While a city’s top hotels and trendy venues make for a great evening, the challenge for many event planners is to come up with something novel that creates a buzz long after the last cocktail has been consumed.

Marketing, advertising and experiential agency, iris Singapore, was contracted by Heineken to come up with a venue for its highly anticipated Green Room event for almost 2,000 guests. The client’s concept called for a raw, deconstructed feel so iris proposed exactly that. Kallang Auto Centre is an old hangar at the former Kallang Airport, Singapore’s first purpose-built civil airport, which has been disused for years.

“It was a completely bare shell – no power, water or any facilities. It was dirty and dilapidated,” says Andy Gould, group account director of iris Singapore. “The warehouse was open along two sides and there were no ‘rooms’ as such. It was one large open space, with a couple of smaller warehouses next to it.”

Having space to play with is an obvious upside to a venue of this nature. The agency utilised 1,000 sqm of the hangar – but a cavernous industrial building will not always work in all instances. Consideration must be made as to the brand, the target audience attending, and the overall ambience required.  

“Our clients are generally for young partygoers, who want a different night out, and the ‘warehouse party’ vibe actually adds to their experience,” says Gould. “You also need to be aiming at a target audience who are looking for a unique concept-based night, rather than to be cosseted, as the experience will always be a bit raw unless your budgets are enormous.”

As well as a lack of facilities, going into a bare shell creates logistical challenges. “The nature of these venues means they are not ‘on the map’ so consumers often have to work harder in terms of actually getting to the event, so you need to ensure that you deliver an experience that delivers,” says Gould.

He also cites power sources, health and safety, proximity to residential areas, which may determine noise levels and alcohol permits, and washroom facilities as some of many issues that need to be addressed.

“Licence applications and discussions with the police need to be carried out as early as you can to find out if your event can even be held,” he says. “The main issue with these venues is always keeping temperature down – you can never have enough cooling units.”

Which is just as well, as venue was turned into ‘a top-secret gene research facility’ with lasers at the entrance and staff in lab coats and goggles.

How I did it… Joyce Tong, MCI Hong Kong
Joyce Tong, senior project manager at MCI Hong Kong, was faced with the blankest canvas of all in which to stage an event – an empty field. “The field was meant for the development of the third Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel,” she says. “There were no existing facilities so everything had to be brought in and set up.”

The event took two months to plan with the main obstacles being the lack of washrooms and audio-visual equipment and obtaining licences. The client gave Tong free rein to suggest how to use the space. Shielding guests from the elements were marquees, tents and covered walkways.

Although a bad-weather contingency plan had been put in place, Tong couldn’t have foreseen its severity as a typhoon had hit two days before. “We were concerned that the ground was too muddy for us to erect structures and staging,” she says, adding that riskier setups were cancelled. But the show went on with positive feedback.

MCI Group is a global events company www.mci-group.com