Why We’d Rather Fill Life With Experiences, Not Things!

With a brief to create a spring market, we did what we do best and embellished and fluffed out the definition of ‘market’. We created a multi-dimensional, hybrid event to surprise the attendees and create a memorable experience. “Is it a market?” “Is it an interactive art space?” call it what you will, but it’s a property development event that encourages community engagement, all in the disguise of a fun and memorable experience!

With a beautiful blank canvas to create an experience on, the ENGAGE team got quite excited about filling the role of the event designer. It’s not very often we get the opportunity to paint the walls and do whatever we want with a space!

We created a lush urban oasis in the midst of Melbourne’s concrete jungle. With a large clear marquee, an abundance of trees, and gorgeous crisp white geometric seating with pops of cobalt blue and soft mint to brighten the space, the fundamentals of the space were done. We wanted to create a space that would resemble the ‘Atrium’ one of the key building features and one of Yarra One’s points of difference.  Yarra One’s ‘Atrium’ will be a community hub for South Yarra residents. A space that will fill with warm light, creating a pocket of sunshine amongst the plant filled space. With limited gardens in the area, we wanted to highlight the rooftop and Atrium garden spaces that Yarra One offers its lucky residents.

But what do people want to do in this pop-up park? How do we create a community engagement event? That’s where we use our experiential agency skills to develop interactive elements to the event. We gave them an opportunity to engage and experience! Talented and quirky Melbourne artist Ellen Porteus created a wall mural that continued growing until the very last day of the event. She created an Instagram moment that encouraged attendees to interact, engage and also an opportunity to amplify the experience with friends through social media.

Just like Ellen, kids and (big kids) became quite creative and added their own ‘growing’ artwork to the space. Covering those once pristine white geometric blocks with playful drawings or words of inspiration; It was heart-warming (and heart wrenching knowing that we will need to clean the blocks afterwards!) to see the community being social and expressive at the community engagement event.

The ENGAGE team delved deeper and created yet another layer to the event.  We created a relaxed experience for guests to escape the cold concrete buildings and to enjoy spending time in the pockets of spring-sunshine that filtered through the Atrium-like marquee. Local hand-crafted market stalls provided guests with the opportunity to tantalise their senses as they browsed, tasted and tested! Attendees also received their own personalised fashion illustration from the talented Sarah Darby. A DJ highlighted the chilled, positive vibe of the event, encouraging people to sit amongst the lush trees, relax under the sun and enjoy the atmosphere and the delicious free food! From delicious Greek donuts, AllPress coffee to Vietnamese Bao and loaded fries with that New Orleans flavour, all of this free-food from Melbourne’s hottest food trucks, generated traction whilst the client generated a larger client database for the Yarra One development.

This property development event created awareness and portrayed the aspirational lifestyle of the future Yarra One residents! It gained attention with even the Mayor of Stonnington, Cr Jami Klisaris making an appearance to announce an official mural reveal. It was a space that engaged the community and ultimately was a rewarding and memorable experience. And all of this was achieved through focusing on ‘the experience’!