EEAA Awards The Balfour Hotel Tennis Australia iPad: Top 5 Business Apps

INSIGHTFEBRUARY 2011

I’m always excited when an idea comes to reality. INSIGHT is borne out of a creative concept to showcase not only what Microhire does but also provide an insight into our collaborators, colleagues and business rela-tionships. Each quarterly edition will feature the newest 'now' products, our latest work in our in-house venues and beyond, as well as a special insight into the newest people, gadgets and luxury lifestyle.

Welcome to INSIGHT.Welcome to Microhire.

Michael DaveyCreative Director

www.microhire.com www.facebook.com/microhire www.twitter.com/microhirewww.microhire.com/rss

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Luxe: Financial Night 2010

Spicers Hotels: The Balfour

EEAA Awards 2010

Melbourne Park

iPad: 5 Apps for Business

Tennis Australia Interview: Brad Cocks...........................................

...................................................................................Luxe: Financial Night 2010

Spicers Hotels: The Balfour

EEAA Awards 2010

Melbourne Park

iPad: 5 Apps for Business

Tennis Australia Interview: Brad Cocks

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Luxe: Financial Night 2010

Spicers Hotels: The Balfour

EEAA Awards 2010

Melbourne Park

iPad: 5 Apps for Business

Tennis Australia Interview: Brad Cocks

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CONTENTS

INSIGHT

Microhire delivers Australia's best Events, Conferences and Exhibitions – catering for all aspects; from I.T & Audio Visual to Creative Design & Styling. Working seamlessly with clients to make every experience a pleasure and every event an occasion to remember, Microhire is the support you need to effectively communicate to your

target audience, clearly and professionally.

1300 667 095 www.microhire.comMelbourne Sydney Canberra Gold Coast   Brisbane   Adelaide   Perth

Events, Conferences, Exhibitions, Creative Design, Audio Visual

| Corporate Event Services

Deliver a lasting impression...

LUXE: FINANCIAL NIGHTEIGHT MONTHS OF PLANNING WENT INTO ONE OF THE FINANCIAL WORLD’S NIGHT OF NIGHTS

The event team of this prominent fi-nancial institution wanted this year’s event to be like no other. From start to finish it was to have excitement, glamour, music and amazing food. Having used every event space in Melbourne, the team chose MelbouMelbourne’s iconic “Great Hall” at the National Gallery of Victoria, Inter-national. This amazing space with its ‘art piece’ ceiling, would be turned into a night club like none other. Mi-crohire worked closely with the events team to pull this year’s amazing concept together. What was the concept you ask? Pure Luxe!

Italian Furniture in black and white, giant light features topped out with palms and a lighting rig that rivalled a rock concert, even a 6 metre diam-eter Italian Bar. The bar was made to look like ice blocks and was the cen-trepiece to the room. More you ask? Well, in the centre of the bar was an amazing DJ station that was kept busy all night with some of Australia's best talent. We even created revolv-ing imagery that would highlight the food being served throughout the room on cue with the waiting staff.

“It was a wondrous sight seeing the

guests in evening attire walk through the gardens for the champagne re-ception; so Vanity Fair Oscars Party” commented Microhire’s Creative Di-rector, Michael Davey,”And then watch their faces light up as they walked into the Great Hall. We had to get the waiters to bring the guests in as they just stood and looked around the room in amazement, now that’s powerful!”.

With comments like “Best event ever” and “What a success”, I think we are assured that Microhire did a great job!

4-5INSIGHT

6-7INSIGHT

ecently we met with Lisa Keogh the Business Development Manager from The Spicers Group about The Balfour in Brisbane. They say never to judge a book by its cover and never has this been more true than in the case of Brisbane's unique Spicers Balfour Hotel. R

SPICERS GROUP HOTELS:

THE BALFOURFrom the outside, Spicers Balfour Hotel resembles many of the large and beautiful classic Queens-lander homes found in its New Farm neighbor-hood. But inside, it holds a secret that sets it apart from the other luxury hotels in Brisbane. The Balfour was a surprise to say the least. The inside is as stun-ningly modern as any boutique hotel, but has the amazing feeling of being in a luxury home or pri-vate club.

