Doing it the Amway

by Janelle Schreiber

If there was ever a corporation that knew how to deliver an incentive event it must be Amway China . The company sets high standards, knows what it wants and has a budget to match.

Amway China delegates have already visited some of the most beautiful cities in the world including Sydney, Barcelona and Vienna, and been entertained by some of the best in the world – ABBA, the Vienna Boys Choir and Cirque du Soleil – to name just a few.

This month it was Melbourne ’s turn to welcome the group of more than 7,000 Mandarin-speaking delegates in four waves of 1,800 pax.

The Gala Dinner

The highlight of each trip is the gala dinner, a final reward for Amway China ’s high achievers before they return home.

Having won the tender to organise the Amway gala dinners in Melbourne , after successfully staging six on the Gold Coast last year, Peter Jones was well aware of how Amway operated, its cultural preferences and expectations.

“One of the biggest challenges was to provide the right mix of entertainment for a group of people who have already experienced some of the best acts in the world,” said Jones.

“Don’t even think about acrobats as the Chinese are the best in the world. Forget about indigenous performers, boot scooting or local rock stars that they won’t have heard about.”

After putting forward 40 acts, a final list of six were chosen including String Diva, 100% Kylie, sand artist Stefanos Eleftheriadis, aerial performance artists Etherial Arts and Soul Mystique, a magical dance act that combines ancient Russian ‘Quick Change’ and DanceSport.

Jones freely admits that some acts he put up were not what they wanted.

“Everything has to be visual and spectacular. This is the major night of the event. With some of our acts, they did not relate to the Australian sense of humour.  So what we suggest needs to be non-culturally specific. What works for us may not work for them and we as suppliers have to work to meet their expectations,” he said.

Peter Jones Special Events is the only event organiser that has worked on two consecutive Amway groups, even though six other companies pitched for the Melbourne dinners.

“The big thing is trust and understanding the client,” says Jones, who devoted two full-time staff to the Amway event for six months and had a crew of 44 working for a week prior to the first dinner.

The theme – World of Light – reflected the bright, happy and prosperous nature of the gala dinner, which was an important part of the overall reward for the Amway distributors while also alluding to the light at the end of great achievement.

A sensational opening saw a giant sphere roll from the stage and rise above the audience to become fixed above the centre of the room. The sphere became the focal point of fantastic lighting effects during the evening, and a clever way to project some Amway branding into the event.

The newly formed Melbourne Chinese Children’s Choir then took to the stage. Established just three months earlier, the children, aged between 6 and 12, sang four songs in Mandarin.

Delegates sang along to many of the songs, selected because of their importance and meaning in Chinese culture.

But there was another and more important benefit to the establishment of this new choir.

“The choir was formed at the invitation of Amway China and as a result has provided a platform for Australian born children from China , Malaysia and Hong Kong to learn the Chinese language and culture through singing. This was very important to Amway and was very well received. We have already had requests for the choir to sing at other events,” Peter Jones.

Roving entertainers added another dimension to the stage show, engaging delegates with their antics and happily posing for the obligatory photographs.

Amway also used the gala dinners to great effect to reward and inspire its delegates. The highest achievers and honoured guests enter via a red carpet and are publically announced and applauded, before sitting at a special VIP table.

Sandra Chipchase, CEO, Melbourne Convention + Visitors Bureau (MCVB), and a VIP guest at the first gala dinner, welcomed the delegates to Melbourne in an impressive speech delivered in Mandarin. Chipchase captivated the audience with her message and her heartfelt performance.

Catering by MCEC

The four gala dinners were held at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC) in an exhibition space transformed into a stunning room, with drapes, chandeliers and panels of lights. A special, 1,500 square metre kitchen was set up in the adjoining bay, where 90 back-of-house staff prepared and plated food from 12 individual serving points. An additional 250 front-of-house staff served four courses in a record one hour and ten minutes.

“The dinners were a massive undertaking due to our brief to serve four courses in one hour and ten minutes.  It is not enough to provide faster service, you need to multiply your resources,” said Frank Burger, MCEC food and beverage manager.

The menu was designed after consultations with Amway executives and taste testings of different dishes. It included smoked Tasmanian ocean trout with charred prawns, a sweet corn and truffle soup, roasted crayfish tail with squid ink and crab tortellini and champagne sauce and a dessert of chocolate and raspberry trifle.

“With Amway China and other conferences and events at the Centre, April was our busiest month on record. We served 16,000 meals to Amway delegates during their stay and in one day alone we served 4,000 people for either dinners or lunches. All food was sourced locally including 3,600 lobsters for the Amway dinners,” Burger said.

Technical Production

Technical production for the dinners was provided Produce Now in conjunction with PJSE

Staging Connections provided the technical production and project management for the business sessions, putting the latest event technology to spectacular use.

For the four, full-day business sessions for 1,800 delegates at a time, two bays of the Melbourne Exhibition Centre were set up with tiered seating lengthwise to allow each delegate a clear view. 

The set up for the business sessions included a specially made 46 x 6.5 metre screen, the largest front projection screen in the Southern Hemisphere, a state-of-the-art Vision system with 12 projectors, 7 Folsom Encore VPs, hard drive video replay and 14 Watchout computers. Under the guidance of Amway’s senior AV manager, Bert Li, stunning graphics designed in Hong Kong added the final professional touch to the event.  

Praise for the teams

Bert Li, whose role for Amway China includes travelling the world looking at destinations and entertainment, commended Peter Jones Special Events, the MCEC and Staging Connections for their work.

 “Working with Peter Jones Special Events is a lot of fun. I know the whole crew and they are a good team. All the people are passionate about what they do and enjoy their work. This company is quite international in its perspective and willing to listen and be flexible.”

Li also praised the MCEC catering team for its flexibility and positive attitude, Staging Connections for providing consistency of management and contacts with whom he had worked with before, and MCVB for its expertise in coordinating the entire event and assisting with venues and suppliers.

“Flexibility is important when working with Amway. People need to listen and be open to Amway’s requirements and to differences in culture. Suppliers need to accept that they will have to do some things differently than they way they have done them before. We provide suppliers with a brief so that they understand what we want. It is a good experience and a lot of fun to exchange cultures,” said Li.