SAXTON | people | connecting and communicating

By all accounts, the Saxton Ultimate Event Experience, held on Wednesday, February 16th and born of a special partnership between Saxton and AIME, was a resounding success; over 1000 attendees from throughout Australian and Asia packed the Plenary 3 for a whirlwind two hour ride through the lives, experiences and talents of ten world-class presenters from a wide variety of different fields, three of whom flew in from the US and the UK for the morning.

Consummate MC John Lees led proceedings in his utterly inimitable way, as guests were treated to the mind-blowing dance sport and costume transformation of Soul Mystique, a deeply insightful portrait of the future by Rachel Botsman, and the incredible story of Tim Cope's epic journey from Mongolia to Hungary, complete with an appearance by his canine companion, Tigon.

Mr.Percival stunned the audience with his unique take on a capella, self-confessed serial entrepreneur Creel Price guided us through some of the many and varied businesses of his young career, and Australia's favourite comedian Anh Do shared another side to his much-loved personality; a refugee from war-torn Vietnam, his story often as hilarious as it was moving.

Tan Le demonstrated the future of human technology with Emotiv's awe-inspiring "God Helmet", and 2005 London bombings victim Gill Hicks spoke touchingly of gratitude, and of her attitude and will to build something positive out of such a horrific event. There could have been no better way to conclude the morning than with the soaring vocals of Darryl Lovegrove who joined his phenomenally talented nine-year old daughter Harmony in a climactic rendition of Con te partir.

The Saxton Ultimate Event Experience was in every sense a triumph, audience members unanimous in their praise of a morning that will "stay with us forever", commenting that they "laughed, cried, sang and clapped madly", "felt awe, inspiration, excitement, amazement, joy and admiration", and were "entranced, mystified, delighted and impressed". One attendee even suggested that tissues be provided in the presence of such powerful speakers: "we were all dabbing our eyes in our row!"