There are 9 spacious rooms at this porperty and each have their own unique design. It's a bit more eclectic and European in it's design, very chic yet amazingly comfortable, stylish but very quirky and always individual. The rooms are like private havens from the Big City. Every possible amenity was there, even down to the latest Zip hydro tap in every in every room.

The Balfour really is unparalleled in Brisbane; the hotel offers the discerning frequent traveller a new, surprising environment that will fast become addictive in a fabulous location just minutes from the airport and CBD.

With properties spread across South East Queensland’s beauty spots, such as the world-renowned Hunter Valley wine country, Spicers Retreats, Hotels and Lodges are an eclectic range of boutique properties bound by a common philosophy of exemplary service and fine food and wine in stunning surrounds.

There are presently seven Spicers Retreats Hotels and Lodges, with more planned for the near future offering the ultimate destinations for leisure stays, conferences, weddings & retreats.

Spicers Balfour Hotelbalfour@spicersgroup.com.au

1300 597 540

8-9INSIGHT

icrohire continues its support of the EEAA and its national Awards Night, with Microhire Creative being chosen to design the 2010 Awards for

Excellence. The Exhibition and Event Association of Australa-sia (EEAA) 2010 Awards for Excellence were held on 30th November at Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. The EEAA Awards for Excellence recognise outstanding merit and leadership within our industry and provide an op-portunity for members to showcase their innovations, perfor-mance and success.

Microhire created a stunning light show and decor look that was built around the colours of a peacock feather, which was this years invitation feature. Being the first dinner to be held in the new plenary hall with tiered seating, all eyes were on how the room would come up! Crystal centrepiec-es, luxe navy and copper linen, peacock feathers and crys-tal inspired chairs made the room take on a grand dining hall look and feel.

Custom graphics were created by Microhire for the evening with the peacock being the inspiration. Throughout the night imagery rotated across giant LED screens with pea-cocks ruffling their feathers and preening, while looking at the awards being handed out on the enormous stage.

The night has been collectively called the best awards look ever, seamless and beyond their expectations!

M

EEAAAW ARDS FO R EXCELLENCE

10-11INSIGHT

MELBOURNE& OLYMPIC PARKS

Blessed by an amazing setting within Australia’s premier sport and entertainment precinct, it’s fair to say the versatile Mel-bourne Park Function Centre is no ordinary events venue!Presenting as a blank canvas, the Park, Skyline and River Rooms allow creative minds to design stunning themes where the only barrier is the client’s imagination. With a balcony that affords stunning city skyline views and flanked by Rod Laver Arena, it’s the perfect backdrop for your next event.

The vast pillarless space featuThe vast pillarless space features moveable walls, facilitating a broad range of events including conferences, industry meet-ings, product and event displays, cocktail soirees and banquet dinners – even outdoor functions in the adjacent Garden Square.

“We are blessed with access to over 20 Championship tennis courts, which makes Melbourne Park ideal for conferences that combine seminars, outdoor team building events and a gala dinner”, said Cathy Ashton, Corporate Events and Hospitality Business Manager.

Rooms aRooms are spectacularly transformed each year for high end corporate clients, including those dining at the internationally renowned Australian Open Grand Slam tennis.

“Melbou“Melbourne Park Function Centre has earned a reputation for quality in everything it does - from the tailored range of impres-sive menus designed by our on-site chefs, to the exceptional service of our sales team. The Function Centre really is a ‘one stop shop’ when you look at what we provide. And in conjunc-tion with our on-site partners Microhire and Microhire Creative, we utilise industry professionals who bring to life state of the art AV and room design for any occasion”, explained Cathy. From the Sensis White Pages Conference to St Kevin’s School Formal, last year the Function Centre hosted a diverse and ex-citing range of functions. And as always, Grand Final Day kicked off early with a pre-match breakfast function for the Western Bulldogs, then into the night with St Kilda Football

Club’s post game dinner. At the fore was the venue’s dynamic capability to transform between busy plenary and breakout sessions, a stylish banquet or cocktail party set-up, then to a funky dance floor.

