Gratitude and Hope for the Future for the NZ Events Industry

New Christmas Tree for Christchurch acutely symbolic

November 28 2020 saw the culmination of months of hard work as the Christchurch City Mission brought Christmas to the city centre with a ten metre tall steel Christmas tree, according to the designers, Holmes Solutions, “A symbol of gratitude and hope for the future.”

The project brought together the City Mission, Holmes Solutions (design), Showquip (manufacture) and Electro-Tech Services (lighting). The tree was a visual ‘thank you’ from the Mission to the fifty thousand people every year who help the Mission’s work with struggling people and families, with the thousands of stars and lights decorating the tree representing the many supporters. It also represented optimism for 2021, the centrepiece of an event that was able to go ahead in place of Christmas in the Park and the Christmas Parade, both cancelled due to COVID.

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The project landed on Showquip’s door at just the right time, as work dried up across the country. With their own manufacturing facility, the Showquip team took Holmes’ concept drawing and ran with it. Rob Carpenter, Business Development Manager at Showquip describes the process, “It was back to old school, all the steel shaped and rolled free-hand. A great job to be involved in whilst the events industry got back on its feet.”

It was a slightly different story for Electro-Tech, explains Steve Walker, Director, “We have been involved since way back when they used a big old tree from the plantations.” Initially the designer had other plans for the lighting, but COVID meant that they couldn’t source the product they wanted and Electro-Tech stepped up to provide the RGB fairy lights.

For all those involved in the project, gratitude and hope was definitely in the air, as the New Zealand events industry climbed out of the COVID doldrums. Showquip and Electro-Tech had been hugely impacted but both are now overwhelmed with work. In Steve’s words, “With a lot of hard work and good management by the senior team we have just had a massive October and November, and have a huge few months ahead. We seem to be operating on a three month cycle, with people not booking too far in advance, so April is just getting busy.”

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The holiday season in New Zealand saw multiple tours by local artists including Greenstone’s Summer Concert series featuring Gin Wigmore, Dragon, The Jordan Luck Band, Stellar and Hello Sailor, and huge festivals Bay Dreams North and South, Rhythm ‘n Alps and Rhythm ‘ Vines, amongst other smaller events.