Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / NT Major Events CEO says the Supercars first indigenous round was a major success in Darwin over the weekend

Transcript

NT Major Events CEO says the Supercars first indigenous round was a major success in Darwin over the weekend · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: And well we know thousands turned out to Hidden Valley
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: on the weekend for the supercars and joining us on
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: the line to let us know, well just how it
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  Speaker 1: all went is the CEO of n Team Major Events,
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  Speaker 1: Tim Watsford.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, Tim, Good morning Katie.
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  Speaker 3: How are you?
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  Speaker 1: Oh very well, probably got a bit more energy than
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  Speaker 1: you and your team mate.
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  Speaker 2: What a massive weekend.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, there's been a bit of caffeination put down
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  Speaker 3: the tach today, that's for sure. Now, it was great,
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  Speaker 3: it was amazing. You guys did an amazing job here
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  Speaker 3: at Major Events to kind of get it away. Plenty
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  Speaker 3: of moving pieces and you know, I took over forty
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  Speaker 3: thousand people through through the gates over the weekend. Is
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  Speaker 3: testament to kind of this event now and it's growth.
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  Speaker 3: I think it's going to be a monster in the
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  Speaker 3: years come.
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  Speaker 1: Well, you had said to me on Friday, dare I
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  Speaker 1: say that you know that you'd like more than forty thousand,
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  Speaker 1: and so we reached that number, Tim, Yeah we did.
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  Speaker 3: There's been touch and go down. I'm not going to lie.
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  Speaker 3: Friday nights they really streamed through for the Nitro and
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  Speaker 3: then bought tickets all through Saturday so that the nitrob
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  Speaker 3: up North or the drag component for the event now
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  Speaker 3: is really starting to head at straps and I think
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  Speaker 3: there's a bit more to go to be honest, we
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  Speaker 3: can we can really do a bit more with that
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  Speaker 3: with the night times for Friday and Saturdays. But they
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  Speaker 3: turned out in droves and you're, like I said, we
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  Speaker 3: ended up hitting the magical forty thousand number, which is
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  Speaker 3: which is amazing, and everyone right across the board seems
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  Speaker 3: to be really happy with how the weekend went. So
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  Speaker 3: now we get stuck in and ready to look at
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  Speaker 3: what we did for twenty twenty three.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely, and how do you reckon it went from you know,
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  Speaker 1: the perspective of it being the first ever indigenous round.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, amazing. And I had the opportunity to speak to
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  Speaker 3: some of the key players in the Sipcars organization yesterday
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  Speaker 3: afternoon at length around some of the outcomes that they're
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  Speaker 3: receiving and I guess the support from the teams as well,
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  Speaker 3: and I should shout out to the team sponsors. It's
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  Speaker 3: it's quite an ask to play with a brand, as
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  Speaker 3: we all know in marketing circles and for them to
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  Speaker 3: I guess integrate their brands with indigenous livery from a
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  Speaker 3: cast active well second to that, and then from everything
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  Speaker 3: from our welcome to country to smoking and ceremony on
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  Speaker 3: the grid is pretty special as well. So the guys
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  Speaker 3: across the board are really happy and now everyone, I
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  Speaker 3: think right across the country season is exactly what we
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  Speaker 3: hold so dear up here in the top end, so
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  Speaker 3: we'll put it on, We'll put it on an up
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  Speaker 3: in headlight, so to speak, for years going forward. It's
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  Speaker 3: definitely here to stay, that's for sure.
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  Speaker 1: Am I Anything that you know that worked incredibly well
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  Speaker 1: that you'll make sure that you're going to do next year,
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  Speaker 1: I think.
