Latest News Blog

New Year’s Eve 2011

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 06:37:00 GMT

New Gaia Rhythm Show extravaganza set to debut in Sydney on New Year’s Eve!

It’s our most ambitious and spectacular production yet – a smorgasbord of entertainment, with six performances on stage incorporating didgeridoos and drums, electric guitars, flutes and haunting Asian stringed instruments, singers and dancers from Africa, Asia and Australia, live fire dancing, acrobatic displays and much more. It’s called Gaia – the ancient Greek name for planet earth, because it is a distillation of the world’s great rhythms and celebrations of life.

The Gaia Rhythm Show draws on Drum Beats Creative Director Angela Grima’s diverse background in theatre, opera, jazz, world music and choreography, backed by the incredibly talented and multiculturally diverse team of musicians who work with Drum Beats. These musicians come from around the world from countries such as Hungary, Malta, Guinea, Switzerland, Senegal, Latvia, Ghana, Burma, America, India, Indonesia, New Zealand, Egypt and Australia. Many of us speak more than one language, but of course the most common language we share and understand better than any other is the language of rhythm.

Here is a peek at what we did for Conrad Jupiters High Rollers Ball last New Years Eve

We have been perfecting and previewing Gaia for many months, and now we are ready to make our Sydney debut at the Sydney Opera House ‘Opera Kitchen’ on the lower concourse for New Year’s Eve.

Book now for a festive dinner prepared by the Opera Kitchen’s top chefs, an unbelievable waterfront view of the fireworks and the international excitement of the Gaia Rhythm spectacular – the best NYE in Sydney, all for only $295 per head! Details 0450 099 888 or NYE at The Opera Kitchen

Motivational Moments

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 05:34:00 GMT

Do you know you can start inspiring your team from the minute you arrive at work each morning?

Because your team looks to you to set the tone of the workplace, you can make a big difference to the day’s performance just by enhancing your own performance in the first 5 minutes of each day.
If you arrive at the office looking and feeling full and energy and enthusiastic to start the day’s work, your team immediately gets the message that you are there because you want to be there and that you will be investing high energy into that day and expect them to do so as well.

But if you arrive at work bleary eyed and unenthusiastic, that gives others the cue to drop their enthusiasm a few notches as well. Naturally, we’re not all at our chirpy best first thing in the morning, but sometimes arriving 10 minutes early for a quick caffeine fix or fresh juice at a nearby cafe before work is all you need to mentally plan an entry into the office that gets everyone feeling good and ready to go to work.

Was this thought helpful? Please let us know. Although we have become well known for our drumming events we also like to provide practical ideas for inspiring and motivating corporate groups that don’t rely on drums, and we’d especially value your feedback, ideas and contributions too – please email us at corporaterhythms@drumbeats.com.au

How a unique, custom-designed presentation helped launch a corporate rebranding exercise.

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 06:01:00 GMT

Client: The Lion Company.
Objective: Internal rebranding of Lion Nathan as Lion Co.
Attendees: More than three hundred leaders of Lion Nathan and National Foods companies in Australia and New Zealand.
Venues: Port Douglas Mirage and Flames Of The Forest Restaurant.

Background:
In June 2011, Lion Nathan National Foods, an amalgamation of National Foods and Lion Nathan, formally adopted a new shared purpose and identity and rechristened itself simply as Lion. This meant a change in the name of the parent company for many Australian and New Zealand brand leaders from Coon Cheese, Big M, Berri and Vitasoy to Tooheys, Hahn and Steinlager.

Lion’s Strategy and Insights Director Alicia Purtell and her team had selected the Port Douglas Mirage as an ideal location for the 2011 Lion Leader’s Conference which would introduce 350 executives across all Lion divisions to the corporate theme: “Acting in alignment helps us achieve together”.

Alicia, who had worked with Drum Beats before on several individual product events, knew Drum Beats could be relied on to create a drumming opener for Day 2 of the event that would both support the corporate theme and leave this audience enthused, excited and receptive to the new branding.

Creative Development:
The communications objective of the day was to demonstrate to delegates that by acting in alignment under the united Lion banner, all the diverse Lion brands could achieve more, so Angela developed and produced a one-off musical programme of three “lessons” to prove to the 350 participants that this was indeed the case.

Lesson One - After a short opening drumming session designed to break down inhibitions and raise the emotional temperature, Angela and the Rhythm Doctors (also known as drummers) got to work to prove that diversity could produce harmony. This was done by showing four different sections of the audience how to play four different rhythms simultaneously to unite into an impressivepiece of music.

