Events Industry’s best and brightest gather on the Sunshine Coast
The biggest names in Australia’s events industry are meeting next week on the Sunshine Coast for the tenth Australian Event Awards and Symposium, the national program that encourages excellence, innovation and unity in the events industry.
Hosted by Business Events Sunshine Coast (BESC), a division of Visit Sunshine Coast, events folk from around the country will spend three days sharing skills and knowledge, creating new connections and celebrating this year’s top events achievements at the Novotel Twin Waters Resort.
The best of the best also converge on the resort on Wednesday night to celebrate the winners of industry’s premier Awards program, which sees Finalists including the Sunshine Coast’s own Horizon Festival of Arts and Culture and Queensland Garden Expo go up against the likes of Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games, White Night Melbourne, Adelaide Fringe, and a spectrum of diverse events and achievements.
This the last of three years the event has been hosted by BESC and Visit Sunshine Coast as a Destination Partner, one of the stream of successes in events bids the region has enjoyed lately.
“It’s been a delight and honour to host the Australian Event Awards and Symposium for three years, and for it to be a part of our ongoing boom as a significant events destination,” says Simon Latchford, CEO of Visit Sunshine Coast. “Through this partnership we have not only been able to highlight our region’s powerful event capabilities to the nation, but also offer strong moments of connection between our local industry and influential players across many event sectors.”
The guest list also includes local star, chef Matt Golinski, who will be leading one of the headline Masterclasses at the Symposium and attending the Awards night.
“This is a great initiative, and I’m very much looking forward to working with some of Australia’s events stars in my session,” he says. “It’s an uncommon but exciting format; to really interact with the delegates, co-creating their professional development experience.”
Fenella Kernebone, Head of Curation for TEDx Sydney, and writer and former Wallaby Peter FitzSimons are the other two big-name Australians leading Masterclasses.
The three-day event will crescendo towards the black-tie Australian Event Awards ceremony, which is a highlight of the events calendar, and a remarkable feat of collaboration between 26 partner organisations who band together to execute the Awards night. Mr Latchford says,
“We’re looking forward to welcoming the country’s highest achieving professionals back to the Sunshine Coast for a great night of celebration. We can’t wait to see what they’ve put together this year.”