June 10, 2022 | By Bronwen Largier
We’re a bit late to the game here – unusual for us, if we do say so ourselves – but we’ve just tuned into Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre’s “Event Experts” video series, which dropped its third episode yesterday, and there’s something lovely about it.
So far, the series has profiled MCEC’s Sustainability Manager Sam Ferrier and digital event manager Mark Higgins, with yesterday’s instalment featuring the venue’s executive pastry chef, Alessandro Bartesaghi, who is currently on the hook to represent Australia as a chocolate chef, as the best in the Asia Pacific.
Part of the centre’s “home of the unconventional” brand campaign, the team member at the centre of each episode shares their specific part in MCEC’s large undertaking – delivering singular experiences as close to perfect as possible for hundreds or thousands of people each day.
As close followers of developments at MCEC, most of the pure facts conveyed by the expert in each area profiled so far were not exactly a surprise to us, but the format brings a endearing personal touch to those who deliver MCEC’s operations each day.
This is apparently exactly what MCEC was hoping for.
“Through this content series, we hope to show the calibre of people behind the scenes at MCEC,” said the centre’s head of marketing, Liz Kozmevski, when we asked.
“We’re the home of the unconventional and our people embody this with passion, authenticity and their unique approach to innovation.
“Working alongside [Melbourne video production agency] Monster and Bear has meant we have been able to bring to life the method behind the approach and the drive to make every event momentous.”
And for those whose job (unlike ours) does not provide the time to be intimately familiar with everything transpiring at MCEC as it happens, the videos provide both a good introduction to the capabilities of the centre and a few of the ways they’re leading the local industry.
Ferrier is the first full-time convention centre sustainability manager in Australia that we’re aware of and MCEC is the first Australian convention centre to commit to being carbon neutral by the end of this decade – which is 20 years ahead of the industry-wide Net Zero Carbon Events pledge made at the UN’s climate conference COP26 last October.
For an industry that is mostly invisible when we’re doing our job well, it’s refreshing to see a showcase of an inside look at how events come together. Perhaps something to share with our friends outside the industry who think we’re all just glamourous party planners.