Lateral Events
Twelve Months in the life of an Event Manager
Twelve Months in the life of an Event Manager
For Micenet A year ago, I was in the little village of Hannington, the spiritual home of the Baggs family, an hour west of London. I’d had organised a family reunion for about 70 of us, at which we wandered around the thatched cottages that had been the homes of our forebears and discussed…
Securing new clients is not about advertising
When I see the full-page adverts in the Sydney Morning Herald telling us ‘if your brand isn’t here, it’s nowhere’, I smell the desperation of the print ad sales people. Of course, the assumption now is that digital marketing is now the dominant tour de force. That may be true, but it would ignore the…
Creating unforgettable live events with Sir David Attenborough
Event management can be many things, but it is seldom more rewarding than producing live events with Sir David Attenborough. Sir David spent much of his career in front of the camera and rarely met his audiences in person. So spending an evening in a room with thousands of fans was a new experience for…
Bringing art to life through food, wine and interpretation
Highly creative and unique event management is an art. But when it is art that brings people together, to bring art to life, to interpret the art from the psychological viewpoint of the art subjects, and relating that narrative, gently, to a client’s messaging, it is experiential event management in action. Lateral has become adept…
Experiential event celebrating the Battle of Vinegar Hill
Perhaps Lateral Events is the only corporate event management company that has staged a full battle re-enactment; celebrating the first armed engagement in Australia, the Battle of Vinegar Hill of 1804 in Rouse Hill. Our clients, five western Sydney Councils, had a great vision and Lateral (with a lot of help from re-enactors) made it…
A Rant About the Business Event Industry
I can’t work out if we are blessed in the business events industry with so many industry conferences, exhibitions and awards to choose from, or if we’re so crazily disorganised and discombobulated that we’ve ended up with a mishmash of smaller events that don’t really serve us well. In 2018 there were eleven business industry…
Our event last night with the world’s rarest and most sought after wine
What were we doing last night? Experiential Event Management. In the depths of winter, we open our wine fridges and bring out the 1986 vintages of Château Mouton Rothschild Pauillac and Château Margaux, that have been waiting patiently for over thirty years for the moment when the cork is prised from the bottle neck. Bringing our clients the ultimate in…
Exposure to Genius Through Events
Over the past few weeks the team at Lateral Events have lived and breathed the very beginning of the universe; that moment when everything that is in our universe today was contained in a space smaller than a single atom. Each evening we’d experience the Big Bang, the expanding universe, and sit back in awe…
Seize those precious creative moments
A few weeks ago my colleague Alex and I attended a one day conference in Sydney. As we arrived there was a throng of faces in the lobby greeting each other, and us, old acquaintances catching up over a pre-conference morning coffee. Surprisingly for a fairly high level event the coffee was urn juice, that…
Creating money-can’t-buy experiences
It will soon be seventeen years that the team at Lateral Events have been carving out a niche in the Australasian Events industry for delivering events that provide money-can’t-buy event experiences. Our clients expect from us an ever new and evolving range of event experiences that provide access to the inaccessible and therefore attract attendance…
Intellectual entertainment
Her face is intent, focused, earnest and smiling. Her face is a face in a sea of faces, all with the same expression. She makes no sound. Not a sound from 2,500 faces with their stare fixated on the stage. Their eyes are wide open. Their minds are wide open. They listen, they look, they…
Contingency planning for events
Some of the very best events are simple affairs that provide a unique experience delivered with total professionalism. Serene event staff help to create a sense of calm and underpin the perception that everything is as it should be. Of course that is not always the case. The swan, as it glides smoothly across the…
An update from lateral events
It is a busy time at Lateral Events! Sir David Attenborough is packing his bags for his journey to Australia next week, the launch of ‘Brian Cox – An Evening of Scientific Phenomena’ is in full swing, as is the launch of Lateral Signature Events with press advertising this weekend in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth,…
Coping with event management stress
Coping with stress when you’re in the events business is, as Lynne Schinella says, is up to the individual. The blood is pounding through your veins and your heart is pumping at two or three times the normal speed, sending food and oxygen to your muscles, lungs and brain. Your pupils dilate, allowing more light…
Brainstorming extraordinary events (part two)
As we discussed last week, effective brainstorming is crucial to creating an extraordinary event. The brainstorm session needs to follow a basic agenda but the conversation needs to flow fairly freely so long as everyone sticks to the subject and has their feet on the ground and their brains engaged. In order to keep your…
Brainstorming extraordinary events (part one)
Bring together a small group of outgoing, well experienced people to brainstorm the event concepts. If you work for a corporation, consider inviting people for their ability to bring experience, fresh perspectives and personal creativeness rather than just inviting representatives of each department. People sent to represent departments at brainstorming sessions can often be the…
Creating an extraordinary event
Events are all about feelings, experiences and emotions. Creating events that focus on providing positive stimulus and greater than expected experiences is at the core of great event management. Perhaps your favourite player lost 6-2, 6-0 at the Australian Open, but if you had personally met Roger Federer during the event you’ll take home a…
Consider your event strategy
Companies of all sizes need to enhance and nurture relationships with existing and future customers. Building those relationships is not rocket science – it is as simple as realising that all customers thrive on personal recognition and appreciation. However, people are getting harder to reach. They are putting up walls around themselves and it is…
Selling your events program internally
If setting up a series of events as a relationship marketing exercise is new to your organisation, you should expect to face opposition from many fronts. The Advertising Agency will tell you money is better spent in ads (could it be their commissions you are stepping on?), the finance people will talk darkly about ‘jollies’…
Think outside a corporate box
How many times do we treat our most valued clients or prospects to tepid samosas on a plastic plate balanced precariously on their knees while passing characterless wine along the line in stadium boxes? Why do we do this? Entertaining clients with hospitality at major sporting events is an age-old practise, but marketers have only…