The industry was shocked this week to learn of the sudden death of Toby Travanner with tributes pouring in via his Facebook page. Planning is underway for an industry tribute in Melbourne.

MC, mentor, tech head, wine buff and the socks – tributes flow for Toby Travanner

I’ve been a volunteer for a number of years at the National Folk Festival which came back at Easter after the last two years were cancelled.  But just how do you recover when your audience and volunteer workers come from a diverse demographic and from across Australia.

How do festivals recover – before rebuilding?

Across the ditch…

New Zealand ready and waiting for international delegates

The New Zealand Prime Minister’s announcement that borders will open to all international visa holders from 1 August is welcome news for the NZ business events industry.

My favourite blogger is Ian Whitworth and I would like to recommend a couple of his recent posts,

6 tips to survive the skills shortage 

At the moment our industry feels like we’ve passed through the wardrobe door and into some kind of Narnia parallel universe. We’re seeing things we’ve never seen before in decades in the game. If we literally had a talking animal ask us to quote a project at this point, we’d go “yeah, that’s 2022 for you.”

The theatre of business: six rules to stand out and get remembered

“In November 2020, with the pandemic in full force, British virtual events start-up Hopin declared that a new era of digital gatherings had begun. Virtual events were “here to stay”, said founder Johnny Boufarhat, as he bragged that there were “more than 15,000 monthly events” available on Hopin’s “Explore” platform. Today, there are fewer than 500 listed.”

One more week of pollies running around in hi-viz pretending to be tradies took me back to this post

Time to put government tradie fetish in the skip

I have fucking had it with governments’ fawning worship of tradies.

Watch their announcements and you would believe there is literally no other industry in Australia. So tradies are showered in subsidies despite being  … just let me check … ONE OF THE LEAST COVID-AFFECTED SECTORS IN THE COUNTRY.

And to finish off this week – Ian’s dedication to Toby

This week’s story dedicated to a guy who had no shortage of skills. Toby Travanner, loved by so many in the events, tech and telco industries, passed away at a way-too-early age on Sunday. Legendary nice guy, total pro, lit up every room he entered. This news has hit so many people hard and I guess that’s the sign of a life well played. RIP mate.