Cathy’s highlight for 2010 was “Cathy’s highlight for 2010 was “Tennis Australia’s inaugu-ral Newcombe Medal. So many of our past and present tennis stars graced the occasion, and typically the Mel-bourne Park Function Centre rose to the occasion and matched the elegance of a brilliant evening. It was a fantastic way to finish off the year.”

To round off our discussion, Cathy was keen to remind hirers of the venue’s proximity to the CBD. “We’re only 5-10 minutes walk to the city and Melbourne’s finest ac-commodation, plus we’re serviced by excellent public transport and onsite parking.

We have all the advantages of being in the city, without being in the city!”

This is where Melbourne’s big events are – so why not add yours to the amazing calendar!

W: www.melbournepark.com.au P: 03 9286 1118E: sales@mopt.vic.gov.au

12-13INSIGHT

iPadTHE TOP 5 APPS FOR BUSINESS

The real power of this device lies in the exten-

sive list of applications or 'apps' as they are re-

ferred to. Apple emblazon their website with

the amazing claim " a groundbreaking device

with the apps to match". iPad has over 30,000

'apps' on the market at the moment with the

growth in these not seeming to wane anytime

soon. We definitely don’t have the space to

list them all, but have compiled a list of the

top 'apps' used by our team and clients. All

iPhone and iPod Touch apps should install and

work on the iPad but with the bigger screen

many of the original developers are releasing

a version specifically designed for the iPad.

HeHere is a snap shot of some of the best busi-

ness applications - sorry, 'apps' - around that

will make your presentations slicker and life

that little easier

WHAT WAS ALL THE

CONTROVERSY ABOUT?

THE APPLE IPAD HAS BECOME THE NUMBER ONE BUSINESS SUPPORT DEVICE IN THE PAST 12 MONTHS.

Keynote, the powerful presentation application for Mac, has been completely redesigned for iPad. Create a world-class presentation, complete with animated charts and transitions, with a simple touch and tap. It's all there to create amazing presentations, including a full suite of Apple-designed themes, custom graphic styles, and anima-tions effects. Start with a theme and add the slides you need with just a few taps. You can easily open a Keynote ’09 or Microsoft Power-Point file.

1. KeynoteCreate presentations with the Mac equivalent of PowerPoint.

2. OmniGraffleCreate flow charts and cool shapes on your iPad.

Do you need a diagram, quickly process chart, a fast slick page-layout, or graphic design? OmniGraffle helps you make eye-popping graphic documents quickly by keeping lines connected to shapes even when they're moved, providing powerful styling tools, importing and exporting Microsoft Visio files, and magically organizing diagrams with just one click. Whether you need a quick sketch or a more techni-cal drawing, OmniGraffle keeps it all together."OmniGraffle is stunning. OmniGraffle is easy to work with and use.

5. PenultimateSlick note writer for jotting notes perfect for meetings.

Write, sketch, imagine and remember states the website for Penulti-mate. "Your touch creates stunning ink" exclaims the web, but what it does do is organise your ideas into notebooks, that you can then share and even collaborate with your coworkers, classmates, and friends. Pe-nultimate is an app for the iPad that allows you to write, sketch and draw almost anything you want to, all with the touch of your finger on the iPad screen. This app goes further than the simple notes that we all have on our phones,etcT, however, it’s more like ‘notes on steroids’ as it allows you to do so much more than was ever possible with notes.

Ever needed to just quickly print something? PrintCentral allows you to print to all printers. Being able to print direct to most WiFi/Wireless printers without additional software. You can even print remotely over 3G and in corporate/other networks where WiFi is not available. Any app with AirPrint can print via PrintCentral directly to most exist-ing wifi printers or to ALL printers via your Mac or PC. With PrintCen-tral, every printer is basically ready willing and able to cater for your needs! But do think of the tree's when printing!

