Australian Regional Events Alliance Article: You can!

Guest Blogger: Lyndel Moore – Bushfire Recovery Manager, Destination Gippsland and (proud) AREA member since 2020.

This week I have put my hand up to deliver a blog piece within my capacity as a member of the newly founded Australian Regional Event Alliance or AREA.

Now………I really should do the right thing and address common topics for our industry within these stranger than strange times though this is not the first time I have chosen to deviate from the well-trodden path.

Put up your hand if you are fed up with the avalanche of terminology, information and advice we have endured since we entered “pandemia”.

In a country this size, enduring varying degrees of impact from week to week, you would not be alone if at all confused. Do we go ahead? Don’t we? How many can attend? Can we afford to stage this event and more importantly, can we afford not to? Do we wait until the coast is clear to re-schedule and what if the coast is never entirely clear?

ENOUGH!!!!

In amidst being ruled by a situation entirely beyond our control, we have lost a little of ourselves. 
If we as an industry took a moment to take a collective breath, we would look around us and see so much promise. As regional event operators, we are entrusted with a unique opportunity to lift spirits, strengthen communities, contribute to building prosperity for our generation and those to come and to do all of that in one of the most beautiful places on earth.

Our industry has been knocked down repeatedly though we are fighters. We wouldn’t embark on our events and projects if we weren’t and in moving forward, I reckon it’s time to really keep that notion in mind.

Prior to working in region, I worked in the corporate space for many years. Great projects events and concepts, usually with healthy budgets though not too often with the heart or intent that I associate with my current workload. I did however have the opportunity to work for one of the original “Event Planners”. 

Jack Morton embarked on his business dream in 1939 in the United States. His first “gigs” were during WWII when he took the likes of Bob Hope and Marilyn Monroe to entertain the troops on the front lines. In the middle of a crisis, he sought to execute projects most would have considered fool-hardy. He knew what the benefits looked like though and that is what spurned him on. Jack Morton became “Jack Morton Worldwide” with offices all over the globe and what went on to be termed “experiential business”. He believed that some of the greatest projects of our generation came out of times of hardship and oppression.

I only met him once, he was wheelchair bound and an Octogenarian who had spent a life filled with a mix of victory and defeat. His eyes were sparkly, I remember that. I also remember what he said the day I met him in the Sydney Office: 

“Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you CAN do”.