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w ith 20 years’ experience in the wine industry and an impressive resumé that includes work in the US,

the UK and throughout Australasia, Anna Hill is eminently qualified to deliver world-class wine events and marketing services.

She has planted and managed a 50-hectare vineyard in Heathcote, held sales and marketing roles at Berry Brothers and Rudd in London, and managed exports at Domaine Chandon Australia and events and sponsorship for the Asia-Pacific division of Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH).

Since launching Anna Hill Events in 2010, she has provided two key services to luxury brands: events and communications. Notable clients include Cloudy Bay, Cape Mentelle, Journey Wines, Alquimie magazine, Moorilla at MONA, JP Morgan, City of Melbourne and global thought leader and author Yamini Naidu.

Hill’s event management services cater for the wine industry’s best-known names and luxury identities, and are presented as finely curated, bespoke guest experiences.

Hill describes her process as ‘immersive’ and there’s no doubting the resulting work is highly detailed, brought to life with style and elegance.

In her communications work, Hill draws on an extensive network of wine industry trade and media contacts for product

launches, brand management, public relations and communications strategy.

Business State caught up with Hill six years to the day since she started Anna Hill Events.

Business State: Anna, thanks for speaking with us. How has Anna Hill Events evolved since you started the business?Anna Hill: Six years ago, I started my business from my dining room table. It’s exciting to be celebrating this business milestone and I’m thankful to my clients for believing in my vision for their events and brands. Their continued trust has allowed me to grow personally and professionally.

After 73 flights, 28 events in five different countries and countless projects, I am so grateful to my family and friends for their support.

Today, I am fortunate to have an office in Prahran and a full-time event producer, Kate Power, working with me to support my workload. We are blessed to be able to work in Melbourne and deliver projects internationally.

A measure of any event’s success isn’t just the brand immersion and overall guest experience, it’s also about who is in the room and the comments they publish afterwards.

Adding communications to my repertoire was more of a formality, as I found events and communications were intrinsically linked and I was already offering this service without advertising it.

What’s exciting you about the wine business in Victoria these days?I’ve seen a greater marketing effort towards building Victoria’s wine regions. As a result, the Yarra Valley and Mornington Peninsula are experiencing greater global recognition overseas.

Particularly noticeable is the diversity of producers making delicious wine so close to Melbourne. Over the last five years, I’ve been working with Damian North from Journey Wines to build all facets of the brand; his Yarra Valley pinot noir is an excellent example of the new generation of winemakers making classic styles.

Similar producers such as Timo Mayer, The Wanderer, Jamsheed and Mac Forbes provide examples of an exciting community approach to making great wines.

Tell us about your work with Cloudy Bay. What’s involved in bringing that high-end wine brand to life?I have worked extensively with Cloudy Bay over the last 18 months to deliver seven major projects, two at the winery in New Zealand, three in Australia and two in the UK. Each event exemplified the luxury brand experience in different ways.

First, Cloudy Bay’s 30th anniversary took a select group of media for a celebration that reached its apex during a back-vintage wine tasting, spanning 30 years of Cloudy Bay’s legacy. Media travelled from the US, the UK, France

business state / issue five

A consummate host

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Anna Hill creates world-class event concepts for luxury brands. On the six-year anniversary of her company’s creation, she shares stories from her business in the world of fine wine and luxury living.

business state / issue five20 marketing

and Australia for the event, which was hosted at Cloudy Bay’s private residence and catered for by acclaimed New Zealand chef Ben Bailey.

Second, Forage is an event that has been on Cloudy Bay’s calendar periodically since 2006. It’s a large undertaking and involves extensive logistical work and preparation. It took me more than seven months to create, prepare and deliver Forage 2016 for 16 international media guests.

Forage is an epicurean two-day journey into the heart of Marlborough, an experience about the wine, the region and its bounty. World-renowned chef Ben Shewry of Melbourne’s Attica was engaged to bring the native ingredients of Marlborough together in a 10-course degustation dinner. The guests had foraged for these foods by land, sea and sky. Moments like these not only rely on the quality of the wines; it is the food pairings, event styling and the emotion each guest experiences that is remembered the most.

