Novatech: Two decades of bringing events to life

Pic: Menk and Leko Novakovic, photo by David Solm.

The events industry is known for its excitement, fast pace, and ever-changing variety of challenges, but 2021 has redefined this altogether. For Adelaide’s Novatech Creative Event Technology, 2021 also marks a momentous milestone with 20 years in business.

Brothers Leko and Menk Novakovic could not have foreseen not only 2021 and the current state of their beloved industry, but also the success their family-owned business would have achieved. They set out to bring an innovative approach to the use of event technology, creating engaging customer experiences across the concert and touring, corporate and special events spaces around Australia. Little did they know the success that would follow or the challenges along the way.

As a South Australian family-owned business started by two brothers from Elizabeth, Novatech have come a long way and grown to become one of Australia’s most trusted full-service corporate event production companies. It’s all thanks to their people, who have continued to build and strengthen Novatech over the years. Events over that time have included the Netball World Cup Sydney 2015, Gold Coast Commonwealth Games 2018, multiple Vivid Festivals in Sydney, and raft of music festivals, arts festivals, corporate events, and sporting events, including the Santos Tour Down Under.

The last 18 months has severely impacted the entire events industry and Novatech’s thoughts extend to all their clients, colleagues, competitors, and like-minded event professionals across the globe. Novatech’s soul is in live events, with a clear passion to ensure they return around the country. In the meantime, a series of high profile virtual and hybrid events have been staged successfully with a focus on flexibility, scenario planning and a collaborative approach to ensure the event has every possibility to proceed and remains engaging and successful.

Novatech’s managing director, Leko Novakovic remarked “We never thought we would be celebrating our 20^th year while facing such challenging circumstances and an uncertain future with lockdowns across the country. But we’re extremely thankful to be able to gather the team (while socially distanced) to celebrate a milestone such as this.”

Leko continued, “We don’t know what the future holds, but we’re determined to fight through it and come out the other end stronger to celebrate future milestones in a bigger fashion. There’s no doubt it will be difficult, but we’re putting all of our support behind our team who continually push the boundaries of technical innovation working on Australia’s leading events.”

Fresh from delivering several large installations as part of the inaugural Illuminate Adelaide, Novatech are looking to the future with a firm focus on live events. Novatech understands the challenges facing the industry and are working collaboratively on a range of scenarios for all their future events from live to virtual and hybrid with flexibility remaining the key factor for survival. The future is far from certain but, with a passion for exceptional experiences and backed by a dedicated team of skilled event professionals, Novatech is determined to fight for the survival and reemergence of the Australian event industry for the next 20 years.