Riviera Festival of Boating awarded Queensland’s Best Corporate Event
The 2016 Riviera Festival of Boating has been formally acknowledged for excellence as Queensland’s Best Corporate Event.
This year’s festival of fun and learning was the largest and most comprehensive ever staged at the home of Riviera on Australia’s Gold Coast, attracting over 1000 registrants from around Australia and the world.
In accepting the 2016 Best Corporate Event accolade on behalf of the 500-strong Riviera team, Brand and Communications Director Stephen Milne said the 2016 Festival truly reflected the ethos of excellence that flows through every aspect of Riviera – Australia’s favourite and most-awarded builder of luxury motor yachts.
“For the Australian motor yacht enthusiast in particular, the Riviera Festival of Boating is a truly unique event that continues to grow every year,” said Mr Milne.
“Across four fantastic days, our very talented team and our experienced facilitators this year hosted over 110 educational workshops on land and on water, a number of special social events, fully narrated factory tours via the Riviera Express train ride and a spectacular red-carpet showcase of world-class luxury motor yachts on the undercover Riviera Marina. “It is extremely gratifying that the Festival has been recognised as something genuinely special not just by our global Riviera Family of owners … but now by the Australian events industry as well.”
The 2016 Festival’s hands-on workshops spanned all aspects of boating – from weather forecasting and routine maintenance to offshore seamanship and advanced navigation, and placed a special emphasis on safety.
The Friday Ladies Luncheon & Fashion Parade was staged at the iconic Marina Mirage shopping and dining destination in Main Beach, while the spectacular Saturday evening red-carpet marina party, gala dinner and show – Viva Las Riviera – transformed part of the Riviera factory into a magnificent ballroom for almost 600 guests.
Something Truly Special
“Every guest at this year’s Festival will tell you there’s something very special happening in the world of Riviera right now,” said Mr Milne.
“Yes, we create and build beautiful and luxurious motor yachts that are recognised as being amongst the best in the world and we are certainly proud of our international success and our many awards attest to this dedication and skill.
“The Festival is about helping luxury motor yacht owners, and aspiring owners, to learn and develop or enhance their sea legs and experience the exhilaration and great reward of true blue-water cruising. It really is a privilege for our team to help our owners develop skills for the safe and confident enjoyment of their time on the water.”
Judges of the 2016 Australian Event Awards praised Riviera for its genuine commitment to helping owners realise their full boating potential.
“Well done – it’s not easy to deliver such a great event for customers,” the judges said. “We very much liked your different approach which was to have your customers really understand their boats and the experiences they have bought into … and the safety demonstrations will probably save lives.”
Mr Milne said work has now begun in earnest for the 2017 Festival of Boating from 25-28 May at Riviera’s world-class Coomera facility – the largest of its type in the Southern Hemisphere.
