Brazouka Touring Australia

Narrated by comedian turned Brazilian dance lover Billy Connolly and performed by Brazil's most thrilling new dance troupe, Brazouka is the inspirational story of Braz Dos Santos’ journey from a small Brazilian village to the international stage - it was dance or die for the best freestyle Lambada and Lambazouk dancer in the world.

This must see production is sure to have "the entire audience on their feet, laughing and dancing" (The West Australian) as the striking performers play with the illustrious martial arts dance - Capoeira, Afro-contemporary, Rio Zouk, the cheeky partner dances of the Samba.  They present the most impressive display of the sensual dance languages of Lambada, Lambazouk, mixed with the bouncy Forro style that Australian audiences may ever see.

Off the back of impressive runs in Edinburgh, London and Johannesburg, Brazouka is already stunning Australian audiences, being touted by The West Australian as an "astonishing”, and “seductive spectacle".  Don’t miss your chance to experience the passion of Brazilian dance – limited runs across Australia.

Tour Dates:
- Ticketek is selling for the following venues only -

• Thu 23 - Sun 26 Oct @ Regal Theatre, Perth
• Thu 13 - Sun 16 Nov @ Enmore Theatre, Sydney
• Wed 19 - Sun 30 Nov @ The Palms at Crown, Melbourne

Tickets: http://premier.ticketek.com.au/shows/show.aspx?sh=BRAZOUKA14#prX1QS4XeR4ZU0jl.99

Little Dragon Laneway Festival 2015 Sideshows

Written by Marc Zanotti on 6th November, 2014

Not just content to tour as part of Laneway Festival 2015, Swedish quartet Little Dragon have announced two headlining sideshows to take place in Melbourne and Sydney. Little Dragon will play 170 Russell on Monday, 2nd February before heading up to Sydney for their first-ever performance at the Opera House on Thursday, 5th February.

By the time Little Dragon return it will only have been seven months since the band toured Australia. Visiting in August behind latest album Nabuma Rubberband, both of their headlining shows sold out. While in the country the band dropped in to Music Feeds Studiofor Music Feeds Live to deliver some sweet cuts off their new record.

As part of Laneway 2015 Little Dragon will tour with the likes of Royal Blood, St Vincent, FKA Twigs, and Flight Facilities. You can check out the full festival lineup here. Tickets for Little Dragon’s Laneway sideshows are on sale now. Full gig details below.

Little Dragon Laneway Festival 2015 Sideshows - On sale now:

Monday, 2nd February 2015
170 Russell, Melbourne
Tickets: via 170 Russell

Thursday, 5th February, 2015
Sydney Opera House, Sydney
Tickets: via Sydney Opera House

Darts Invitational Challenge 2015

Simon "The Wizard" Whitlock was pipped in the grand final 2014

Get your tickets now for the exciting Darts Invitational Challenge where fans and dart enthusiasts come together for this huge annual event!

When: 9 - 10th Jan 2015
Where: Etihad Stadium - Docklands, VICTORIA
Tickets: http://www.ticketmaster.com.au/Darts-Invitational-Challenge-tickets/artist/1889078

Recap of the 2014 event:

Fans enjoy costume drama of a night at the darts

THOUSANDS of fans - many in fancy dress - transformed Etihad Stadium on Saturday night for the finale of an international darts tournament.

Fred Flintstone, Where's Wally and fans dressed as Australian cricketers sat on white plastic chairs on turf usually reserved for AFL and soccer stars.

But unfortunately the fans were not treated to a local triumph after Dutch master Michael "Mighty Mike" van Gerwen pipped Australian top seed Simon "The Wizard" Whitlock in the grand final showdown of the Invitational Darts Challenge.

Fans dressed as cricketers at the darts tournament at Etihad Stadium 2014

Orange and purple smoke briefly filled the stadium as a rowdy contingent set off flares during the showdown.

Fans cheered, sang and even raised their chairs aloft as the world's best darts players performed on a makeshift stage in the centre of the oval.

Announcer John McDonald - the world's leading darts MC - dubbed the spectacle "magnificent".

"(The crowd) really understand it," he said.

"You could be anywhere in Great Britain now and it would be exactly the same."

Mr McDonald said there had never been a bigger exhibition of darts anywhere in the world.

Etihad chief executive Paul Sergeant estimated the crowd would reach 8000 across the two-day event.

He said the stadium attracted a capacity crowd of 1000 when it held a smaller darts tournament in one of its function rooms in August - a success which gave him confidence to host a bigger event.

