The lively, if somewhat stripped back, event at PARKROYAL Darling Harbour last night featured a strong Be Challenged cheer squad and a solid job by MC Luke Hannan alongside 20 awards for NSW and one for the Australian Capital Territory.
In the Event of the Year categories, winners included MCI Australia, Lateral Event Management, Creative Hire, Imagination, Encore Event Technologies, the Michael Cassel Group, the Deni Ute Muster and the first iteration of SXSW Sydney.
Forum Group Events and Marketing and ICMS Australasia took out the event agency and PCO business categories respectively. ICMSA’s Tiffany Lo took out the MEA Future Leader category while SoldOut’s Matt Cooper took out the agency Event Manager of the Year. Nicci Gow of Nicci Gow Events took home the Event Educator of the Year award for her work with TAFE NSW.
In the products and services categories, AV1, Harry the hirer, SongDivision and Congress Australia all emerged victorious.
In the venues categories, both Sydney Showground and Crowne Plaza Terrigal Pacific took home yet another trophy.
Destination North Coast Business Events won the destination marketing category.
A touching moment during the evening was CEO of Doltone House Anna Cesarano talking about the Biaggio Signorelli Foundation 15 Year Tribute Gala Dinner, which won best cause related event. The event raised $1.9 million for Mesothelioma, a cancer caused by asbestos exposure, which took the life of Doltone House’s founder – and Cesarano’s father – Biaggio Signorelli.
Another highlight was SoldOut CEO Thomas Staunton’s acceptance speech on behalf of Cooper, in which he attributed much of Cooper’s success to Kameko Awad, a project assistant at SoldOut, offering recognition for the more junior team members in event businesses who often do much of the legwork.
With a final state award ceremony set to be held in Queensland next week, national winners of MEA’s annual awards program will be announced at a gala event which will conclude MEA’s national conference, Evolve, next month in the Hunter Valley. All state winners are up for national trophies in their categories.
