Australian business events are becoming shorter and more cost conscious, driving a significant change in the industry, says Victor Pisapia, director of VictorsFood.

“We hear it more and more from industry colleagues, and clients. They need to deliver company conferences in a shorter timeframe, with more focus on value-for-money and they still want a ‘Wow’ factor.”

Industry suppliers like Victorsfood have launched new products to deliver the ‘wow’ factor on a tight timeframe.

“Delegates are time poor,” agrees Scott Cooper, conference sales & marketing manager at SMC in Sydney.

“Yet organisers would still rather maintain valuable face-to-face engagement that comes from a traditional physical event, rather than digital alternatives such as webinars.”  Cooper adds that this adds to the pressure to get the mix right.

In response to these demands, companies like VictorsFood are creating new products.

“We developed new formats for our team cooking events.” says Pisapia. Power Pizza delivers in 2.5 hours, from making the dough and salads to eating the meal. In the MasterChef Stage Show, a small group cooks for the whole team in a competitive 1 hour event. According to Pisapia, the shorter timeframes help keep the costs down as well.

The new ‘Pizza Power’ team activity, from Victorsfood.

Pisapia adds, “We still have to deliver top results, as we guarantee that. Like all of our events, ‘Power Pizza’ and ‘MasterChef Stage Show’ suit any size group, anywhere, so we do these with teams across Australia, allowing companies to choose more affordable destinations. And the CFO loves it because you get a great meal, and it’s deductible as training.”