Lesson Two - Even the smallest division, the product and the people who produced it payed a vital part in the whole. Audience members were given a cheese wrapper and were asked to make music with it – no luck – but when a team of people crumpled their wrappers in time, and were supported by other instruments; they could and did make a positive contribution to the music.

Lesson Three - The climax! – the debut of the Lion Packaging Orchestra, as members of the different product groups played their packaging – there were beer cans and milk cartons used as clap sticks, ice cream cartons full of beer tops used as shakers and many other strange and wonderful sounds that all magically aligned into a stirring and harmonious Lion Symphony. An important outcome of this exercise worth mentioning was that it introduced everybody in the room to the full suite of products, including the New Zealand market brand leaders in a memorable way.

“Bearing in mind that it was an 8.30am start, people really loved it! It created a great sense of unity and energy to kick off the second day of our conference. We really appreciated how proactive Angela was in suggesting using our products as percussion instruments, which helped to connect our people to the activity” said Lion Co’s Alicia Purtell.

Grand Finale
Drum Beats also contributed to ending this two day Lion event on a high note by staging their new Gaia Rhythm Show - world music spectacular as the after dinner entertainment at the conference Gala Dinner, hosted at the award winning Flames of the Forest rainforest venue just outside Port Douglas. Drum Beats drummers and stilt walkers in rain forest costumes were on hand to meet and greet the guests as they arrived at the restaurant and ten solo performers provided the memorable after dinner entertainment, which included a Mongolian throat singer and fire dancing acrobats.

“The Gaia performance”, said Alicia “was spectacular, really interactive, fun and moving. Our thanks to Angela and her team for creating a program and performance unique to Lion and partnering with us in such a constructive way.”

More Team Building Photos

More Grand Finale Photos

No venue too far. No audience too small.

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 07:19:00 GMT

Drum Beats rolls out Grundfos global values in six capital cities

Client: Grundfos Pumps Australia & New Zealand.
Objective: Regional launch of new Grundfos global theme “What Unites Us”.
Attendees: Internal business leaders from Adelaide, Auckland. Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.
Venues: Bio SA Conference Centre, Adelaide and Grundfos offices in all other capital cities.

Check out the photos of the day

When Grundfos Australia and New Zealand launched a new Grundfos global corporate theme in 2011, they announced it with a drum roll in every one of their offices – coordinating eight opening events in six offices and two countries through Drum Beats

It all began in Denmark earlier this year, when Grundfos called an international manager’s meeting to announce their new global corporate theme, “What Unites Us”, and opened the event with a drumming session - the perfect way to unite any corporate group with a rhythmic shared experience.

Anna Tyssen, Assistant Marketing Manager of Grundfos Australia, suggested recreating the Danish drumming experience to announce the theme to a group of 30 Australian senior executives and business leaders. “We wanted something that was physical and involving and united everyone in the audience in a positive way”, recalls Anna, “and drumming met that need perfectly“. In fact, this event was so successful, it was then staged in every Grundfos office in Australia and New Zealand on June 20th, when the new values rolled out globally.

Grundfos National HR Manager Claire Lindley took responsibility for managing the national launch and worked closely with Drum Beats Production Director Rob Wines to make sure the event was simultaneous and seamless, quite a challenge as the audience sizes ranged from 120 people in Adelaide to six people in Perth, with 20 – 50 per office in the other capital cities – Auckland, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. “Being a national company”, says Claire, “the fact that we were able to organise the whole event through one central contact, Rob Wines, was invaluable. I attended the Adelaide shows, which were fantastic, and I had equally positive feedback from all the other state Managers”.

Drum Beats say that no event is too complex and no audience too small for a great drumming event whether you have an audience of six or 600. “It always happens the same way” explains Rob, “five minutes while the extroverts get into it and the introverts hold back, and then all inhibitions go out of the window as everyone joins in and enjoys the adrenalin rush. National launches are no problem either as Drum Beats has hand-picked teams of drummers and dancers on call in every capital city – each performer auditioned and approved and each performance scripted by Angela.”

Room for Thought

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 03:15:00 GMT

The pop up 'Drummer Restaurant' is open this week Wednesday till Friday at 72 Erskine St, Sydney

The restaurant is part of the American Express funded Room for Thought project which through a facebook based competition provided an opportunity for people to realise their dreams across the genres of music, fashion & community. The winner of the community section Elle Formica had the idea to create the ‘Drummer Restaurant’ and raise awareness of refugee issues through a more personal encounter. With the help of mentor Miranda Otto the restaurant has come to life.

