A behind the scenes look at the Nuffnang Asia Pacific Blog Awards (Part 2)

P.S. I know this is atrociously late, but I’ve had such a crazy good start to the year, this blog of mine has been growing cobwebs! I’ll try to update more often! Promise!

With the finalists confirmed, all 60 of them, the preparations really took a step up!

There were a whole lot of details to iron out.

Amongst them was

1) Sorting out the flights, internal transfers, and accomodation for over 150 foreign bloggers, clients and guests

2) Sorting out the menu, decorations, stage, detailed programme for the night itself

3) Keeping open and maintaining clear lines of communications with all stakeholders, including sponsors, VIPs, and bloggers

4) Double checking EVERYTHING

5) Maintaining the integrity of our budget

Here are the girls pouring through the list of bloggers, and assigning them to rooms. As Nuffnang was picking up the tab for EVERYTHING, from flight, to internal transfer to hotel accomodation, we had to have 2 bloggers to a room, and could not afford the luxury of each blogger having their own accomodation.

As a result, you can imagine, how much of a nightmare it was making sure the bloggers knew who they were staying with, and it had to coincide with the arrival schedules, amogst other things.

Every single blogger (unless they had chosen to come earlier on their own accord) was met by a member of our team.

This was to ensure, the bloggers got to their accomodations safely, and had a liason from the moment they touched down.

So this was me and huiwen, greeting our first group of bloggers from Australia, in the middle of the night!

We had arranged coaches, for the various groups.

The other group I met, was from Philippines. Really cool people.

After their bus ride, they were met at Link Hotel, our OFFICIAL ACCOMDATION PARTNERS, by a member of our staff, to sort out their rooms.

All this stuff happens simultaneously. So its kinda like you never really “book out” of the office at all.

As soon as the receiving party has sorted out the blogger’s accomodations, they’re back in the office to sort out the nitty gritty stuff that needs to be done.

Tiny details, like creating “official” name tags, so that Nuffnang staff can be easily identified in their gowns and suits on the event night!

We chose the small and sleek tags, so that it wouldn’t clash with the event’s dress code.

Raine was our official graphic designer for these little features.

This is carlos slitting our registration table notices.

It may not seem like alot, but when you’re inundated by a huge amount of work, little details like the winner’s cards get forgotten or neglected.

Not by our team!

This is elise, preparing the slips that held the winner’s names. This was printed just the day before (for security reasons), and kept behind a locked door.

All key personnel also had walkie talkies to ensure that communication lines were open in the vast ballroom.

For the night itself, every nuffie was assigned specific roles. Some more important than others.

Elaine and Robb for example, had probably the biggest, as Programme ICs. Their role was to ensure, that they knew the programme inside out, and controlled it.

They are the ones prompting various people of their upcoming roles and activities.

Furthermore, if any unforseen circumstances occurred, these 2 would be the ones, rejigging the program on the spot and notifying everybody so that the evening retains its flow.

Here they are literally memorizing the itenarary. Item after item, timing after timing. I gave them a test! It was fun! For me!

Robb is always up for these kinds of tests anyway!

One other item that we had prepared way earlier, was the souvenir programme.

I wonder how many people take a moment to think about how much work goes into those pages as they are flipping through!

It was a labour of love and I loved the result!

On a trip to melbourne, I had spotted a candy shop that made customized candies.

I had originally contemplated importing them over as table gifts.

I didnt need to, because a young entrereneur and his wife, kris, brought Sticky in!

They did a fantastic job for us, and many bloggers loved the sweets.

Behind a locked door, along with the winner cards, were our winners trophies.

These trophies are 100 percent CUSTOM MADE and we had to order 50 of them! They are 100 percent crystal and to be honest cost our budget dearly, but this was one area we felt we could not save on.

So much work went into the inaugural NAPBAS, and I was elated to hear very very positive comments about the proceedings. I think the team felt validated. You can’t cover all they did in 2 blog posts, it’s impossible, but there isnt a need to either.

We all felt rather empty, once the last foreign blogger had left our shores, and the weekend came. Whilst it was alot of work, the team came together so well, and I think enjoyed themselves immensely.Some things money cannot buy.