MAURITIUS BABY!

This June, Show Works took our business internationally. We had the distinct privilege, and treat, of organising NBCUniversal's "Entertainment is Universal" Event in Mauritius, to showcase their channels to top African journalists. The event was a rip-roaring success and a "banging party" (overheard on the dance floor) which gave guests a truly immersive brand experience. Each channel was represented by an activation of it's own: an E! Red Carpet arrival, a Style Network Nail Bar, a Studio Universal Photo Booth, a Universal Channel Cocktail Bar and two Latin American TV Stars, Ximena Duque and Carlos Ponce, representing Telemundo Channel and leaving guests gawking at their drop-dead-gorgeousness.

Now, writing that concise 5-sentence description of the event does not in any way hint at the lengths we went to to create said 'banging party' (also tweeted by a journo as #bestpartyever). Working away from home means that you can't rely on your regular trusty suppliers, so the first task at hand was sourcing a local events company that would give their all to our event, just as much as we would. Thankfully, we found them. Adele and Guillaume from Impact were amazing, can-do people with whom we had a many a midnight up-a-ladder-threading-fish-gut-IN-THE-DARK french laugh, and if we could, we would ship them over to RSA for all our future events! Talking about shipping things over, now there is a challenge that comes with working across the water! There is this little thing called Customs and it is not your friend. In the weeks leading up to the event we had all of our branding and gifting shipped over to Mauritius and every single item encountered red tape at customs. The goods were seized for 'inspection' and were released in drips and drabs up until the very last second. We received the last box of goods 3 HOURS before the event began! We are indebted to the staff at Trou Aux Biches Resort for working tirelessly to get our goods from customs. Fatima, in particular, was an angel, without whom guests would have walked away empty goodie-bag handed!

Luckily we did not have any custom-related trouble on the way in, despite there being 75 silver-sequined scatter cushions in Sally's bag (say that sentence five times fast!). We also carried over 150 flash drives which we sat on the plane loading with content for the journalists; picture all three of us in a row with our laptops on our tray tables, loading documents onto flashdrives for the duration of the CPT -JHB flight. It was rather awkward when they served us bacon and eggs! Thankfully we got through customs without a hitch and arrived at Trou Aux Biches Resort safe and sound. 

Setting up branding is the worst, but this location made it quite bearable!

The resort was picturesque and we loved the restaurant where we held our event. The staff were friendly and helpful, food delicious and the view out of this world! As soon as we arrived we climbed up ladders and started the very long and tedious process of Hanging Branding. Which honestly felt like a never ending story while we were doing it, but once all done it really elevated the venue from a normal beach restaurant to a unique NBCUniversal environment.

The event itself was one of our best and guests thoroughly enjoyed themselves. And yes, it was hard work with lots of stress and very late up-ladder nights, (Sorry, did I mention ladders again? There were lots of ladders) but, when all was said and done, we too had a ball! After wrapping all of our work up we had a day off to soak up the island sun and we made the absolute most of it. We walked on the beach, swam in the ocean, lay in the sun and celebrated this incredible experience with a cocktail... or two....

For more pictures of our event, check out our Facebook page.