Third, Cloudy Bay Pinot Salon is an event that Ian Morden Cloudy Bay’s Estate Director and I created and produced in Melbourne at artist David Bromley’s private studio last year.

Pinot Salon is a new forum for the discerning enjoyment of pinot noir. In an intimate

conversational setting, key wine media and trade guests are invited to contribute their perspectives on two carefully selected flights of wines.

Pinot Salon has since been presented in London and Sydney, with New York and Chicago scheduled for later this year.

What’s your expert advice for how brands can engage with customers through events?Events should be engaging, effortless and genuine – luxury carries with it true distinctiveness. It is important to be an original expression, not an imitation or variation of the same theme.

New concepts are few and far between and this is what resonates. Guests would prefer to attend an event they’ve not seen before. You have to constantly create, recreate and adapt to capture attention while maintaining the brand vision.

If you are going to invest in a concept, do it properly. Realise your project to its full potential and visualise the long-term, globally.

A great event can be long-lived by the coverage that comes from it. Forage 2016 has generated 29 printed pages since the February event, including six pages in Belle, eight pages in American Way, two pages in British GQ, four

pages in NILE (Japan), one page in Revue du Vin en France (China Edition), six pages in Gourmet Traveller WINE and two pages in Gourmet Traveller, as well as receiving homepage placement on Broadsheet Melbourne.

What are the secrets to hosting a world- class event?The execution of an event is all encompassing. It begins with thoughtful design of the invitation, personal touch points such as sending a handwritten note prior to the event, the itinerary guests will experience and ensuring there is down-time for media to relax and write while on location.

There’s also the all-important presentation, styling, and food and wine matching of the various lunch and dinner settings throughout the event.

Details are everything. Being seamless with timings, as well as the organisation of the finest cutlery, crockery, glassware and napkins is imperative. Brief the chef and hospitality teams at least two days before the event and provide efficient run sheets. Print menus, handwrite place cards in advance and ensure you have a good seating plan.

Spend time visualising the styling of the room and the table setting. How does it look? How does

it feel? Is it a modern, classic or sophisticated luxury you would like to emulate? What sort of flowers will be in season that will complement your setting?

Invite guests from a diverse range of backgrounds and industries, so that the conversation is stimulating and the event is enjoyable on all levels.

Know your guests’ names, how they like to be addressed and have a copy of all guest dietary requirements, so the chef can prepare ahead of the event.

Be impressive. Always start with champagne and lively music – it sets the tone for a grand occasion.

If guests have travelled internationally to attend, I like to ensure that when they arrive there is enough time to check into their accommodation and freshen up before dinner or, if they’ve forgotten to pack certain items, we provide them with the appropriate amenities or garments to wear.

Welcome gifts and an extra copy of the guest itinerary in each room are always extremely well received. All of these details ensure guests are well cared for, above all else.

So, we’re planning a dinner party – what’s your best tip for wine types and/or brands that are on-trend and will impress our guests? Victorian, preferably.It depends on how open-minded your guests are. For the more creative friends, I look towards a wine from Patrick Sullivan in Gippsland or Bobar Wines in Yarra Valley. These are ‘natural wines’, meaning they’re low in additives, with an emphasis on fruity juiciness, designed for early drinking.

For the more conservative guests, I’d suggest Yarra Valley favourites, such as an impressive vintage sparkling from Domaine Chandon and a complex chardonnay from Mount Mary.

Select the wines well in advance and match them to each course you are serving. I choose wines that transport my guests to another time and place.

Any final words to impart?Always be warm and generous. As a host, it is your role to welcome and introduce guests to each other with considerable style and grace. Your guests will always remember how you make them feel.

WHAT I LOVE ABOUT VICTORIA

ANNA HILL“I grew up on the land in central Victoria and my mother would regularly take us to Melbourne for an education. She loves the finer things in life: art, music, wine, food, fashion and culture, and purposely taught us refinement, traditions and how to stylishly entertain. As a result, I live in and love Melbourne, and travel often to stimulate my creativity. To me, Melbourne has personality, style and class.

“It is a blend of old and new: it is very traditional in some senses, yet we have some of the most forward-thinking business- people and entrepreneurs in the world, right here. It is young, alive and has a contagious energy, which I adore.”

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