Around the country, events have been impacted by COVID-19 restrictions and the Tauranga Business Awards 2021 were no exception.

With 300 to 500 guests set to attend a lavish cocktail evening and awards ceremony in the Farmer Autovillage showrooms, the restrictions of Alert Level 2 made a gathering of this size impossible.

With the judging complete and the entrants prepared, the Tauranga Chamber of Commerce didn’t want to delay the event into 2022 and lose the momentum of the hard work that had been done to date. So, to use that well-known word, they ‘pivoted’.

Tauranga Chamber of Commerce events & sponsorship manager Anne Pankhurst says planning an event of any scale is challenging during COVID-19, but the silver lining is that it forces you to be innovative, creative and brave.

“Not only did I have plan A, but I had Plan B, C and D waiting in the wings for any given Alert Level. It’s like planning four events to some degree and the uncertainty of not knowing what would happen was challenging.

“When we realised Alert Level 2 wasn’t going anywhere, it was time to take action on Plan B. The judges, entrants, sponsors and suppliers were all very accommodating and supportive, which made the process a lot easier.”

Plan B was a hybrid digital-physical event. Entrants would all have celebrations in their own bubbles – whatever that looked like to them – while 100 guests comprised of VIPs, sponsors, judges, technical crew and Chamber staff would hold a physical awards ceremony at Farmer Autovillage in the VW showroom.

To keep everyone connected, the physical event would be live streamed via YouTube for all the entrants to watch in their bubbles. Entrants were also encouraged to share photos of their celebrations, which were then shared at the event via a web platform called DropEvent.

What the entrants didn’t know was that Anne had a surprise in store: She had arranged for the winners to have their award, a bunch of flowers and a bottle of Mills Reef bubbles delivered on the night as they were announced.

Those doing the awards delivery were driving around the city in luxury vehicles donated by Mike Farmer of Farmer Autovillage – including his own Audi R8, which was driven by judge Anthony Arts to deliver the Business of the Year award.

“The drivers said it was such a neat experience showing up and surprising the winners. They got some great photos of them and how they were celebrating, and you can see the pure joy,” says Anne.

Bay Audio Visual did the technical set up for the awards and were instrumental in keeping everyone connected. For example, they were able to set up a live stream feed through a cellphone so that the driver visiting the Business of the Year winner could live stream their reactions back to the physical event and out through the YouTube stream – no easy feat!

Anne says, “While it was a shame we couldn’t all be together physically, the way it was all set up was certainly the next best thing and in a way we all felt very connected to what was happening outside the physical event.”

The Tauranga Chamber of Commerce would like to thank everyone who supported and championed these awards, who donated their time or went above and beyond to help keep this event running.

You can watch the awards ceremony on the website: tauranga.org.nz/businessawards