The upper level has a Burmese theme & menu whilst the street level room has a Sudanese inspired menu which includes spicy goat stew with black eye beans, spiced orange syrup and pistachio cakes. During Breakfast 7.00-10.00am, Lunch 12noon-3.00pm & Dinner 6.00-9.00pm the Drum Beats musicians are adding the spice with African rhythms & dance.

Here is the link for Imagesof the event and for more information on the Drummer Restaurant check out the article in the Sydney Morning Herald and Facebook

Social Buisness Summit

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 06:33:00 GMT

Headshift presented the recent Social Business Summit at the Mint in Sydney.
The summit brought together some of the leading thinkers and analysts on social business.

Among the presenters were Anne Bartlett-Bragg, Dion Hinchcliffe, Martin Stewart-Weeks & Peter Kim. Insightful conversations were held regarding the ongoing evolution of Facebook, Why is government interested in social innovation, How can companies get started……

Drum Beats presented an experiential session focussing upon team work & ‘Awareness in the Unknown' - Take a Peek!

Australia Wide African Countdown

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 06:04:00 GMT

What a day!

With shows commencing at 1pm in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide, Perth & Brisbane the launch of Nutrimetics new incentive travel destination was a case of all hands on drums! (Nutrimetics is one of Australia and New Zealand’s leading skincare companies)

Following the countdown the drummers commenced & the African dancers burst onto the stage delighting the audiences with their energy & athleticism. As lunch concluded the interactive fun began, each participant had a drum or percussion instrument to play and the Nutrimetics Orchestras were born!

With the new incentive travel destination being South Africa, this was a great chance to bring out our ever popular African theme. Logistically the challenge was to coordinate the 21 musicians but as usual the guys were fantastic & drew a great response.

Check out the photos of the day

And here is what Nutrimetics had to say

"WOW what a successful event we had all thanks to the drum beats entertainment. All states came back with positive feed back on the entertainment and could not say 1 bad thing about any of the states.

I was in South Australia and they were fabulous!!! Jim was my contact and he was great, nothing was too hard for him. The level of professionalism and manner we were working with across Australia is something we here at Nutrimetics are looking for.

Angela, thank you for all your help coordinating the states. Your musicians were all easy going and ready to perform at the best of their ability with no complaints or drama. It's a relief to know that for the next events we do with drum beats we will be happy.

I look forward to meeting you both and also working with you and your team in the future."

Jenna Doumit - Meetings, Promotions & Events Coordinator

NYE 2010 in the Crystal Rainforest

Sun, 23 Jan 2011 04:24:00 GMT

The brief was to provide high class yet earthy entertainment that would enhance the other world feel of the Crystal Rainforest.

The 860 guests had seen almost everything so from past experiences it was important that the entertainment be different, new and definitely of the highest quality.
New costumes were designed & new music was also written & composed especially for the event.

Images & video will be online shortly but in the meantime here is a quick peek backstage during preparations.

Good News on The Festival of Potential

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 03:06:00 GMT

After a week of rain the weather gods held back their tears & the sun shone. Finally summer had arrived & to celebrate Darling Harbour came alive to the rhythms, dance, art & circus skills of the American Express ‘Festival of Potential’.

Over the two days, thousands of excited participants immersed themselves in the activities as they ignited their creative potential. Drum Beats sessions which were held every hour from 8 in the morning till 8 in the evening were incredibly popular. For some great images of the action go to Festival in full swing
Apart from being a wonderful opportunity for members of the public to explore their creative potential the festival also raised money for Mission Australia. American Express donated $25 to Mission Australia for each photo or video showing people realizing their potential uploaded to ‘the heART’ - over $50,000 was raised & donated to Mission Australia!
‘The heART’ is an ‘artistic manifestation of everyone’s collective potential, it evolves & adapts with everyone’s contributions of their own potential. ‘The heART’ is fun to interact with & is currently online at festival of potential click upon the 'View the heART' tab at the top of the page.

Drum Beats at Darling Harbour

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 00:30:00 GMT

Jump into summer with Drum Beats at Darling Harbour

It may be a wet week in Sydney but Drum Beats has re-set the weather dial to HOT. Catch Drum Beats at Darling Harbour this Friday & Saturday at the American Express ‘Festival of Potential’.

Drum Beats will be performing at half past the hour from 8am to 8pm each day. With 50 drums & 6 musicians on hand it’s a great opportunity to be part of the rhythm and unleash your potential! If that’s not enough there are free dance workshops with Sydney Dance Company, Circus and Art workshops and by being part of all this you will be supporting Mission Australia. More about the festival at http://apps.facebook.com/festivalofpotential/?festival

Date:      December 3rd and 4th
Time:     8am – 8pm
Cost:      FREE
Venue:   Next to Imax theatre at Darling Harbour