurant that the event was usually held in was closed for renovation. An alternate solution, the windowless Endeavour Ballroom was proposed as the event space.
Shayley Sergeant
- 17 years experience in AV industry
- Single mother of a three year old girl
- Also mother of two five year old rescue dogs
- Intrepid traveler
- Loves music — avid drummer and guitarist
- Huge sports fan!
The Challenge
With the hotel’s beloved seaside restaurant under construction, the ballroom needed extra inspiration as it wouldn’t feature the events typical stunning view of the bay. The customer also wanted a winter wonderland to be built on a limited time frame and budget. Luckily, the customer had Encore on their side, with Shayley Sergeant ready to create some holiday magic.
The bayside view was a hard act to follow, but Shayley and team immediately jumped into action to create an equally crowd-pleasing environment. The scenic holiday atmosphere for the windowless ballroom would have to be built from scratch. Shayley had been given a brief on theme and colour scheme, but it was up to her to use her creativity and make it happen. To start, Shayley swapped the permanent black draping for white to suit the wonderland theme — a time- and labor-intensive endeavor. Although the busy holiday season was well underway, Encore was able to provide more experts from its extensive network to bring the vision to life.
The Solution
Rather than a bayside view, Shayley provided guests with a window to a dreamy white Christmas. Two windows in fact! Using a projected loop of a snowy window scene, the room was given an atmospheric, traditional white Christmas view. Shayley’s quick thinking and resourcefulness brought incredible results with access to more creative solutions.
Using her network, Shayley was able to access moving lights from another Encore venue that created a winter wonderland of glistening snow and ice. White draping was also sourced from the same network, with the install beginning three days out, allowing for each of the many drapes to be steamed and look their best. The lighting scape shifted seamlessly from one winterland look to the next: from the initial entry to the guests enjoying a seafood buffet with all the traditional Christmas trimmings and finally a visit by Father Christmas. Santa’s throne was bathed in light, bringing the magic of Christmas alive and thrilling all the guests.
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| Production | Technology | |
| Show Management | ||
The Result
The room was unrecognisable, truly transformed from a windowless, executive ballroom to a winter scape of awe. Guests were astounded from the moment they entered and had a very happy Christmas at the annual lunch. Meanwhile, the customer was blown away by what was achieved with such a short time frame and tight budget.
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