Hello and Welcome to Planning to the Max, UNPLANNED. My name is Samantha and I have always had a love of events and logistics. Planning to the Max UNPLANNED is about throwing out the run sheet and celebrating where you find yourself when you throw out the plan. 

**** You are listening to Episode 1 of season two so lets get into it… 

Off the back of his 10-month tennis extravanganza tour, we welcome a veteran to sports broadcasting, 30 years in the biz, you will know the voice or you have seen him grace your screen on Channel 9 World Wide of Sports, he is often  referred to as the “Home of Tennis” on SEN Radio, please welcome Brett Phillips. 

SEASON ONE FINALE

To close out the season I thought it would be really cool to look at the flip side of events and chat with a group of seasoned attendees, speakers, and exhibitors that in a normal year would be so heavily reliant on events for marketing, sales, and connection. My guests today cover the Retail, Technology, and Payments areas; they all are innovators and regular speakers at industry events…

Tyson Hackwood, Head of Growth at Monoova.

Unfortunately, since recording the podcast SEMA has been canceled. 

Having 4-people on a call can be challenging but also adding country - ADSL internet into the mix we had some issues. Sincere apologies. 

The Racing Industry has been fortunate to be able to keep running during the COVID19 outbreak and restrictions. 

PLANNING TO THE MAX had a quick but great catch up with Troy Corstens, who makes up part of the family business that is MALUA RACING. Troy offered insight on what meets have been like, what the industry is expecting for Spring Carnival, and how the very customer-centric business has been keeping their owners engaged on race day even though they have been watching from the couch at home. 

Need some HOT TIPS, Troy also sets us up with horses to look out for in the upcoming SPRING SEASON. 

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Check out MALUA'S Horses here: https://www.maluaracing.com.au/our-horse/a

The HUMM Events team has been delivering large scale events across AUSTRALIA for almost 20-years, they make it their business to keep up with current trends and their collective knowledge of the industry is matched by few others. They have been a part of:

- Neil Diamond Concerts

- Australia Day Parties in Paramatta

- Justin Bieber Concerts

- NRL Grand Final Events

- Sydney Harbour Bridge 75th Birthday, and more! 

We had a great catch up with MD and Founder, Iain Morrison. We spoke about the ICONIC Channel V Foo Fighters event they organised back in 2011 and how much blood, sweat, and tears goes into these big-scale events. Iain is an absolute professional and alike most great leaders when he says the success comes down to having a great team!

http://www.humm.com.au/

Read more about the FOO FIGHTERS EVENT: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-03-24/foo-fighters-rock-sydney-harbour-private-gig/2642690

COMEXPOSIUM is one of the world's largest and leading event companies. In a normal year, it hosts over 135 B2B and B2B2C events across a number of different sectors. This equates to events in over 30-countries, more than 3.5 million attendees, and 48,000 exhibitors.

PLANNING TO THE MAX Podcast was fortunate to be joined by the Managing Director of COMEXPOSIUM APAC, Ryf Quail. 

Being PEOPLE focused Ryf wasn't quick to fire at the start of this crisis. Instead, he took a moment and thought about how the resource he had available could be used to better the company and ensure the staff was well placed coming out of the COVID19 restrictions. 

COMEXPOSIUM has set dates and venues for events in the upcoming quarter across a number of countries. The bill opens in Australia with the iMedia Online Retail Summit on the Gold Coast in August.

"The Horseland Digital Series had an entrant that hadn't ridden in 40-years, Horseland was able to get her back in the saddle!"

The first Horseland store opened in 1978 and has evolved to become Australia’s largest Equestrian Retailer with over 51-stores Australia wide. Horseland is a unique retailer in the way that they invest so much time and energy back into the sport. HORSELAND is a HUGE community supporter with sponsorship presence at most events and initiatives. With most of the 2020 Competition Calendar for Equestrian Competitions canceled, including the Horseland Australian Eventing Championships, the National Pony Club Championships and most recently the Australian Dressage Championships in October, HORSELAND knew they had to do something to keep the community engaged.

We are joined by Charlotte Hall, Head of People and Community at Horseland on this podcast as she takes us through the initiatives that HORSELAND has come up with during this stage time... 

#HorselandDigitalDressage2020

Follow them on Facebook to keep up with the competition. The second round of the Digital Dressage series opened on Friday 22 May, 2020. 

THE DIGITAL STYLE SHOTS COMPETITION OPENS TUESDAY 26th MAY!

Classes will be as follows:

FASHIONS OFF THE FIELD – think Melbourne Cup fashion with your impeccably presented steed

MOST CREATIVE – who doesn’t love a fancy dress ring?

CLIP MY RIDE – crazy clips on your hairy horse or pony is what we would love to see

MATCHY MATCHY – blue and green should never be seen?! Specifically for the matchy matchy addicts out there!

https://www.horseland.com.au/

ALCOHOL makes up a large portion of the entertainment industry which has absolutely been turned on its head since COVID19. 

However, online shopping for BOOZE has seen a PHENOMENAL INCREASE IN SALES OVERNIGHT and has held throughout this period. I was super interested to learn about what COVID19 has meant for online BOOZE sales, the logistics behind this, and the adaptations a retailer had to make to keep up with demand. We loved catching up with Head of Supply Chain at BOOZEBUD, Luke James - the business has dealt with a 5 TIMES normal business increase and as a result have been able to fast track their growth and learning considerably. 

Luke, thank you for the insight!

https://www.boozebud.com/

Having conversations with brands I admire was one of the key reasons for launching "PLANNING TO THE MAX" Podcast.

VISIT https://www.vivalifefitness.com.au/ to join up / find out more about classes. 

Special mention to Emma McQueen for business support.

Stage Kings have pivoted in a BIG WAY since the COVID-19 restrictions and as a result that have been able to keep their entire regular crew in work PLUS hire more staff. In the normal world Stage Kings builds stages and brand activations. Most notable - The Commonwealth Games, Ninja Warrior and Ultra Music Festival. "PLANNING TO THE MAX" caught up with Jeremy Fleming, Stage Kings to discuss the pivot into building furniture and diving into the eCommerce world. 

Learn more @ https://www.stagekings.com.au/ or https://www.facebook.com/StagekingsAU/

Las Vegas Strip, Casinos, Conventions, Entertainment, Fitness, Construction.. We cover ALL OF IT in this episode of "PLANNING TO THE MAX"!

Thank you Michelle Mayer, PRA for joining us to keep us updated on what is happening in one of the ENTERTAINMENT Meccas of the World.