Hunter Safety Awards
Event Management for a large-scale awards night
220
finalists announced and promoted
45
news features since launch
2500
attendees across all events
1500
planning and execution hours
Stats as of 2023, with many more years of Hunter Safety Awards to come!
From planning and development to implementation and marketing – we’ve been an important part of Hunter Safety Awards’ success since its inception.
The Hunter Safety Awards is the Hunter’s only awards night dedicated to acknowledging the efforts of businesses and individuals in the Work, Health and Safety (WHS) space.
Founded in 2016 by Sarah-Jane Dunford, the Hunter Safety Awards was born out of a desire to recognise companies and individuals within the Hunter region that demonstrate best-practice and innovative approaches when it comes to WHS. We’ve worked with Sarah-Jane since the Awards’ inception, to bring life to the idea, manage logistics, and oversee all aspects of the lead up to and running of the event, including event marketing.
The situation
Event management is not all champagne and confetti (although a little of that is nice!). There are hundreds of intricate little details which need to be organised before, during and even after to make an event a success.
During the early days of Sarah-Jane coming up with the concept for an event that celebrates the WHS achievements of local businesses, she brought in our team to help put her idea into action. We have a decade of experience helping to not only ensure the successful running of events, but also contributing to their conception to ensure all elements are considered and planned for.
The plan
Sarah-Jane engaged us for our event management services in 2015. But every event needs a solid marketing plan to make it work – otherwise you’ll have a few empty seats!
We assisted with the set up of a range of key assets to help get the Hunter Safety Awards on the Hunter business community’s radars including:
Content creation
Social media management
Email marketing
Digital advertising
Public relations
Once these foundations were in place, we were able to put our events hat back on and start creating magic for what has become a popular annual accolade and networking opportunity. As part of the Hunter Safety Awards event management (or any event management) we ask ourselves some strange questions.
How long will the speeches on the night should go for? What’s the best combination of entrees and mains? What’s the quickest way to the stage – backstage or the stairs? Which tables should be seated on the dancefloor? How many people have selected gluten-free for their meals? Trust us, they can get weirder!
But event management really comes down to knowing every little detail about the lead up, delivery of and experience following the event closing. It’s how we ensure everything runs smoothly and guests want more!
We worked with Sarah-Jane to deliver a successful event year-on-year, communicated and built relationships with sponsors, organised entertainment and décor, pre-recorded thank you videos and managed the logistics and booking processes.
The results
Fast forward to 2022, we’ve now helped develop and plan seven Hunter Safety Awards, six of which went ahead (thanks COVID – but it does help to have an event planner on your side when disasters like this hit!).
With Sarah-Jane’s profound knowledge of safety and our team’s experience in event management and marketing implementation, we’ve been able to hold six fantastic events. Each one is better than the last! With over 350 attendees each year, 13 sponsors and 13 winners, you could say we’ve seated a lot of people!
“I highly recommend The Marketing GP for event management.
“They have been involved in the Hunter Safety Awards since the beginning back in 2015 and they haven’t missed a beat in all the years of event coordination and marketing.”
Sarah-Jane Dunford
Founder | Hunter Safety Awards
Want to kick up your heels or loosen your tie at your event?
Let us do the dirty work!
Forget worrying about whether the decorator will arrive on time or if the microphone is clear enough – we’ve got you! With over a decade of experience working in event management, our team will take the stress of managing an event from start to finish out of your hands.
That way you can spend the night dancing and relaxing while we handle the hard stuff (and maybe a boogie or two whilst speaking to the caterers!)
