Earlier this year, the new look Whisky & Gin Live awarded the full event management contract to OrangeBlock, the bespoke events business operating within The Nfinity Group of companies. This includes three Celebration events in Cape Town, Pretoria and Durban as well as the annual Festival, to be held at the Sandton Convention Centre in November this year.
“Whisky lovers that have been attending this popular event over the last few years will have started to notice a change,” says Michelle Kirby, Managing Director of OrangeBlock. “On being awarded this contract, we introduced a change to the Celebration events to introduce a new look and a special focus on gin and live music.
We realised that the Celebrations taking place in Cape Town, Pretoria and Durban required an offering that would appeal not only to the whisky connoisseur and emerging whisky drinker but to the gin lover too.”
The perception that the whisky market is dominated by an older profile is no longer accurate and the emergence of craft liquors, especially gin, is a trend that deserves attention. With two Celebration events under the belt, these changes have already been well received by both exhibitors and visitors alike. Guests enjoyed the expanded range and ambiance at Whisky & Gin Live, while exhibitors relished a broader range of consumers visiting the event – many, for the first time.
Running an event of this magnitude is no small task but when it comes to executing tasks in triplicate, it’s no cut and paste solution. The events all ran back to back over a seven-week period with extremely tight deadlines and timelines.
Managing the individual Celebrations across three different provinces comes with its own set of challenges. “The different municipalities and applications for each event is totally different and they have their own unique rules, regulations and time frames,” says Michelle. “Every event has to comply with various rules in terms of health and safety applications which can be very time consuming.”
According to Kirby, time management is of the utmost importance and critical in any event planning space – an attribute that OrangeBlock hails as one its key competitive differentiators. “If you are not able to manage your deadlines and outputs expect to run into trouble. Take for example Whisky & Gin Live, there are 34 exhibitors at every Celebration event with each one equally important and each has to be dealt with individually.”
“However, we work with some of the best suppliers and support staff in the business and honestly without their support and services we really wouldn’t be able to execute any form of event as well as we do,” concludes Kirby. “We are exceptionally grateful to an amazing group of clients and support staff and thank them for their tireless efforts to make magic with us.
OrangeBlock is on the brink of some very exciting new opportunities, keep an eye out for four brand new projects on our social media pages and user-friendly website.”
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