A centennial milestone is worthy of a significant event. So we knew Southpac Trucks’ Kenworth 100-year celebration needed to be one for the record books.

Southpac Trucks is a New Zealand owned and operated distributor of world-class trucks. For 60 years, Southpac has partnered with Kenworth to bring these renowned, custom engineered trucks to mining, logging, livestock and freight companies throughout the country.

The vision for an unforgettable event
Southpac Trucks wanted to create a celebration for over 800 VIP Kenworth guests at Mystery Creek Events Centre, Hamilton. While a crowd of that size alone sounds like a sizable undertaking, it also needed to showcase close to 750 trucks – the largest gathering of single brand trucks to be held in the Southern Hemisphere to date.

With a venue already selected, our brief was to design and deliver a memorable event – from overall vision, right down to the details on the day. We know Mystery Creek well, but the scale of the venue – an interior of 6042 sqm – meant we needed to get creative to deliver the right atmosphere for the occasion.

Our use of architectural software makes a difference in being able to showcase our concepts to the client, while getting the most accurate understanding of size and proportion for spatial harmony. Because as DE Group Managing Director, Chris Clews, puts it: “Good engagement comes down to good design.”

Richard Smart, General Sales Manager for Southpac Trucks, agrees: “What DE Group do is create a ‘wow’ effect. We simply go to them with a concept and the space we want to work with, and they come back with a design. With these beautiful 3D drawings, we can straight away visualise what it’s going to look like.”

One epic night to recognise one hundred years
Taking over the Mystery Creek showground, an impressive lineup of Kenworth trucks filled the pavilion’s surrounds for a two-day show-and-shine display, while inside a further 24 rigs provided an illuminated backdrop for the gala dinner.

Guests were welcomed to a reception area, before a large banner was removed to reveal a dazzling red-carpeted walkway through to the banquet area, lit up by the latest models of top-spec trucks.

“Nobody, including a lot of our own staff, had any idea what was going to happen behind the screen. And everybody was like, ‘wow, this is amazing’”, said Richard.

Guests celebrated the journey of Kenworth’s 100 years of operation through engaging visual storytelling we created, before settling in for a night of dining, awards and live entertainment. Working collaboratively with our AV partners, Audio Visual Hire, we were able to cleverly control lighting to create an intimate atmosphere despite the large interior space.

A milestone to remember
Everything other than the pre-installed stage was designed, built and delivered by DE Group – from the layout of the trucks and banquet area, down to the details of the menu and name tags. As a special touch, bespoke illuminated Kenworth Truck centrepieces were also custom designed. Those who wanted a centrepiece as a ‘souvenir’ of the evening were encouraged to donate to I am Hope in order to access the remote to operate it – with a total of $2200 raised to date.

“It was a colossal undertaking”, says Richard. “But DE Group is very good at it. They pack in, manage and coordinate the details, and despite having to deal with some pretty tough weather, our guests had a seamless experience”, says Richard.

“DE Group are the first people we ring; they have always understood exactly what we need. They understand our industry, they understand our customers and what our customers are looking for.

“They’re just really easy to deal with; they’ve got good people and they really can interpret what we want and we can trust them to always deliver what they promise”

Cheers to 100 years, Kenworth!