Virtual Awards Night for REINZ

The who’s who of New Zealand real estate  logged on to celebrate the profession’s best at the 2021 REINZ Awards for Excellence, delivered by Encore Event Technologies on 16 of September 2021. Hosted virtually for the first time, the awards night attracted more than 550 attendees from across New Zealand. The result was a seamless virtual experience, with all the glamour and excitement of a traditional in-person awards night — made possible by Encore’s experienced virtual events team.

Like many in-person events held this year, the awards night was forced to quickly pivot to virtual when New Zealand entered Alert Level 4 restrictions. With just three weeks until the event, it was all systems go for Encore’s production team to completely transform the format and take the event online. The short timeframe, compounded by this being the client’s first virtual event of this magnitude and the nature of the event – an online awards night that needed to match the experience of an in-person event – made for the perfect storm and needed expert production management to execute.

With the company’s CEO located in Hamilton – a level 2 restricted location – it became the logical place to broadcast the event from. With Encore’s production team forced to work from home under Auckland’s restrictions, they coordinated with local suppliers to construct a professional virtual studio that they could operate remotely.

Using Encore’s cutting-edge Immersive xR Stage combined with a green screen, the team were transported the event’s MCs to a stage with a picturesque backdrop of New Zealand’s iconic mountain range, The Remarkables. Award winners, sponsors and special presenters were remotely linked into the main event broadcast using Zoom.

The event was a resounding success, with the client and attendees commenting on their enjoyable experience.

“I never thought I could enjoy a virtual event so much, I too sat at home with a glass of bubbles cheering on the winners and absolutely loved how the camera jumped into their world for the win.”

Kate Smith – Operations Manager, Skills Consulting Group. 

The long-standing client was grateful with the level of dedication the Encore team showed to ensuring their event was delivered seamlessly,

“The team at Encore were absolutely amazing to work with! To pull off a full virtual event in three weeks is impressive. Even when the live set moved cities and Covid Alert Levels! The Encore team provided guidance and innovative ideas to make this an exciting event for all those attending. I can’t wait to work with the team again in the future,” said Holly Adams, Events & Sponsorship Executive at REINZ.