Since our company's inception in 2015 up until the end of 2019 (unfortunately ended in 2020 due to COVID-19), we've worked with EMAS UWA to produce some of the largest student-run events in Australia. At their peak, the events attracted over 2500 students and featured 3 stages as well as all the amenities you'd expect to find at a commercial music festival. On the flip side unlike almost any other music festival, EMAS managed to sell out every event without the help of any headliners or even local artists and so our role in managing production, designing the stages and site production was always of utmost importance to the success of each event, and to maintaining the reputation for future events.
For each event we were tasked with complete production management including stage design, production planning, event site electrical planning, site lighting, site theming, equipment rental and sourcing, and on-the-night production/technical management and support.
Our working process with EMAS is a little different to most of our other clients because some of our team has been involved in the club in the past, and the volunteers that make up the EMAS committee are almost always eager to learn about and be exposed to more of our process. As such, in the initial planning phase of each event we take time to work through the event as a whole and involve the EMAS team in the stage and site AV design process. This carries over to all other aspects of our involvement including budgeting, where we work closely and openly to streamline our role in the event. For many events working like this is not necessary, but in this case it leaves us with an intimate understanding of the event, and the EMAS team can be highly confident in the work we're doing.
While each event has looked a little different, our AV solution generally breaks down as follows.
Production management - Stage and lighting design, contractor management, stage management
Main stage - Full concert stage including lighting, audio, LED screen, confetti (and even pyro on a couple of occasions).
Silent disco - Three channel silent disco with lighting, DJ equipment, staging.
Site theming - Uplights, festoons, LED pallet bar, truss arches.
Misc - Site power distribution, flood lights
As a not-for-profit organisation, the goal of every EMAS event has always been to run the best event possible for the benefit of the attendees. This has lead to some amazing events and experiences, and we're proud to have been a part of them. We're also proud that the production for every event has run smoothly and gathered great feedback. To help achieve this goal we leaned heavily on our Dynamic Rental Inventory system and worked with trusted rental partners to ensure the equipment used was the best for the job - not the best for our wallet. Thank you to One20 Productions, Live Event Productions and Technical Alliance who have assisted both Icon AV and EMAS over the years resulting in some incredible work.