ICE BLITZ FUN RACE | SRS Productions | Melbourne Winter Festival

Inspired by the hugely successful 'Crashed Ice' action events in Europe and North America, we present to you, for the first time ever in Australia, the Melbourne Winter Festival 2011 Ice Blitz Fun Race

The Ice Blitz Fun Race was produced and hosted by (myself)Stephanie Ryan-Smith of SRS Productions for Echolot Pty Ltd under the directorship of senior partner of Echolot Pty Ltd, Christoph Doerfel.

The name 'Ice Blitz' was the first name that I came up with when nutting out ideas in the initial planning phase. After all the other ones we brainstormed, "ICE BLITZ" stuck! The entire coordination of getting elite and social level ice skating communities involved revolved around building trusting and mutually beneficial relationships.

Originally we had planned for ICE BLITZ to take place on August 20th, being 2 weeks after our qualifier event at The Medibank Ice House. Due to technical and logistical reasons it was moved forward one week.
On Sunday night the 28th of August The Melbourne Winter Festival experienced a spectacular turn out of teams of pro level ice skaters and ice hockey players to compete for the 2011 title of the Ice Blitz Fun Race sponsored by Spreets.com.

The Ice Blitz comprised of challenging dodging, weaving, ducking and jumping of obstacles on the ice rink & fun track. It was fierce and extremely close all the way, but Team Toronto took home the grand prize of an Apple iPad, Helly Hansen gear and Lendan luxury hair products packs per player.
Each player of every team who had qualified to compete demonstrated
speed, agility, determination, bravery and vibrant team spirit.

We extend a great thank you to the pro-league players of The Melbourne Ice who did a marvellous job of refereeing and assisting in the running of the race track.

We extend the same gratitude to our chosen charity The Warwick Foundation who helped create a very strong presence throughout the entire festival.
The Warwick Foundation helps young adults through their life journey battling with cancer.

SRS Productions | The Melbourne Winter Festival

SRS Productions would like to thank and congratulate client Echolot Pty Ltd for creating such a spectacular, scenic, aromatic and inspirational winter event this year, being The Melbourne Winter Festival. These eight months of being assigned to this project have gone so fast and I am regretful that 'winter' has come to an end! (In my mind it has been winter all year round- but the fun alpine-chalet style winter of The Winter Festival)

Working with and for Echolot has been such a pleasure. Together we worked tirelessly to source the perfect location, being that of the beautiful iconic Melbourne location of The Royal Exhibition Building & Melbourne Museum Forecourt, as well as sourcing highly skilled on-site event managers from Venues2Events who competed with many to get the job.

Thank you to those who formed partnerships with The Melbourne Winter Festival through SRS Productions; The IMAX, The Melbourne Museum & Royal Exhibition Building, The Medibank Ice House, The Melbourne Ice, Spreets.com.au , The Warwick Foundation, Voodoo Legwear, Lendan Skin care, Helly Hansen, Zet Photography, Track Visual, St Kilda News, and many more!

Thank you to our key event sponsors; Strepsils Cool, Lipton Chai Latte, Helly Hansen, Swiss Tourism, Austrian Airways, JCDcaux, NOVA FM and Hilton on The Park.

Many special thanks to the variety of talented entertainers who performed live music, cultural dance, professional figures skating and ice hockey demonstrations, and a BIG, HUGE, MASSIVE thanks to all those guys & girls who competed in Australia's first ever of it's kind; Ice Blitz Fun Race.

Last but certainly not least, thanks to all of you who talked about the Winter Festival on Face Book, Twitter and your respective blogs- 'real people talking' is the best advertising!

SRS Productions and Venues2Events visits Bondi Winter Festival for some field research!

Last week my client flew myself and our onsite event managers for Melbourne up to Bondi to get a taste of the Winter Festival vibe before we kick of the Melbourne event running August 18th to September 4th.
Many thanks to the Swiss Grand Bondi for making us very comfortable and putting us up for the night.

I took a whole bunch of shots to show you- Wow, I can see why people just LOVE Bondi, and the bayside city culture of Sydney in general. It was a chilly Winter's day, but look at that clear blue sky!

The photos I took were taken before gates opened to the public (so you can get a full view of the rink size, props and fixturing, as well as day and night shots.) Day time is very popular with young families, where night time is where a lot of teens and uni student aged folk like to come out to play.

I now have a newly found appreciation for "Gluhwein".
For those of you who are not familiar with what it is, it's a red wine (known as mulled wine) combined with a sweet and spicy (cinnamon, cloves etc) syrup and served hot. OMG! You must try the Winter Festival Gluhwein- they have the recipe perfected. They also do these amazing little shots of hot cherry port with cream on top, sprinkeled with cinnamon; delux! And for a non-alcoholic treat, the hot chocolate topped with whipped cream is a winner.
Another great hot drink to enjoy, which just happens to be a freebee, are the chai lattes offered in the Lipton marquis. Melbourne will also be running a Lipton marquis which has proven to be a very popular destination within the festival.

There is plenty of decadent food to enjoy, both in the Alpine Ski Hut and sold independently by stall holders. The stall holders occupy these cute little mini alpine huts, selling cultural food, special desserts and product retail, such as winter clothing shops.
All the friendly guys & girls working as event staff looked smart and very comfortable in their Helly Hansen outdoor gear. Lucky for them that they also get to keep it!

Young and old alike head over the Winter Festival not only for some super fun ice skating, but for all the sights and aromas of an alpine Winter.
Rather than me blather on any longer, how about I just allow these images speak for themselves!