There’s one of Santa’s Little Helpers going for a pre-Christmas jog to warm/freeze his cockles.

Beach barbies & screaming babies sitting on Santa’s lap in Westfield aside, it’s that time of year when it’s prudent, nay – necessary, to reward your staff with some good old fashioned partying, and get a bit loose around the hips (and tongue) yourself.

We know company purse strings are tight these days, and getting ever tighter. So, here at ENGAGE, our Event Designer & team have developed a pretty cool, extremely unusual End of Year event programme that allows a selection of party-loving companies to join together and share the sunk costs of hosting a massive Christmas event. For the cost of a Jelly & Ice Cream party. Cause for kissing (& sniffing) under the mistletoe, we think.

Our EOY party model is one that we really are quite proud of as it allows brands with tight budgets but big ideas to fully immerse their staff and guests in something unique and pretty cool.

Here’s how it works: We hire an event space for three weeks during the (exorbitant) Christmas period. Each company is allocated a specific day for their EOY party. Because each company contributes to the setup costs, their combined input means that collectively they can enjoy an amazingly extravagant, all singing, all dancing, all sparkling, all Christmassy affair.

As with all things remotely styled or design-orientated with our brand activations and events, this programme has been beautifully created by our Event Designer and team. Congratulations, ENGAGE Team. Give them all a giant slice of Christmas cake and a sherry, please.

In 2015, our EOY programme theme was Wonderland. Think oversized flowers and Eat Me cupcakes.

For 2016, our event team has come up with two completely diverse themes: a naughty nautical one and an English country manor experience.

“Oh Buoy!” is for all the scurvy sea dogs among your staff, and will be located on Melbourne’s riverside in South Wharf. Guaranteed to get all able seamen (and women) dancing round the decks with flagons of rum held aloft.

For all those land lovers out there, our Event Designer has concocted a theme where guests are immersed in a stunning English stately home setting, “The Estate”. All butlers and gilt gold mirrors and dusty chandeliers amid secret gardens, this immersive event will take place in a hidden courtyard in the heart of Melbourne’s CBD.

As you’re probably more than aware now, ENGAGE takes pride in styling each event to perfection. We work with a team of highly talented Event Designers, and produce our own props in house to create a fully immersive journey into another realm for guests. This will mean your EOY party won’t end up as embarrassingly cringeworthy as this… Perish the thought!

 

WINTER BUBBLES

An alluring den of bubbles and mirrors was the theme for Moet & Chandon’s Event Designer back in 2005. Very wintry and clean in its lines, guests drank their bodyweight in bubbles no doubt.

 

 

CLEAN AND GREEN

Village Green was the theme that inspired this fresh, floral palette concoted by the Event Designer at Bttb and Hecker Guthrie a few years back.

STRIPEY GRASS

This floral, quirky racing theme with English roses and bouquets of grass was concocted by our very own inhouse Event Designer at ENGAGE, for Gai Waterhouse, at Melbourne Cup Carnival recently.

But really, you ain’t seen nothing yet… And I’m not going to spoil all the veritable surprises that ENGAGE has to offer up on the Marquee Menu for the 2016 Melbourne Cup. However, unable as I am to keep most surprises surprises, here’s a sneak preview of the mood board for one of our marquees this year:

EQUISTYLE

Picture decadent English Ascot racing in the late 1800s, sprinkle on a dash of opulence and frivolity, wrap in a bed of English roses, grab your whip and add a Vivienne Westwood bustle for fun. How risqué and perfect a theme can you get?

 

 

So, yes – as you’ve seen, the ENGAGE team can tailor everything for a perfect day out at the races. From menu curation and invite design to marquee creative and racebook cover design. Check out the packages for 2016 here!

Every well-bred mare (and stallion) knows that the winning post is where history is made (and fetlocks sometimes broken). Your brand could be brushing manes with the hot insider favourite in this enclosure. JUST IMAGINE!

These marquees put you and your guests slap bang at the side of the race course, where you can hear hooves thundering down the track, see the breath steaming from the race horses and feel the electric tension as they gallop past your marquee.

I leave you with the hilariously shocking trackside words of phonetics student, Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn) at the Ascot races, in the 1964 film My Fair Lady: “Come on Dover. Come on Dover. Come on. COME ON DOVER. MOVE YOUR BLOOMIN’ ARSE!”

You have to watch it if you’ve never seen it. In its entirety. But for now… Here’s that clip. Excuse the bad synching and quality – old school VHS no doubt.