Te Waipounamu. The South Island. A place of grandeur and beauty; of Southern Alps and dark sky reserves; of Middle Earth sets and adrenaline playgrounds; of glacial movements and world-renowned hikes.
For us, the land across the Cook Strait. A place we know very well, but are only ever visitors in. Whether by ferry or plan, each event we do there is marked by some kind of departure.
But that is about to change.
In 2025, the reach that this company has throughout Aotearoa will be, expanding. Rather than one company, one island, AV Events will be part of one group, two islands. A single, consistent production team covering both sides of the Straight.
Let me explain.
Putting Down the Mantle
Every leader gets to a point where they decide it is time to put down the mantle, allowing someone else to take it up. Whilst it can be a hard decision to reach, full of emotion, it is part of the natural course of life. And this is no different for our leaders.
After thirty years of pouring love into AV Events, Scott and Shona have decided that their time to retire has come.
This decision was by no means easy. After all, they have built this company from the ground up, giving most of their working lives to see it flourish; their faith and their love have formed the catalyst for their success.
So, this announcement is bittersweet for us. The feeling is one of solemn wistfulness. Put simply, we will miss them when they finish; for everything they are and everything they give.
But we are also elated for them and proud of them; proud of the legacy they will leave, as they step into their well-deserved next chapter.
We aren’t exactly sure what is next for them, though I did hear something about a big plot of land, space for future grandkids, and potentially some chickens alongside a miniature highland cow.
A Christchurch Company
So, if our leaders are stepping down, how then is AV Events expanding?
Enter TES stage right.
As of March 1st, AV Events will be acquired by Technical Event Solutions (TES), becoming part of the TES Group.
A Christchurch based company, TES was founded in 2017 by Alex Wilson and Brett Armstrong. With experience in various companies as lighting and video techs, they saw a large gap in the Canterbury market for a consistent, client-centric approach to audio visual services and set out to meet that need.
Starting with small music events and school formals, TES quickly came to saturate the lower and mid tiers of the AV industry down south.
Then, like us here in Auckland, Covid led them to lean into live-streaming, a move which brought about rapid expansion. From a storage unit, they moved to a 300 square metre warehouse, soon outgrew that, and then moved up to 1000 square metres.
Post-pandemic, they began pushing into larger, high-end corporate events and music festivals, building the business into a full audio-visual workhorse with a wide reach across both the South and North islands.
Now with 15 full-time staff across a variety of specialties, TES has become one of the leading AV crews in the nation, consistently showing that the client, truly, comes, first.
An Inter-Island Production Team
This move to come under the TES group may seem like a regression to some. But it isn’t. Not by a long shot.
In fact, in our opinion, this venture will form the first, true, inter-island body within New Zealand’s audio-visual industry; the first team to robustly cater to the needs of clients across the nation.
Why approach three or four companies per island when you can get a consistent, excellent result from a single, full-service provider that spans Aotearoa?
Practically speaking, this will not impact the operations of the company for at least the next twelve months. During this time, a handover will take place that will allow both companies to work out this new paradigm.
What we do know is that it will be a mutually expansive relationship. Both sides of the Strait come with a wealth of experience and resource to share, enabling both of us to grow in new ways. Indeed, it is exciting to imagine the possible logistical and economic advantages this will bring.
That is, it will only help us help you.
Scott will remain present on our end, helping steer us through this change and allowing others to take over his responsibilities, on both the management and client fronts.
On TES’s side, Alex and Brett are committed to seeing AV Events be who we are and do what we do. There will be a diversification of assets and resource under one singular vision. But ultimately, we as a brand will remain distinct.
It will certainly come with change. No handover of leadership ever leaves an organisation exactly the same. But know that the heartbeat of our company will endure.
Have Questions? Talk to Us
You may have a myriad of questions. After all, we realise this affects not only us, but also those we work with. If you do have questions, please reach out.
Because at the end of the day, both TES and AV Events will continue to have one key focus above the rest: to serve our clients to the best of our abilities.