3. PrintCentralPrint to any WiFi printer from your iPad with 1 click.

Dropbox is the easiest way to sync and share your files online and across computers.This app requires a Dropbox account. If you don’t al-ready have a Dropbox account, the app will allow you to create one for free. It's as easy as one, two and three! This app is full of features and has been around for a while, and just gets better. View photos, videos, documents, and presentations in your Dropbox on the go.Save your photos and videos taken with your iPhone's camera to your Drop-box, including HD videos on your iPhone 4!

4. DropBoxShare files (big and small) quickly and without email.

14-15INSIGHT

TennisAustralia’sAn INSIGHT into

newest recruit!

Brad, before joining Tennis Australia, what had you been doing?

I've spent the past 10 years working thI've spent the past 10 years working throughout business, theatre and event industries, with the past 5 years as a Producer in the corporate events segment. This has in-cluded working throughout Australia and South East Asia. I joined the Tennis Australia team in August 2010 to lead up the Corporate Events team. What’s most important to you about an event and how it is put together?

Understanding your audience is critical as you well Understanding your audience is critical as you well know. It's not about what you like, it is about how you can entertain! Generally the audience demographic can span large cross sections, so creating an appeal to each person is challenging, but extremely rewarding! There are many facets to creating this – beginning from the first piece of collateral a guest receives or sees, right ththrough the final curtain and not forgetting the follow up material. Venue, F&B, Design, decor, production values and entertainment are top of my list to what I spend a vast amount of time and resources on, however my main focus is the run sheet, this is the storybook of the event. Get this formula correct and the audience will be in the palm of your hand! Well you hope so! Have you found a difference between events in Mel-bourne and those you have created around the country and overseas?

Demographics of the audience also relates to location and culture. This varies as to what style of event needs to be created or how its presented. Melbourne is so lucky to be the event capital of Australia, so we really are some-what spoilt for choice! This means as event

producers, we are challenged to continuously improve and set new benchmarks on a local level. Michael you know that better than anyone. For me its even easier, my office is located in one of the countries best events venues, with Melbourne Park being my home base, with the attached Melbourne Park Function Centre right there on my door-step.

WWith Melbourne being my hometown, I am comfortable working here on a day by day basis. The rest of Australia and South East Asia is challenging in that I don’t interact directly every day. That said, I love traveling and visiting other locations as they inspire creative ideas and oppor-tunities that can be applied in any location. Why Tennis Australia?

TTennis Australia is an incredible opportunity. I love sport in general and have a great family history with Tennis. Having the opportunity to work on an event like the Aus-tralian Open is an amazing experience, It is the largest event in the country and one of the leading events in the world. The opportunity to have an influence on this event is something I appreciate daily. Aims for the future (in terms of TA events)?

At At Tennis Australia, we would like to further develop our existing event offerings by setting new benchmarks in the event industry both locally and nationally, but we also have to remember that the Australian Open is an International event, and the world is watching. We would like to expand our event calendar and offerings to the market both in general to the sport of Tennis and Australian Open specifically. Such as the Newcombe Australian Open specifically. Such as the Newcombe Medal.

Talking of the Newcombe Medal, how did this year become such an amazing event? It’s been called the Allan Border Medal of tennis.

The Newcombe Medal 2010 was The Newcombe Medal 2010 was Tennis Australia’s inau-gural awards night. It combined the awarding of our elite athlete in the Newcombe Medal, but also acknowl-edged and rewarded 12 categories throughout the sport of Tennis in Australia, both on and off the court. The initial idea was developed as a prestigious, black tie awards night that showcased and celebrated the Australian Tennis community.

A small project team was put together to design and build all elements of the night, including the initial design of the actual Newcombe Medal. We set about ensuring that we would deliver an all round experience to our guests that would be a benchmark in Tennis but also in awards ceremonies. This included everything our guests saw, touched, felt and experienced from the moment they they received the first piece of collateral, right through the evening, to what they would remember and enjoy long after the event. It was great working with such a dedicated team of suppliers, you (Microhire Creative) even did the tables for me, along with Microhire's team managing lighting, sound and vision for us.

