Deirdre McGuane, Head of Events, Entertainment and Activations at Victoria Racing Club, says the events industry needs to capitalise on the sense of optimism across the nation right now.

“It’s the perfect time for Melbourne to reinvigorate our events and reclaim our crown as the events capital of the world. The world is looking towards Melbourne and Australia to see what post-COVID events can look like,” she says.

“It’s imperative for our economy that the events industry reboots immediately.”

The events industry is a major economic contributor to Melbourne. 

The economic return to Victoria for the 2019 Melbourne Cup Carnival alone was in excess of $434.5 million – a significant figure spent across accommodation, retail and hospitality sectors. 

2020 saw this spend plummet and a number of the jobs associated with the event lost. 

Mark Neilsen, Director of Set Square Productions, has a long history of working with the Victoria Racing Club to fabricate and deliver an extravaganza of installations, including the famous Birdcage. 

Like many others, Mark saw the need to adapt his business during COVID-19 and create employment opportunities beyond events using the skills he’d honed over many years in the industry.

Drawing on the business’s expertise in creative fabrication, Set Square Productions developed a range of premium outdoor dining pods, retail pods and outdoor dining settings in response to the City of Melbourne’s encouragement of outdoor dining. 

The push for outdoor dining in the CBD, suburbs and regional Victoria was modelled on New York’s Open Restaurants initiative, which is credited with helping 9500 restaurants and cafes stay afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Set Square Productions has already seen a considerable uptake in the outdoor dining pods by many councils across the state. 

Mark says COVID-19 forced businesses to be creative and flexible, and this adaptability will need to continue to reinvigorate our public spaces and events moving forward. 

“In Melbourne, we don’t have the beaches of Queensland, we don’t have Sydney Harbour. We pride ourselves on being the culture capital of Australia, so it feels like we’ve lost part of our identity during COVID-19,” he says.

“We need to entice people back outdoors, safely, into the public spaces and to the events they’ve come to know and love.”

Deirdre agrees and says brands, and businesses like Set Square Productions, have the expertise to operate safely and are raring to go. 

“We got creative with ways to stay connected during lockdown, but now people are ready to reconnect with loved ones and friends again and hopefully that will jumpstart a really vibrant event scene here in Melbourne,” she says.