The 2024 Australian Liquor Industry Awards (ALIA) is an awards night with a bit of a difference; when someone asks me ‘what is ALIA like?’ my response has become ‘we take the awards very seriously, but the night is about having fun’.
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The clue is in the name, the ‘Australian liquor industry’, we are part of an industry that takes its responsibilities seriously, but it is also about having a good time, enjoying friends and celebrating great people, venues and brands.
A key part of how we make ALIA fun is giving it a theme every year, and my ALIA journey has been one of progressively engaging with the theme more and more, until last year I created a monster (IYKYK), and it’s a monster that I have no idea how I’m going to beat.
This will be my eighth ALIA and so I’ll run you through my journey and then you know, especially if 2024 will be your first ALIA, that it’s so much fun to fully embrace the theme.
My first ALIA was in 2015 and the theme was ‘A Day at the Races’ this was the first year we held the event at Randwick Racecourse so it was a theme that fitted. But on reflection, how do you dress for the races? Nice dress or nice suit and tie, looks smart but not very different to any awards night.
In 2016 we had AustrALIA and here I just made a few token changes to my suit outfit with a green & gold tie that had kangaroos on it and a gold pocket square – this was me being very British in my attitude towards dress-up, which to sum it up in an Aussie way was ‘yeah-nah’.
Although there was more dress-up in 2016 than in 2015, I think the tailwinds of suit and tie for the races influenced a lot of people, so we needed to up the ante in 2017. We did that with the ‘Heroes and Villains’, theme, which lent itself far better to costumes and the industry responded in style. My suit and tie nature was still a big influence as I went gangster: pinstripe suit, trilby, black shirt, white tie & pocket square. Better, but still a touch ‘meh’. (See main image above.)
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But the industry was back on track, associating ALIA with a theme and 2018 was the perfect year with the event falling on Wednesday, 31 October – Halloween. Easy and finally the year when I ditched the suit. While the Dracula/vampire outfit wasn’t hugely original, as a segue from suit to costume it worked well for me.
For 2019 we moved ALIA to The Star Event Centre and we came up with 70s Disco for the theme, and by this point I was all in. So terrible 70s patterned shirt with flared collars and orange flares was the go. I enjoyed this one, both in terms of it being a great event, but also feeling well and truly part of the party. Seeing old friends and colleagues from across the industry and sharing smiles, laughs and photos, enjoying what people are wearing and creating memories, is the very essence of ALIA.
As you can see through this progression, I was on a role and excited for ALIA 2020, but we all know what happened. We thought about a virtual event, but while some of us experienced good virtual events, a lot of us experienced car-crash virtuals, and we didn’t want that for ALIA. Also it didn’t feel right celebrating the industry when it was going through so much.
Ditto for 2021.
But in 2022 we were back, and boy did we come back in style! A move to Town Hall and a theme that doffed its hat to the pandemic, but also looked to the future and positives, ‘Your first travel destination’.
My first thought on this was Oktoberfest, ALIA is in October, the fest is great fun, and obviously beer is a big part of the industry, so why the devil not? I did think there would be a heap of lederhosen on the night, but I was the only one, so a good tip is don’t overthink your costume, just have some fun.
Side note and top tip for ALIA: don’t rush to get into team photos, don’t try to slide into photos and please, try not to fracture three ribs – take it from someone who knows, it’s not a great way to end your night – it’s finally time to put this incredible moment online!
Don’t do this…
Then we were back at The Star for 2023 and the Music Icons theme. This is where I created the aforementioned monster. When I casually threw out the idea of Slim Shady, complete with bleached blonde hair, it stuck, it could not get unstuck, nothing and on-one else was going to beat this idea. For a guy who spent three years of ALIA in a suit and tie, I was now set to rock up with bleached blonde hair, tatts, jeans, t-shirt, dog tags and Air Max 90s. I loved it, not only was it the most comfortable I have ever been, but I had also so much fun with folks loving the blonde hair commitment. And I maintain to this day that Amy and I were robbed in the Best Dressed Awards.
But now I come to this year’s dilemma, how do I beat that? I’m really struggling and with only a couple of months to go I know I need to act fast – but I’m also a bit worried about what Wild West costume is going to beat last year. I guess I’m not following my earlier advice and I am thinking too much about it.
So what does all this mean? It means, if this is going to be your first ALIA then don’t be shy, the Wild West theme promises a lot of fun. Embrace the theme, have some fun and enjoy this celebration of the industry. I look forward to catching up at a networking bar and sharing a drink and a smile with what we are wearing.
Remember also if you do win, it is a great achievement – your peers have voted you to be the best over the last 12 months. The best.
And most importantly, please remember to stay on your feet, that’s a cracking time you don’t want to have!
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