Party and Events

marQUee riggerS traiNiNg rUNS itS coUrSe

through the month of october, hIanZ ran a series of Marquee riggers training courses in christchurch and taupo.

thE EVEntS SEctor is a very seasonal affair made even more challenging over the past two years with the presence of COVID. This time of the year is when the seasonally hired staff come on board and in most cases, these are people who have little or no rigging experience, especially around marquees. Therefore, there is a requirement to support events businesses by providing a training and development pathway for their existing staff. Also, there is a need to continually train staff and educate them on the Industry Best Practice Guidelines. The APEX Marquee Accreditation programme, is designed to ensure that marquee companies are consistently offering high levels of value for money for their customers. Our marquee riggers courses provide an opportunity to develop basic fundamentals of marquee rigging through our level 1 course. Our level 2 advanced riggers course takes more senior and experienced staff on a journey towards increasing those skill levels. Christchurch had a full course of 11 willing participants for a Level 1 fundamentals course, although sadly, the weather was not so obliging. The first part of the day covered theory, learning the components and types of a marquees, health and safety and how to plan and execute the building process. Although the weather got worse after lunch those hardy South Islanders were undeterred and managed to build a marquee anyway. Admittedly, all of us were very happy once the walls were up and we were able to shelter inside for the rest of the practical session. Originally arranged for Hamilton, but because of the Waikato being in level three, we decided to move the North Island courses to Taupo, a more central spot for all the attendees as it turned out. The Taupo courses were both level 1 and 2 and both days were run in milder conditions than seen in Christchurch. The level one course was the same format whilst the next day saw us run the first level two course of the year. It was great to help these trainees develop into advanced riggers and grow their supervision skills.

One of the highlights of all the courses was the testing of the different styles of pegs holding power in the ground. HIANZ owns a peg pulling tester device and it gives really good insight into the holding power of different pegs and installation techniques. This included the Baytex Earth Anchor system which out-performed most pegging techniques. A big thanks goes to Andy Youngman for presenting the courses and Continental Hirepool and Get Set Events Taupo for the venues and equipment. Also, a big thanks to Hamish of X-Site Events for assisting with the planning of the Hamilton courses that had to be shifted. We look forward to coming to you once the levels change. The association has put a lot of resources into the APEX Best Practice Guidelines and accreditation programme. The idea is to provide a pedestal for event businesses to place themselves above their competitors by providing the best in industry product and services. We have had a very good uptake from members on entering the programme, which is a bit scary for some as we don’t know the future of the industry – as it is affected highly by the restrictions of gatherings. Event businesses are really struggling right now and having to commit to spending a bit more to enter an improvement programme can be seen by some as not the most important thing to do right now. However, now is the time to get into it, get your systems, processes and delivery in place, measure your improvements so that when it all does come back, your business is well-placed to take advantage. ■