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  Speaker 3: I think the little strategy we went on a couple
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  Speaker 3: of years ago around just making it I guess the
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  Speaker 3: motor sports extravaganda one of a better word, is a
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  Speaker 3: selling point and I personally had feedback from around the
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  Speaker 3: bikes and the drags and obviously the supercars and replicating
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  Speaker 3: what was done in New South Wales many years ago
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  Speaker 3: around being a triple challenge is resonating, so we'll continue
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  Speaker 3: on that journey now. I think there's a bit of
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  Speaker 3: programming work, to be quite honest, around what we do
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  Speaker 3: on the night time, So watch this space we're looking
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  Speaker 3: at kind of what more can we do to jam
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  Speaker 3: into the drags category, So there's there's a little bit
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  Speaker 3: more to go. But look, yeah, from also from a
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  Speaker 3: family perspective, I'm a little bit biased. My daughter was
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  Speaker 3: out there as well and enjoyed everything that Tracks Center
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  Speaker 3: had to offer, from the laser tag to games to
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  Speaker 3: arcade machines for the better part of six thousand a day.
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  Speaker 3: So I think the family has really got out there
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  Speaker 3: and supported as well. But look, yeah, holistically everything went
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  Speaker 3: to plan. Plenty of smiles and the most important thing
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  Speaker 3: the town was full, So that's that's where we went ahead.
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  Speaker 1: Well, this is the thing, I mean, how many hotel rooms?
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  Speaker 1: Do you have any idea sort of how many hotel
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  Speaker 1: rooms or exactly how many visitors you had from interstate?
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  Speaker 3: Well we'll go and do a structured research. Now plenty
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  Speaker 3: from interstate, though I spoke to, well, I'm going to
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  Speaker 3: say one in you know, one in ten were locals.
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  Speaker 3: The ones that I spoke to. Everyone was seen to
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  Speaker 3: here from from right around the glorbe actually just a coincidence,
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  Speaker 3: but there's anecdotally this morning that there wasn't a room
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  Speaker 3: spare in town. So we'll go through with our state
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  Speaker 3: holders now and make sure that our research is solid.
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  Speaker 3: But this is a big one. This is a big one, Katie.
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  Speaker 3: We saw plenty come out even from Wednesday, so that's
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  Speaker 3: a good shot in the arm for the local economy.
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  Speaker 3: You know, five or six nights up in the top
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  Speaker 3: end and it surrounds is really important. And that's what
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  Speaker 3: we're trying to do here at major events, make sure
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  Speaker 3: that we developed such a rich calendar of major events
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  Speaker 3: that people want to come and enjoy, not any event,
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  Speaker 3: but a couple of days pre and post and this
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  Speaker 3: is exactly what it's doing. So hopefully in the next couple
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  Speaker 3: of months we will announce kind of where the figures are,
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  Speaker 3: but no doubt I know they're going to be strong.
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  Speaker 1: Tim Any learnings from this year or anything that you
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  Speaker 1: might look at and say, all right, we've got to
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  Speaker 1: change that slightly for next year.
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  Speaker 3: I think I think we're managing my staff, to be honest,
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  Speaker 3: they've got a few weary eyes, I guess, and speaking
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  Speaker 3: quite candidly, I spoke to a few of my directors
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  Speaker 3: here at major events over the West End, and I
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  Speaker 3: think my words are something like JEESEZ, you've been a
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  Speaker 3: bit off here. Plenty of moving parts that we all
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  Speaker 3: want to try and and get better at, to be honest,
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  Speaker 3: But from a fans perspective, I think they wouldn't have
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  Speaker 3: seen the challenges that we had kind of behind the scenes.
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  Speaker 3: So look, labors. Labor is the one that I think
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  Speaker 3: more broadly and it's been kind of spoken to death
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  Speaker 3: about in our industry. Both events and hospitality was a
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  Speaker 3: challenge and it got us over the weekend. So we
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  Speaker 3: worked through that. But I think the mono is to
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  Speaker 3: go bigger next year, so you know, watch this space.
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  Speaker 3: We'll have a look at everything and through the review
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  Speaker 3: process and go one step further and see if we
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  Speaker 3: can put it up into the mid forties. If I'm
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  Speaker 3: saying it early. Around what we can do next year.
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  Speaker 2: Oh good stuff.