"(Darts) is huge in Europe, and it's getting a significant following in Australia," he said.

"People in Australia don't usually get to see top class darts players."

Joining "The Wizard" and "Mighty Mike" at the tournament were English-born world No. 5 Andy "The Hammer" Hamilton and Australian 2012 World Cup finalist Paul "The Asset" Nicholson.

Fans were delighted to see the world's best players in action up close.

"We only get to see this on TV, on the other side of the world," one said. "It's amazing."

"It's a great atmosphere," Angela Parker agreed.

"It's definitely bigger than I thought - I didn't expect this many people."

About 4500 attended Saturday night's event, bringing the total crowd over two days to 8000.

Source: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/fans-enjoy-costume-drama-of-a-night-at-the-darts/story-fni0fit3-1226799811021?nk=0b37bee270a89676325370d660377fa0

Metro Apartments on Bank Place, Melbourne Spring Accommodation

Metro Apartments on Bank Place, Melbourne Spring Accommodation

Tourism Set to Cash In On Big Summer For International Sport

An unprecedented summer of international sport is set to boost Canberra's tourist numbers after a major decline in business stays and spending in the past year.

With seven Asian Cup football games including a quarter final, three cricket World Cup games and an extra one day International in November, Canberra's tourism boss expected locals to be joined by a mass of regional and international visitors for the sporting feast.

VisitCanberra director Ian Hill said it would be the strongest summer of sport the city had enjoyed. 

"Two absolutely world class events, and I certainly know tickets for those cricket World Cup games have been selling really well."

The National Visitor Survey released last month showed visitor nights were down 790,000 in the domestic business sector for the year to June, a drop of 37.5 per cent. Overall domestic nights were down 16.4 per cent and expenditure down 11.4 per cent, or $14 million. 

International visitor nights also fell 12 per cent, or 570,000 nights, in the same period, with expenditure down 6 per cent.

Mr Hill said the tourism authority was working closely with hoteliers and organisations elsewhere to help them package and promote events.  

"One of those [Asian Cup] games is a China [vs] Korea game; China don't play in Sydney and there's a big group of Chinese background people who live in Sydney, so we're working with some of the multicultural media in Sydney," he said. 

The tourism chief said the key to maximising the windfall for Canberra was ensuring visitors saw other attractions  during their stay, and a rejuvenated cultural and hotel scene would help.

"Places like Braddon are important, Lonsdale Street Roasters is an important place, New Acton, and with new hotels like Hotel Hotel, Peppers has just rebranded, we've seen QT do a fit out at Rydges, the Kurrajong is about to reopen after being refitted – a great location for visitors in the Parliamentary Triangle. I think visitors are seeing a new side of Canberra," Mr Hill said. 

Mr Hill said stories on last week's OECD finding that Canberra was the world's best city to live in,  trumpeted in the New York Times and elsewhere, helped spread the word. 

The Australian Hotels Association ACT recently told ABC TV that occupancy rates were at about 65 per cent, down from the same time last year, but investment was strong, with another 500-600 hotel rooms available by mid-next year. 

Pacific Tourism Event Heads Down Under to Melbourne

After a successful inaugural South Pacific Tourism Exchange Event in Auckland in 2014 the organisers are now heading to Australia to sell the Pacific tourism market in June 2015.

Officially announcing the SPTE 2015 event today, South Pacific Tourism Organisation Chief Executive Ilisoni Vuidreketi said the positive feedback from buyers and sellers in New Zealand this year justified the second event this time in Australia.

“Apart from displaying the Pacific at our 2014 exhibition we received feedback from the participants that the networking was an opportunity never to be missed,” he said.

“This event will be staged in conjunction with the Australian Tourism Exchange 2015 event at the Melbourne Exhibition Convention Centre so we have the opportunity to also benefit from their own international and domestic networks.

“A number of participants in Auckland had asked for more time to conduct the event and such feedback has encouraged us as we plan the way forward for SPTE 2015.”

He said in terms of sales from the 2014 event, most participants (76 per cent) reported they were able to establish relations with a wholesaler with 18 per cent actually establishing new business with a wholesaler and the rest already enjoying some partnership but used the event as an opportunity to create and strengthen better contacts.

“We had a total of 1,300 business appointments during SPTE 2014 and anticipate an even higher response when we arrive in Australia for SPTE 2015,” he said.

