NAME: 2008 White Ball – Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne & Perth
TYPE: Annual Awards Program – Toured to Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth
CLIENT: Ray White
NO. ON ORGANISING TEAM: Project Manager Thomas Brown of Realm Productions with touring technical crew for Lighting, Sound and Staging. Assisted by state event managers and their PAs.
PAX: 1250 - 860
BUDGET: Top secret
WHAT YOU DID: The 2008 White Ball is a touring Annual Awards program for the Ray White Group. The purpose behind the awards is for the Ray White National office to host an annual dinner to celebrate the achievements of the group for the previous 12 months.
The staging, room décor and lead technicians travel around the country over a four week period. The venues included the Brisbane Convention Centre Great Halls, The Westin Ballroom in Sydney, Crown Palladium Ballroom in Melbourne and Perth Convention Centre Ballroom.
The Realm Productions team partnered with each state’s Ray White event manager to ensure that the technical, staging and entertainment of the night occurred seamlessly and to budget in each location.
SPECIAL TOUCHES: The theme for the night, although not official, focused on diamonds. The stage set represented a giant scroll and the turning of a new chapter in the Ray White organisation. The stage set backed by LED star drapes created a fantastic three dimensional canvas for thematic lighting effects throughout the night. Tables were neutralised with black chair covers and black lycra tablecloths. As the focal point to each table was a 20cm diamond supported on a three prong clasp to complete the impression of a giant diamond floating just above each table. The subtle diamond feel was followed through to the multimedia animation holding slides and awards presentations. Finally, central to the room a 1.8m giant oval mirror ball focused with 4 Mac 700 moving lights created thousands of slowly moving beams of light completing the simple yet elegant room décor. To allow for maximum utilisation of the awards presentation a stage at the rear of the room was utilised for the post awards band and DJ’s. Here the awards theme was followed through with a gala awards stage backdrop from Backdrops Fantastic Australia.
CHALLENGES / OVERCOMING CHALLENGES: A significant challenge throughout the awards tour was the freight logistics to each awards location in the short 6-day turn-around from each location. This was complicated by venue access challenges and loading dock access. Clear preproduction planning venue managers and our freight transporters prior to the event ensured that 20’ container access and truck delivery and load-out were seamless in each location. A further challenge which we all face in events was securing the centrepiece without too many losses. Again, working with each banquet team we were able to secure the majority of the diamonds before too many were taken as souvenirs by determined guests.
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