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Warren Pearson is Arts and Events Manager for both the Centenary of Federation and Australia Day celebrations in NSW. ASE interviewed Pearson before the big event.
Warren Pearson – background
Warren Pearson started working life as a school teacher, teaching drama to reluctant teenagers. “I loved that but I ended up going into the Department of Education as Events Manager and spent four years with the Performing Arts Unit.” During this time, Pearson produced “a range of student programs ranging from the Schools Spectacular, to concerts at the Opera House, to seasons at Sydney Theatre Company, to football half-time entertainment, and working on big stuff for the Olympics”.
Pearson then went to the City of Sydney as Cultural and City Events Manager for a short period. “I left to start my MBA because while I saw a lot of creative ideas and a lot of good organization, I also saw a lot of scope for improving management within the industry. I also saw a shift in direction in the industry. Previously people coming together and celebrating had legitimacy in itself however there was a shift. Marketing and the need to justify things in economic terms then began to take over. It was important to get some skills, some language and some understanding of where the new gurus were coming from so that I could continue to deliver good civic events that ticked all the boxes”.
Pearson moved to the Australia Day Council of NSW and managed Sydney Harbour for the Australia Day celebrations in 1997. A year later he became Arts and Events Manager. As the Centenary of Federation events evolved Pearson also took on the Events for the Centenary celebrations.
The NSW Centenary of Federation Committee
The NSW Centenary of Federation Committee is a company limited by liability headed by the Premier of NSW. The committee has the same structure as the Australia Day Council of NSW. The Premier appoints committee members. John Trevillian is the CEO for both Australia Day and Centenary of Federation in NSW.
Sitting above the state body is the National Council for the Centenary of Federation, which is part of the Department of Communication, Information, Technology and the Arts. The national body has responsibility for projects that are Australia wide.
The General Manager of the NSW organization is Christopher Sullivan, who looks after everything from administration, finance and human resources to liaison with Government. The Deputy CEO sits on the same line as the General Manager and between them, they ensure that the various teams within the organization are addressing all the issues and communicating well. They also play the important government liaison role.
Also reporting to the CEO is a line of managers including, Arts and Events Manager (Warren Pearson), the Parade Director (Shani Wood), Community Relations Manager (Kylie Millwood) and Education, History and Civics (Mary Gray). While Pearson and Wood also have a role in the Australia Day organization, the one section that was brought in especially for the Centenary of Federation was Education, History and Civics. The Director General of Education and Training seconded quite a senior officer to the organization to deal with this.
Pearson said, “we are about inspiring national pride and that is not a plastic pride, it is one where we acknowledge the mistakes, the injustices that have been and continue to exist. It is only by realising that we can do something about it and feeling good as a Nation that we can make the next one hundred years even better than the last one hundred years.”
Pearson added, “there is a very strong theme in the Centenary of Federation, we are celebrating the civic life of the Nation. It is not just crackers and the pop culture”.
Centennial Park Ceremonies
As Arts and Events Manager, Pearson’s main area of responsibility is the 1pm Commemoration and the evening Centennial Ceremony. He is also involved in the invited guest operation and in particular protocol liaison for the official party.
Rob Sternstein is project manager for events. He has carriage of the 1pm Commemoration and the entire protocol liaison.
For the Commemoration, Sternstein has contracted Julia Gelhart from Whitespace Consulting who is also managing the invited guest areas at Centennial Park. While David Grant is one of the key contractors for the provision of the invited guests infrastructure and hospitality.
The Centennial Ceremony
Melinda Fedorow is the Producer of the Centennial Ceremony and Andrew Walsh the Creative Director reports to her. Also reporting to Fedorow, is Richard Montgomery the Production Manager.
The Centennial Ceremony is a big undertaking from an operations perspective as well as a theatrical production perspective. Pearson explained that, “we are delivering all of the hardware, the things you can touch, everything from the power, the water, the food, to the grandstand.”
“The ceremony is being broadcast live by ABC TV so this also required a lot of onsite infrastructure.”
Pearson pointed out, “we are not actually putting on a concert, we are putting on a theatrical show. It is very civic in its nature. We have to talk about the social and political history of the Nation over the last one hundred years”.
“Australia is unique in that we were the very first nation to have our birth recorded on film. The Salvation Army film unit was employed by the then NSW Government to record the event. All the seminal moments, the major watersheds, the major challenges, successes of our Nation over the last 100 years have been recorded. This has meant that we can do a major audio visual presentation of the history of our nation.