Mr Vuidreketi said they were announcing the dates earlier as the lessons learned from the inaugural event meant they had to plan in advance to allow international buyers (wholesalers) time to prepare their business travel for the new year.

“As you can see the date is June 2015 so you must be asking why are we announcing the event so early,” he said.

“The reason is there is a lot of planning involved this year to enable us to realise the real cost and logistics involved in planning next year’s event as we are dealing with more than 50  Pacific tourism suppliers (sellers) from our region and about 60 international wholesalers (buyers), for SPTE 2015.

“While it may seem early to reveal our plans we hope to make SPTE 2015 much bigger than the 2014 event – learning from the valuable lessons we gained  this year.

“I urge all buyers and sellers intending to attend this event to please start planning now for SPTE 2015 as we try to enhance our position in the region.

The SPTO is currently consulting with tourism stakeholders including Tourism Australia to promote the SPTE which takes place from June 19-20 at the Melbourne Exhibition Convention Centre.

The Australian Tourism Exchange event takes place at the same venue from June 21.

Strong International Theme at EEAA 2014 Conference

The Exhibition and Event Association of Australasia (EEAA) has secured a top line-up of speakers for the EEAA 2014 Conference to be held at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre next month. 

EEAA Chief Executive, Joyce DiMascio, said the conference program will tackle three key themes: “Internationalising” events, products and services; the security landscape around events and what's driving consumer engagement.

“We are honoured to have the CEO of Austrade, Bruce Gosper, and Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) Director - Australia and New Zealand, Bonnie Shek head the line-up for the international theme,” Ms. DiMascio said. “Matt Jones, Director & Creative Strategist of Better Happy will deliver a wake-up call about customer communications and behaviour. 

In addition, a panel including Victorian Police will address the topical subject of event security. We always aim to deliver outstanding content and this year will be no exception. The program is intensive, strategic and challenging and directly aligned with issues that matter to the industry – right here, right now.”

2014 has marked the establishment of strengthening ties between EEAA Members and the Australian Government’s export agency, Austrade. So it is most fitting that EEAA should hear from Austrade CEO, Bruce Gosper. Mr. Gosper helped kick-start EEAA’s positive work now being undertaken with Trade Commissioners in the Austrade network across Asia.

In the Asia-Pacific region, Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) is a leading player in the business events sector, launching highly successful partnerships with the exhibition industry. EEAA is honoured that the HKTDC is joining Association Members to talk about their successful initiatives.

Ms. DiMascio said, “The program also includes speakers from within the EEAA community. Our Members are always keen to hear from organisers of trade and consumer exhibitions so we’ll have an interesting panel discussion with Reed Exhibitions Executive Director, John Gorton; Gaming Technologies Association CEO, Ross Ferrar; Exhibitions & Trade Fairs MD, Gary Daly; National Media MD, Mark Harvey; and WALDRONSMITH Management MD, Kate Smith.”

The conference begins with a Welcome Reception at Cargo Hall, on Melbourne’s South Wharf Promenade on Wednesday, 19 November with the 2014 Conference and Awards for Excellence on Thursday, 20 November. The Awards night will honour the high achievers in the industry in the Melbourne Room at the MCEC.

“This year’s Conference encourages in-depth discussions with top-tier speakers, offers great networking and will be a rewarding experience for attendees. The industry has undergone many changes in 2014 following the closure of the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre – events have relocated to other venues and cities. 

New events have been launched. The conference, which coincides with the end of the 2014 event season, will provide an important opportunity to assess where the industry has landed,” Ms. DiMascio said.

To view the Preliminary Program, go towww.eeaa.com.au/pdfs/2014/EEAA_2014_Conference_Preliminary_Program_V1.pdf.

Register to attend the EEAA 2014 Conference and Awards for Excellence:http://www.eeaa.com.au/conference.php.

KEY DATES:
2 October - Registration opened
20 October - Early bird discount ends

KEY CONFERENCE DATES: 
19 November - Welcome Reception
20 November - EEAA 2014 Conference

KEY AWARDS DATES: 
Mid-October - Finalists announced
20 November - EEAA 2014 Awards for Excellence

About EEAA 

The Exhibition and Event Association of Australasia (EEAA) is the peak association for the exhibition and event industry, representing organisers, venues and suppliers. As a not-for-profit organisation, EEAA’s primary objective is to maintain high industry standards and ensure industry growth by promoting the professionalism of EEAA members and unique benefits offered by exhibitions. For more information, go to www.eeaa.com.au.