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  Speaker 1: And I think it's always wonderful, you know, to see
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  Speaker 1: so many people in town. The town absolutely bustling as well,
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  Speaker 1: which we saw over the course of the weekend, but
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  Speaker 1: also into the leading tim The one thing that people
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  Speaker 1: raised with me that they were a bit worried about
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  Speaker 1: yesterday was apparently there was a bit of a lineup
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  Speaker 1: getting out of the supercars.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, there was, and once again This goes back to
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  Speaker 3: kind of the staff shortages or labor shortages at the
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  Speaker 3: moment that we're experiencing. So there were there was, and
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: we'll own that there was some queuing in particular around
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  Speaker 3: transport to try and get people out that would have
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  Speaker 3: experienced previously. And that's probably a bit different compared to
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  Speaker 3: the Friday and Saturday, Katie, just because everyone left at
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  Speaker 3: the completion of the race. So you jam out, you
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  Speaker 3: jam out better part of twelve or thirteen thousand at
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  Speaker 3: one point in time, we're always going to have a
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  Speaker 3: bit of congestion. That was just elevated with kind of
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  Speaker 3: the challenges that we're seeing across the board. The Friday
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  Speaker 3: and Saturday was a steady flow of in and out,
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  Speaker 3: so those challenges probably weren't realized. But yeah, that's one
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  Speaker 3: that we need to we need to get better on.
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  Speaker 3: We need to try and work out how how we
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  Speaker 3: can get people to help get people home and particular
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  Speaker 3: through the public transport system. So we'll take all that
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  Speaker 3: on board and we'll try and work out to make
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  Speaker 3: sure that that'sand experience is better for next year. We
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  Speaker 3: always do. So if there are people out there that
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  Speaker 3: have feedback, please please jump online Major Events dot com
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  Speaker 3: dou and share it with us. You know, without it,
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  Speaker 3: we can't plan for next year, So please share everything
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  Speaker 3: that's good and bad where you can.
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  Speaker 2: And Tim, you've got what ten days now to organized
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  Speaker 2: Territory Day, you and your team.
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  Speaker 3: I feeling about it. But we're still out hidden Valley
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  Speaker 3: right now packing up. So there's there's probably about a
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  Speaker 3: weeks worth of work to go here. But yes, we're
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  Speaker 3: we're blowing stuff up so to speak, right across the
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  Speaker 3: territory next week, which is which is going to be
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  Speaker 3: good fun. So there's there's plenty of there's plenty of
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  Speaker 3: good stuff that the guys have organized right from Alice, Tenant,
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  Speaker 3: Catherine and Darwin for our major events and then yeah,
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  Speaker 3: seventeen remote locations that the guys will go and organize
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  Speaker 3: fireworks to celebrate everything that we hold dear in the territory.
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  Speaker 3: So look out, we'll walk out now for two weeks
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  Speaker 3: to two weeks time.
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  Speaker 1: Well, you know, to you and your team, well done
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  Speaker 1: on on the supercars, what an amazing event. And and
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  Speaker 1: hopefully after after Territory Day you might get to have
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  Speaker 1: a little little rest, little.
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  Speaker 3: Rest, little tiny rest. We're we do it all again
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  Speaker 3: in the back end of the year because of the pedals.
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  Speaker 3: We'll go to the drive.
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  Speaker 2: You guys love it, your your team is fantastic. You
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  Speaker 2: have to love it, I think.
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  Speaker 1: And you've got to love events and all that is
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  Speaker 1: territory to you know, to be able to do it,
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  Speaker 1: which I think is wonderful.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I just I do want to shout out
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  Speaker 3: to my guys, Cadie. It is.
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  Speaker 4: Although it seems as a sexy industry working in events,
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  Speaker 4: there's there's a lot of long hours and there's a
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  Speaker 4: lot of there's a lot of time and labor put
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  Speaker 4: into these put into these major events. So, like I
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  Speaker 4: said before, there's a few weary eyes around this morning
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  Speaker 4: out of hid and Valley, trying to pack up what
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  Speaker 4: was a pretty successful weekend.
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  Speaker 3: But you know, full shout out to the crew. They're
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  Speaker 3: an amazing bunch.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, our wonderful stuff. Well.
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  Speaker 1: Tim Watsford, the see of NT Major Events, good to
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  Speaker 1: catch up with you.
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  Speaker 2: We'll talk to you next week about Territory.
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  Speaker 3: Day gone good only it's good.
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: Thank you.