From the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Opening and Closing Ceremonies to the opening of the Adelaide Convention Centre East Wing, NW Group have produced a wide range of show-stopping corporate and live events through its portfolio of brands. 

Following NW Group’s acquisition of Haycom in 2016, the portfolio now consists of four audio-visual brands, which also includes Norwest Productions in Australia, as well as Spyglass and Oceania in New Zealand.

According to group director of sales Mario Valenti, the four brands allow NW Group to cater to a variety of events throughout the year.

“By owning these different brands, NW Group can cover as many levels of the event market as possible,” he says.

“In any calendar year, corporate events slow down in December and January, so Haycom is a bit quieter in those months, whereas the Norwest brand gets busier during that time. So we’re able to cover those peaks and troughs in the 12-month cycle of revenue.”

Geographical reach

This diversity also allows NW Group to reach all corners of the globe and produce events beyond Australia and New Zealand.

As well as working on the 2018 Commonwealth Games, NW Group helped produce the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta and has been short-listed to work on the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru.

Valenti says NW Group’s geographical reach and diversity of events is a driving factor for the group’s 250 staff across Australia and New Zealand.

“Our events range from Carols in the Domain to touring work with bands, plus all the regular corporate events,” he says. “We’ve got a great crew that is happy to work across the range of events, which keeps them very interested.”

Trends and innovation

When it comes to tech and innovation, Valenti says a lot is happening in the event space, but there’s still a long way to go before things like augmented reality and
virtual reality become the norm.

“From our perspective, we deal with live events, so we don’t want to take the delegates to somewhere else, which is what virtual reality does,” he says.

Instead, NW Group focuses on technology that engages delegates to be in the moment – like Haycom’s hologram product, Musion. The company produced a Musion Hologram of the Premier of South Australia to appear at the Adelaide Convention Centre’s East Wing opening, which left the audience in pure amazement.

Valenti says live streaming will also continue to evolve in 2019, as the 5G network begins rolling out across Australia.

“Live streaming will get a bit easier, there’ll be less drop out and the quality will be higher,” he says.

“We’ve had some initial conversations with telecommunication companies about doing some events around 5G streaming but they’re early days.”

2019 and beyond

While Valenti won’t rule out more acquisitions for NW Group in the future, he says, for now, the focus is to build on the group’s current offering and expertise.

“We’re one of the largest full-service providers in Australia and New Zealand, so I think you’ll find our offering will improve and increase,” he says.

“From an audio perspective, we’re at a high end of supply. In 2019, there will be a lot more focus on video and lighting, in order to increase our position in the market, so we’re excited about that.”