September 16, 2021 | By Bronwen Largier
With the lockdown of three Australian capital cities and extensive border closures making a single in-person ceremony unviable, the Australian Event Awards is continuing its track record of doing things differently.
Last year it was an early adopter of a simultaneous multi-city event for its 2020 awards ceremony, which saw coordinated live events take place in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, anchored by an event in Sydney.
This year, it will deliver Event Awards results over a full month, starting with highlights of every entrant from October 1-19, including a video and interview of each, before revealing the winners over 12 nights from October 20-31.
Entrant highlights will be delivered via the Event Awards social media channels and the winners will be announced via scheduled broadcasts uploaded to the Event Awards YouTube channel. The first winner to be revealed will be that of Best Live or Hybrid Corporate Event at 6pm AEDT on October 20. That night two additional category winners will be announced – Best Online Event Delivery Platform at 7pm AEDT and Best Virtual Small Event at 8pm AEDT. On the final night of winner announcements, the Event Management Organisation of the Year will be revealed at 6pm AEDT and the Australian Event of the Year will be crowned at 8pm.
“The decision to move the Event Awards Ceremony online was not an easy one,” said Managing Director of the Australian Event Awards, Ian Steigrad.
“However, based on feedback from the industry and ongoing travel restrictions and uncertainty, we have decided to celebrate the achievements and resilience of the industry in a timely way, even if regrettably, that has to be done online.”
In an interview with micenet earlier this year Steigrad accurately predicted that 2021 would be a tougher year for the events industry than 2020.