NZ Event Awards celebrate resilience and innovation

The NZ Events Association (NZEA) has experienced first-hand the frustration, heartbreak, challenges, and ultimately triumphs faced by its members over the past two years. The premier gathering finally went ahead on its fifth attempt with three hundred and fifty event professionals gathering in Napier at Toitoi Arts & Events Centre. The evening celebrated innovation and resilience in the face of adversity, even adding a Best COVID Response for an Event Award to the mix.

Over a hundred events vied for the judges’ nod across seventeen categories. Rhythm and Vines (R&V) was awarded Best Music Event. The four-day festival was also finalist for Best Covid Response and Best Event Marketing. The work done by the Rhythm and Vines marketing team had previously been recognised at the TVNZ Marketing Awards and the entry’s supporting video is worth a watch.

In their notes, NZEA judges said R&V was a major and proven event that had adapted smartly to operate safely in a Covid-19-affected environment, “The event communicated and messaged this very well, gaining great and well deserved trust from attendees and authorities alike throughout the lead-up and during the actual festival. The positioning and commitment with health authorities to effectively deliver messaging around Covid-19 to the core audience was exemplary.”

Judges also noted the one hundred percent New Zealand artists line-up and high-quality livestream footage, “R&V celebrated the current strength of the music sector and proved itself to be a respected brand and one of the safest music festivals, supported by a passionate team of professionals.”

Claudelands Oval took home the Best Venue Award for SIX60 Saturdays managed by Hamilton City Council’s H3 team. They utilised an area usually used for Hamilton’s A&P show or for car parking for the neighbouring Claudelands Events Centre and GLOBOX Arena. Judges praised the team for, “Its first foray into large-scale outdoor concerts, which was a complex undertaking with multiple stakeholders in the mix. The Claudelands team rose to the challenge and proved themselves to be agile and thorough – delivering a hugely successful event in a previously underutilised outdoor space. Six60 Saturdays was a great example of a venue working for all of its stakeholders.”

Winner of the public vote for New Zealand’s Favourite Event of the Year was crowd-pleaser TSB Festival of Lights delivered by New Plymouth District Council (NPDC), featured previously in CX Magazine, which also picked up the award for the Best Local Government Event.

NPDC also took home the title of Best Event Use of Technology for Oxfam Trailwalker 2021, for a custom GIS mapping solution created for Oxfam Aotearoa supporting the design, planning and management of the race operations. The two other innovative finalists in this highly competitive category included Auckland-based LED experts Monstavision and the Blerter event delivery platform.

Monstavision, who look after all the LED screens for NZ Netball, provided a solution to allow the ANZ Netball Premiership to operate in a single venue for the bulk of the tournament and no additional corflute signage was printed for commercial partners – all their signage was LED.

Blerter were part of the Americas Cup team that dominated the evening picking up Best Major or Mega Event, Best Supplier (Platform 4 security), and Best Business Event and Best Event Creative (both PPG Events for the Toyota Hospitality Experience). Blerter enabled the major city-wide event involving multiple stakeholders, event organisers, volunteers and staff to run smoothly even in the face of the pandemic.

Many of the industry winners acknowledged their suppliers as did NZEA General Manager Ségolène de Fontenay, commenting, “Organising any event depends on managing multiple moving parts, including suppliers, guests, entertainment, catering and more. With Covid presenting an unpredictable additional dimension, organisers have truly had their backs against the wall. However, we’ve seen incredible resilience and the classic Kiwi Number 8 wire ‘can do’ attitude emerge from events professionals, who have persevered and put up with unimaginable difficulties with dogged determination.”