Our company does two major corporate hospitality events in Adelaide. This weekend it is the Clipsal 500, a huge motorsport festival, the other is the cricket test match. Yesterday, a work day, 66,000 people, including me, turned up for practice and some of the other classes of racing. The racing itself takes place over a street circuit through some of the Adelaide Parklands and streets, where the Formula 1 Grand Prix used to be run. The area is transformed within a month from scenic parklands to a mecca for petrol heads. The pit area itself is the largest demountable building in the world. My daughters friends' dad spends about a month before the event putting up stands and stages. I would never pay to go to an event like that, but I marvel at the logistics of putting on the event. Apparently it costs around $20 million to stage and has become so big that the State Government has approved a renovation of Victoria Park, including a new section just for this event and a dual use pit and viewing area. I was very suspicious about this plan, but the schematics made it look very attractive. I think that the event is so big and important for South Australia that it may be here for ever.
That said, trying to talk to clients with V8 cars careering past (those guys are faster and noisier than on television) is a bit challenging and I have to question whether our company, working in the environment field should be supporting a huge carbon dioxide emitting and polluting event like this. That said, the petrol suppliers and car manufacturers and some of the major sponsors are our clients. Perhaps I should just enjoy it until the hangover kicks in the following morning.
