NAME: L’Oreal Paris 2006 AFI Awards.
TYPE: There were five segments to the event, including the industry awards ceremony, red carpet pre-dinner drinks, members’ function, awards dinner, and after-party.
CLIENT: Australian Film Institute (AFI).
NO. ON ORGANISING TEAM: The project was led by David Mercer, food and beverage manager at MECC. The MECC event planning department also spent three months working closely with production company Dainty Consolidated Entertainment on the event.
PAX: 1000 for the awards dinner and 1450 for the after-party.
BUDGET: Top secret

WHAT YOU DID: The 2006 AFI Awards was touted as having the biggest and best celebrity line-up to date. The MECC assisted event organisers with everything from turning the purpose-built exhibition bays into glamorous dining halls and nightclubs, to managing the entire food and beverage and assisting with all of the logistical planning and execution of the event. There were five segments to the event, and five separate menus were created for these, culminating in the awards dinner. The segments were: the industry awards ceremony and cocktail party, held on the first night of the AFI Awards event project plan (all subsequent events were held the following night); the red carpet where the organising team utilised the exhibition’s 450-metre concourse for pre-dinner drinks; members’ function which included a live broadcast from the awards dinner to the auditorium, which was being held in three of the MECC’s 20 exhibition bays, at the same time as the awards dinner; awards dinner which included hosting 1070 people to a gourmet meal which took months in the making and required organisers to purpose-build an entire kitchen the size of three tennis courts right next to the specifically-designed space created for the awards evening; and the after-party in another two of the 20 exhibition bays, for which the organisers built a nightclub for 1450 people.

SPECIAL TOUCHES: The organising team spent months preparing the menu for the dinner. The food and beverage started with a five-hour food menu tasting, before planning and then sourcing took place. It took months to prepare the menus. For the awards dinner alone, there were 45 staff in the kitchen and 300 waiting staff.

CHALLENGES: Not that many! The MECC is a flexible venue, so the organising team just ensured AFI’s needs were met from ensuring security was in place and the stars were respected on the red carpet to turning out exhibition bays into a nightclub.

CLIENT’S COMMENT: Anecdotally, the organising team received numerous positive comments from the AFI and attendees. Reported comments included Screen Hub’s Mark Poole who said: “The food last night was fantastic. And perhaps that was why, as much as any other reason, the mood at the after-party was so, well, buoyant.”

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