When I started Flying Ruby Events 13 years ago, my goal was to build the ultimate work family; a team of incredibly talented producers who shared my passion about creating unforgettable events. What’s more, we would also have a common goal in the workplace. That is, if we were going to be in an industry that demanded such long, tireless hours, we needed to have fun while we worked. Fast forward 13 incredible years, we still live and work by that very same goal.

For me, it starts with an active approach to team building, which I take seriously, but in the most fun way. In fact, my poor team never really know what to expect. We’ve spent ‘work’ days in shark tanks, cooking classes, Black Ops helicopters and V8 supercars. These experiences make us all a little vulnerable and teach us to push through our fears and support each other through those white-knuckle moments, building an internal supportive network. That, and no challenge we need to work through at any event will ever stand up to meeting a Great White face-to-face, let me tell you.

Why do I organise these team-building days? Because my staff are, without question, my biggest asset.

When I was asked to collaborate with the team at The CEO Magazine 13 years ago, and develop a large-scale event focussed on awarding individuals achievements and their successes within a business, it was an instant ‘yes’ from me. This was the exact style of event we wanted to be aligned with.

I remember the first time we produced The CEO Magazine’s Executive of the Year Awards like it was yesterday. The year was 2012, we welcomed 375 guests to a gala evening at Doltone House in Sydney, and it was an unmitigated success.

By bringing together the country’s most successful executives, it fast became a highlight on Australia’s corporate calendar. Within three short years, the event had grown to over 600 guests and moved to the Crown Melbourne.

Since then, we have had the utmost privilege to work with amazing talent; from our emcees Larry Emdur, Ben Fordham, Kylie Gillies and Eddie McGuire, to talented performers including James Morrison, Emma Pask, Jon Stevens and the incredible duo of Van Anh and Mark Olsen, just to name a few.

We have had aerial artists, violin trios, inspirational keynotes, live artists and comedians.

We’ve auctioned off a $10,000 bottle of whisky (thanks Gina Rinehart), coordinated a 600-person toast with Chivas Regal, produced a brand activation integrating an A H Beard queen bed into a ballroom, which was quite the challenge. We even stalled our live event for 25 (very long) minutes as our CEO of the Year winner had missed his flight and was making his way to the event as we tracked his every move.

Our event-planning stage starts much earlier in the year when we build the Awards application portal.

We begin working on the creative concepts around stage set builds, room and table styling, signage, on-screen content and we develop activation concepts for our event sponsors. We have our many, many runsheets, we curate guest entry and entertainment, produce trophies and signage, design the forever-changing floorplans, moving everything 33 times until all of our new sponsor activations fit. We even work through the logistics of how we are going to fit a car into a goods lift entry with three centimetres to spare – I’m looking at you Maserati! And finally, the event starts to take shape and then we build on that, day after day until weeks out from the event date when we work on table planning, guest dietaries and briefing in all onsite staff and suppliers.

And, for all the blood, sweat and tears, when we stand in front of that stage watching the heartfelt emotional speeches coming from winner after winner, year after year, I feel so incredibly proud and thankful; that I get the good fortune to work on such an inspiring event which highlights individual success and literally changes people’s lives and careers – it really is the best feeling ever.

Fast forward to right here, right now, we are commencing the planning phase of our 13th Executive of the Year Awards and I’m truly excited to do it all again.

What about you? Applications are now ready for you to put your best foot forward, and if successful, you will have the opportunity to see all of Flying Ruby Events hard work at The Star on Thursday 14^th November 2024.

We look forward to seeing you there.

To enquire about working with Flying Ruby Events to produce your gala dinner, christmas party, conference or brand activation, contact us here.