6 minute read
SCOTT’S SPOT
from Hotel SA Dec 2023-Jan 2024
by Boylen
BY SCOTT VAUGHAN
Hello all and welcome to the final edition of Scott’s Spot for 2023.
REGIONAL MEETINGS
There have been a number of regionals since the August edition. held in September, there were two regionals held with the first at the Victoria Hotel in Port MacDonnell followed by the Exchange Hotel in Gawler.
Moving into October the Kent Town Hotel hosted the Metro Regional, followed by the Ardrossan Hotel hosting the Yorke Peninsula meeting. To cap off 2023, The Port Lincoln hosted the Eyre Peninsula regional to draw a final curtain over what was a big year.
Thanks to all members and corporate partners for their attendance and support and looking onwards and upwards to 2024.
HOTEL INDUSTRY AWARDS FOR EXCELLENCE
Halloween was the night where record numbers attended the gala awards event at the Entertainment Centre.
Congratulations to all the nominees and award winners with 2022 recently run and won. A special mention must go to Mount Lofty House - Accommodation, McLaren Vale Hotel - Country and the Cremorne Hotel - Metropolitan for winning the best overall hotel in each of their categories.
Enjoy a couple of stories that were sent anonymously to me from a couple of my spies!
Who said Treasurers don’t have a sense of humour. Speaking at the AHA|SA awards night, Treasurer Stephen Mulligan told the audience he had been selected to represent Premier Peter Malinauskas, who had fallen ill.
When he said “… it’s no mean feat being Peter’s body double”, I think many in the 920-strong crowd were picturing the famous photo of a gym-buffed “Mala” , bare-chested in a swimming pool during the State election.
It flips the old advice that nervous speakers can employ the relaxation technique of imagining their audience in the nude!
Still on our fun-loving Treasurer, how good was his major events joke? He was speaking about the Adelaide 500, Gather Round and other major events.
“And just this week we learnt that South Australia was host to the best golfing event in the world. I’m talking, of course, about the Coopers Golf Day this week … nah, the LIV Golf Festival which was held in April of this year.”
Still on the awards night, the disco ball centrepieces took many people for a trip down memory lane. The fact that they have been repurposed from previous table features and put together by GoGo Events made them even more special.
Later on the dancing started and Hot Dub Time Machine was such a smash hit that the dance floor was overflowing. The one thing I would like to see next year is if organiser Lucy Randall could organise a giant disco ball above the dance floor to make the dream complete.
There was great excitement when the Meat Tray Raffle was about to be announced. We were all glammed up but it brought a touch of ‘Friday night front bar’ to the event.
I’m sure there were publicans thinking it would be a good addition to their promotional larder. And I had to laugh when one of the winners was announced as EOS. I’m not sure they do meat and chook raffles in that very fine establishment.
One of the most commented on images of the night was the image of Renee from the Penneshaw Pub that was projected onto the superscreens above the stage. There was a mysterious, highlypolished head poking in from the side. Do you recognise the mysterious photobomber (below)?
PLEASE ENJOY PHOTOS TAKEN OVER THE LAST COUPLE OF MONTHS.
pub on their award for winning the Best Draught Beer Quality.
We like to think of the AHA|SA as leaders and that was backed up by the Premier when he spoke at the President’s Lunch.
“This is always an important event in the annual calendar here in South Australia … it very much fires the starting gun on Christmas- orientated events,” he said.
The Premier had to leave the lunch early to get to a National Cabinet, while many at the lunch retired to The Strathmore for a quiet beverage – including some of his parliamentary colleagues doing the hard yards on his behalf!
Our CEO, Anna Moeller, used the lunch to compliment fifth generation family member, Melanie Cooper, on her appointment as the Chair of Australia’s largest independent family-owned brewery, Coopers.
Mel becomes the first female Chair of Coopers Brewery in its 161-year history and takes over from Glenn Cooper who is stepping down in December after nearly 22 years in the position. At the same time, Andrew Cooper will be appointed to the Board – the first sixth-generation family member to become a Director of the company. The comments Mel made at the time, reflect what Anna says in her column in this issue of Hotel SA:
“Our industry faces opportunities and challenges. I hold a positive outlook and look forward to working closely with my fellow Directors and senior leadership team along this journey,” said Mel.
