Category: Award Evenings

Zapstars Productions part of the 10th Anniversary Delicious Produce Awards 2015.

zapstarsJuly 28, 2015Award Evenings
Zapstars Productions part of the 10th Anniversary Delicious Produce Awards 2015.

delicious. magazine Produce Awards winners revealed at gala event at Bennelong at Sydney Opera House

THE delicious. Produce Awards were announced at a gala industry VIP event at the new Bennelong restaurant last night, with host, Quay and Bennelong chef Peter Gilmore, picking up an award.

At the 10th anniversary of the awards, the leading lights of Australia’s culinary scene joined the delicious. team to celebrate our most outstanding produce and producers, farmers’ markets, innovators, emerging chefs and food regions.

“After 10 years, the delicious. Produce Awards are undoubtedly the most credible and exciting food awards in Australia,” magazine editor-in-chief Kerrie McCallum, says.

“We’re proud to support Australia’s incredible stable of producers, bringing them to the attention of industry heavyweights and the Australian public.”

Lesley Bland from Kurrawong Organics. Picture: Supplied

Lesley Bland from Kurrawong Organics. Picture: Supplied

The national judging panel included luminaries Matt Moran, Valli Little, Guillaume Brahimi, Christine Manfield, Alla Wolf-Tasker, Maggie Beer and Shannon Bennett and other industry experts.

Gilmore won the Maggie Beer award for Outstanding Contribution to Australian Food. The other awards champion the best Australian produce and the people behind it, including NSW producer Kurrawong Organics, from Yetholme east of Bathurst, which took out the From The Earth (Primary) category for its organic beetroot and broccoli.

“I have my own vegie garden and I grow beetroot, but I have never tasted beetroot like this. Kurrawong Organics are artists,” Beer says. “Every year I am blown away by the produce presented for judging. I love the constant surprises you get. The delicious. Produce Awards do so much for the Australian food scene, it’s so exciting.”

Kurrawong Organics’ Lesley Bland says she and her husband Quentin were delighted about their nomination and were looking forward to last night’s ceremony.

“It was fantastic that fresh produce from out of the ground had been nominated,” she says. The company has been growing certified organic vegetables for close to 15 years, increasing the types of produce since opening a stall at Eveleigh Markets six years ago.

Producer Of The Year went to Tasmanian company Pyengana Dairy Company, for its Tasty Cheddar.

“I was really impressed. It was 12 months old, had beautiful salt crystals throughout, beautiful flavour and texture. It’s one of the best cheddars I’ve tasted for a long time,” judge Moran says.

Pyengana Dairy Company‘s award-winning tasty cheddar.

Pyengana Dairy Company‘s award-winning tasty cheddar.

This year’s winners are innovating in the area of everyday products, such as chicken, cheddar and milk, bringing an entirely new dimension to Australian food staples. Other key NSW winners included Sommerlads’ Poultry in northern NSW for Outstanding Innovation, Sage Farmers Markets at Moruya for Outstanding Farmers Markets and Bowral’s James Viles named Outstanding Regional Chef.

“James Viles’ commitment to local produce and ingredients in his creative, delicious and occasionally wonderfully unconventional modern cuisine makes him the sort of trailblazer and local champion these awards were set up to lionise,” Matt Preston says.

Troy Rhoades-Brown, from Muse Restaurant, Hunter Valley, was awarded Unearthed Next Gen Chef.

10 Spectacular Event Lighting Ideas

zapstarsJuly 25, 2015Arenas and stadiums, Award Evenings, Charity, Conferences, Festivals, Forums, Fund rasing, Openings, Performances, Press Releases, Product Launches, Theatre, Trade Show and Expos
10 Spectacular Event Lighting Ideas

  • Candlelight the tables 

Candlelight is a very good option to save money since lighting each guest table can get very expensive. One other benefit is that candle flames make people happier and will definitely put a smile on your guest’s faces, while making everybody look good.

 

  • String lights & fabric

Whether it’s an outdoors event or an indoors one, strings of lights can have a big impact on your event and take it from normal to fairytale land. Combined with sheer fabric you can hide hardware and create the perfect soft romantic theme.

 

  • Lighted globes

Paper lanterns are a very inexpensive and fun idea to dress up your event. You can go for colored globes, patterned or you can keep it simple and romantic.

 

  • Lasers

Lasers are a popular and old school lighting idea that is always good. The best thing about them is that lasers have the ability to sync with your music, it can draw shapes or pictures on surfaces and it can cover the entire space and span across the audience at the touch of a button.

 

  • Projections

If you have a white blank wall at your event venue and don’t know what to do with it, there’s a solution. You can rent a projector and show a slideshow of photos, or project nature scenes or chandeliers. This is a cool visual interest idea and it can go as an art piece and also help with the lighting part.

 

  • Wireless lights

Wireless lights are growing more and more popular and you can get why. They are easy to use and the most important thing is that they can be put in very hard areas to light. They are a perfect way to incorporate lighting to an outdoors event that doesn’t have easy access to outlets and they will transform your event wherever the location may be.

