Date: June 17, 2016
Guests: 2,450
Where: Halls JK FGH (Central Building)
Variety – the Children’s Charity SA is a professionally run organisation dedicated to inspiring hope and assisting children who are sick, disadvantaged or have special needs. The Adelaide Convention Centre has enjoyed a 15 year partnership with Variety SA which started with the Centre’s sponsorship of the annual Variety Ball from its inception in 2002.
The partnership has flourished since then. The Centre has worked with Variety to help grow the Ball by providing guests with a unique experience for every event, and in turn encouraging them to return every year.
In 2016, the Variety Ball set a new record with 2,450 guests attending. A truly out of this world result.
What We Did
The annual Variety Ball requires meticulous planning and draws upon the full resources of the Centre.
Planning is almost an ongoing 12-month process that starts immediately after the Ball and involves both Variety’s team of 15 dedicated volunteers and the Centre’s team of event and audio-visual professionals.
Feedback from the previous year’s Ball is always used to further develop and refine the event starting with selecting a theme and then developing ideas to bring them to life.
The Centre’s dedicated Event Planner works with the Centre’s diverse team, from technical services through to catering, to utilise their expertise and resources to grow and evolve the Ball.
A series of ideas are put forward to Variety including options for event space, menu suggestions, lighting, audio visual and special effects to align with the chosen theme.
The 2016 Ball Theme ‘Out of This World’ saw the Centre work with Variety to bring their outer space theming to life through a series of specialised technical services. Variety’s volunteers build the props for the theming and the Centre activates them with customised visual, sound and lighting effects.
The centrepiece of the Ball’s theming was a 10 metre high, giant rocket ship which the Centre suspended off the ground, and then enhanced using smoke machines to simulate the take-off, with a pre-recorded countdown kicking off the event.
Additional theming of a space buggy and moon rocks were provided to simulate a lunar landing. Star shaped balloons also provided centrepieces for the Ball’s 236 tables.