“We expect a big crowd people at Centennial Park, but being a one off event, we are not sure. If the numbers are larger, two extra Screenco screens will help to project to the back. This will be important particularly for the three official speeches but we also needed something that would work for the people at home. The narrative approach interspersed with the images works well for both those present and for television. That was very deliberate in Andrew’s planning. It means that the ABC has the opportunity to cut between the footage we are showing and the live actors, or performances, or speeches on the stage.” Stephen Birstow is the television director and he has worked closely with Andrew Walsh.
This isn’t a ticketed event. Tickets to the front seating area were distributed through a competition run through Channel 7 and the Daily Telegraph. Pearson explained that, “the best seats in the house will be for average punters.”
In the event of crowd overflow, a satellite area was established at Kippax Lake in Moore Park. The site had a screen broadcasting live where people were able to watch the Parade during the day and watch the ceremony in the evening but “the reality is that Centennial Park will carry a lot of people in excess to what we think but we think that 70,000 people will be able to comfortably view the ceremony.”
How do Australia Day and Centenary of Federation fit together?
“Australia Day and Centenary of Federation are two peas in a pod. They are not competing for resources. The organisational competence that is required is more or less identical for both. I actually think that the respect that the Australia Day organization has gained has meant that we have been able to achieve more on Federation Day than if a whole new organization had come in.” explained Pearson.
“We work a lot with other organisations. So whether it is working with sponsors, through to working with the City, Waterways, Police, RTA, they are more important to us than anyone else in many respects because they actually deliver. We do push the envelope as much as we can but at the same time know where the boundaries are”.
The parade and ceremony were also shown on the NYE City Live site screens. Pearson pointed out that the organization was keen to maximise the resources such as the City Live sites.
The organization worked closely with the City of Sydney to ensure that infrastructure installed for NYE could be carried over to service Federation Day and after the parade it is an incremental cost to put the performers back on the stage and to run things on the screen. Pearson indicated that this arrangement “is a great example of the partnerships that have developed”.
With just 26 days between these two massive events, the senior people in the organization are working very hard at the moment. Pearson pointed out that Australia Day is the biggest event in the Nation. More people participate in Australia Day than anything else because we have events everywhere on Australia Day, just about every local government area has them. “The only thing that more people participate in is an election, where you get fined if you don’t turn out.”
Olympics
During the Olympics the Centenary of Federation expected to lose contact with the whole of Sydney for a month and so in fact a lot of staff took time off. Others put the time to good use catching up, thinking about and developing strategies. For those who took time off, they left their responsibility behind. They went and did something that was great fun and rewarding for a short period and then returned.
The only surprise was, how people were exhausted after the Games. It took a little time for people to recover and refocus on Centenary.
Since the Games, Pearson observed that, “interestingly prices have gone up for most things. I don’t know why, I would have expected that everyone would have paid for their new equipment.”
Olympics Lessons
John Trevillian played a major role during the Olympics with responsibilities through OCA including the Olympic Live Sites in the City these responsibilities were wide ranging, everything from risk management to coordination, to communications.
Pearson explained that it was good to observe how people coped, how the systems got into place over the two weeks. “The difference is that the Centenary of Federation opening and closing is in the same span of daylight so the organization does not have two weeks to get it right.” In Pearson’s view Australia Day celebrations over the last few years have been more of a test event because they too is one off in nature.
Post Federation Day Directions
The organization is currently working with the government to work out how the organization will go forward. Pearson explained that they have been called in to manage and support a number of other activities. An example Pearson provided was his involvement in the management of Corroboree 2000 hosted by the NSW Government.
“We came in to look at the overall event and coordinated the agencies, coordinated the overall response to it and worked with Great Big Events who delivered the event side. It’s cross government work in many respects.”
Concluding Remarks
Pearson’s enthusiasm for his job came through in his concluding remarks. “I need a holiday but I love this, the bigger the better, the more challenging the more enjoyable in lots of respects. We all chase the adrenalin of being right on the edge and that’s a great feeling. It’s a drug. I’d do it again but it would have to be different, presenting new challenges.”
Follow-up
ASE asked Warren Pearson for a comment after the big day.
“I was delighted with both the 1.00pm Commemoration and the Centennial Ceremony. The daytime event was formal and very traditional yet had a casual Australian elegance. The evening as simply stunning. Melinda and Andrew and their team got it right. Mixing tears and emotion with the history of our nation. They had a tough brief and delivered outstandingly. Someone was on our side – the sunset was breathtaking. For me it’s now on to Australia Day.”
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