 

  • LEDs

LEDs are another very new and popular choice in the last few years. The benefits of LEDs range from less power to easier to manage and one of the most important benefit being safer since they don’t produce heat. And let’s not forget that it can make any even more futuristic in seconds.

  • Suspended illumination

For an outdoors wedding or even a very elegant event, suspended illumination can be romantic or modern. You can transform it by simply choosing the model of the light: you can go for romantic and make some beautiful string lights with candles and glasses or you can go for modern and go with some LED bulb.

 

  • Letter lights 

Want to express your thoughts through lighting? You can go for letter lighting piece and you can make it the centerpiece of your event. You can spell out a theme word for the party or even your monogram or logo!

 

 

  • Light columns

Light columns are another favorite in the lighting department. You can go pro and get already made, simple, clean columns or you can do it yourself with a few paper lanterns, a bamboo stick and 50 bulb string of lights. Imagination has no limit! The result is stunning no matter what.

 

 

For more information on how to breathe life into your next event check:

Your trusted Audio Visual Production and Solution Provider,

Zapstars Productions at the Premiers’s Harmony Dinner.

zapstarsMarch 31, 2015Award Evenings
Zapstars Productions at the Premiers’s Harmony Dinner.
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE CAMPAIGNER RECEIVES TOP HONOUR AT PREMIER’S HARMONY DINNER.
 

Fil-Aussie Ruben Amores: Lifetime Community Service Awardee

Premier Mike Baird and Minister Victor Dominello with medal winners at the Premier’s Harmony Dinner (Rosehill Racecourse, 12 March 2015). (l-r) Victor Dominello, Paroula Galelis-Thurban, Sarah Yahya, Nalika Padmasena, John Moi, Mike Baird, Jeff Li and Ruben Amores. (Youth Encouragement Award winner William Ho was unable to attend the ceremony).

A Sri Lankan woman who encouraged women from culturally diverse backgrounds to open up about family and domestic violence issues has received the top honour at the Premier’s Harmony Dinner.

NSW Premier Mike Baird awarded the prestigious Stepan Kerkyasharian AO Harmony Award to Nalika Padmasena in front of more than 1,300 people attending the annual event at Rosehill Gardens Racecourse.

“Ms Padmasena worked in legal services at Toongabbie after arriving in Australia from Sri Lanka in 1995. She chaired the Immigrant Women’s Speakout Association and volunteers at the Sinhalese language school at North Parramatta in her spare time,” Mr Baird said.

“Women in Australia enjoy many rights that women in other countries do not. We recognise the work she has done to inform female migrants of their legal rights while providing safe environments for them to speak out about domestic violence.

“I’m proud to offer Ms Padmasena this award, which comes a week after I announced that if re-elected, the NSW Government would trial a scheme to allow suspecting women to access information on whether their partner has a history of violence.

“We live in one of the most multicultural states in the world and I would like to congratulate all winners of the Multicultural Community Medals for the contributions they make to ensure our society remains peaceful and harmonious.”

Minister for Communities and Citizenship Victor Dominello said the Premier’s Harmony Dinner, now in its fourth year, was a celebration of cultural diversity – the state’s greatest economic and social asset.

“The Premier’s Harmony Dinner is an opportunity to showcase the rich heritage of our many multicultural communities and a time to celebrate the shared values that unite us as Australians,” Mr Dominello said.

 

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Ruben Amores, Lifetime Community Service Awardee holding his award with Minister for Communities

and Citizenship Victor Dominello and Philippine Consul General in Sydney Anne Jalando-on Louis.

Photo by Warren Duncan, MNSW

“I congratulate all our community medal winners. They are true champions of cultural diversity and have enriched our state through their dedicated community service. We also posthumously recognise migrant community pioneers through the honour roll.”

The winners of the 2015 Premier’s Multicultural Community Medals are:

STEPAN KERKYASHARIAN AO HARMONY AWARD:

Nalika Padmasena for her work promoting justice and human rights by facilitating forums for migrant women to discuss family and domestic violence, and encouraging dialogue between religious and community leaders on these issues.

YOUTH AWARD:

Sarah Yahya for her work assisting refugees and asylum seekers within the Mandean community of Western Sydney.

YOUTH ENCOURAGEMENT AWARD:

William Ho for his role advocating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer & intersex rights through community engagement projects on the NSW Central Coast.

LIFETIME COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARD:

Ruben Amores for his role in establishing the Auburn Small Community Organisation Network and Kapit-bahayan Cooperative providing cooperative housing services.

ARTS AND CULTURE AWARD:

Paroula Galelis-Thurban for championing Australia’s understanding of Greek

– See more at: http://pcherald.com.au/national-news/item/1415-domestic-violence-campaigner-receives-top-honour-at-premier-s-harmony-dinner/1415-domestic-violence-campaigner-receives-top-honour-at-premier-s-harmony-dinner#sthash.bVN0YTeB.dpuf

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