It was important that we had the correct mix of honor-ing our award winners and celebrating with entertain-ment throughout the evening. By customizing all facets of the event we were able to deliver this unique experi-ence to our guests. We hope to continue to develop the Newcombe Medal over the coming years to be the in-dustry benchmark in Awards events.

Thanks to Brad and to the amazing team at Tennis Australia and Melbourne Park Function Centre for all of their work on the Newcombe Medal. Watch out awards nights, I think a new

player is charging up the list!

EachEach issue of INSIGHT will feature articles about events people around the country and over-seas. From the newest to the most venerated, INSIGHT will track them down and bring you a

great five minute chat!

Recently our Creative Director sat down with the newest team member at Tennis Australia, Brad Cocks, who has recently as-sumed a fantastic new position with Tennis Australia. Here is an

INSIGHT into one of Tennis Australia's newest recruits.

INSIGHTNEXT ISSUE LOCATIONS & VENUES

OUR CITY ON THE HARBOURAn INSIGHT expose on the best Sydney has to offer, from the best venues, Luxe accommodation and places to see and be seen.

LATEST VENUE NEWSA A recipe for success! Who, Why and what makes it tick? We go one to one with an amazing venue and find out what the secret to success really is.

A MAGICAL TALEInside the Magic 2011 Gala with Mathieu Salem and Kerrie Stanley, two of the key figure heads of this uncompromising event born of a creative team of designers and entertainers.

A 'DOME' LIKE NO OTHERHow Microhire turned one of Melbourne's most venerated spaces into a night club like no other. We cant tell you who danced where, but we can show you what is was like before the stars hit the floor!

IINVESTMENT IN THE FUTURE OF EXHIBITIONSMicrohire's newest blue chip investment: the ultra-narrow NEC MultiSync First used at the bathurst lounge, this stunning LCD wall delivers crystal clear imagery. A new benchmark in exhi-bition and event support

JET STREAMOur Creative Director goes all Gulfstream V on us! An insightful investigation into the highs of luxury jet rental. It's not about business!

VICMicrohire - Melbourne4/11 Rocklea Drive,Port Melbourne, VIC 3207T +61 3 9646 9882F +61 3 9646 9772E melbouE melbourne@microhire.comW www.microhire.com

Microhire - Federation SquareLevel 2 East Shard Cnr Swanson & Flinders Street Melbourne, VIC 3000T +61 3 9655 1960F +61 3 9663 3652F +61 3 9663 3652E fedsquare@microhire.comW www.fedsquare.com.au

Microhire - Melbourne& Olympic ParksFunction Centre, Batman Ave,Melbourne, VIC 3000T +61 3 9286 1552T +61 3 9286 1552F +61 3 9650 3256E mopt@microhire.comW www.mopt.com.au

QLDMicrohire - Gold Coast / Brisbane1/16 Millaroo DrHelensvale, QLD 4212T +61 7 5665 9500F +61 7 5665 9511E brisbane@micE brisbane@microhire.com

NSWMicrohire - Sydney & CanberraUnit 1, 6-8 George PlaceArtarmon NSW 2064T +61 2 9460 6700F +61 2 9460 6755E sydney@micE sydney@microhire.comW www.microhire.com

Microhire - Luna Park Sydney1 Olympic DriveMilsons Point, NSW, 2061T +61 2 9033 7545F +61 2 9929 7580E lunaparksydney@micE lunaparksydney@microhire.comW www.lunaparksydney.com

Microhire - QStationNorth Head Scenic DriveManly, NSW 2095T +61 2 9460 6700F +61 2 9460 6755E qstation@micE qstation@microhire.comW www.qstation.com.au

Doltone House: Jones Bay WharfPiers 19-21 Upper Deck, 26 - 32 Pir-rama Road Pyrmont Point, NSW 2009T +61 2 8571 0677F +61 2 8571 0679E doltonehouse@microhire.comW www.doltonehouse.com.au

Doltone House: Darling Island Wharf48 Pirrama RoadPyrmont, NSW, 2009T +61 2 8571 0677F +61 2 8571 0679E doltonehouse@micE doltonehouse@microhire.comW www.doltonehouse.com.au

www.microhire.com 1300 667 095

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