The stars ready to shine in Melbourne

A multitude of stars, including those astral, are set to razzle and even dazzle financial planners at the FPA Convention’s social events.

The welcome reception of the convention this year takes place at the home of the Melbourne Cup, Flemington Racecourse.

After last month's Cup festivities, Flemington Racecourse will set the scene of style and grace for the start of the convention. Convention delegates will be among at first corporate event to enjoy the surroundings of the new $46 million grandstand.

The reception will be held in the Grandstand Atrium. This latest addition to the course facilities features a glass panelled atrium which faces the turf and also offers a spectacular view of Melbourne's skyline.

Convention delegates will also be given a chance to get into the spirit of the track by being able to place beats on mock races to be on giant television screens.

Another exciting social function of the convention is the black-tie gala dinner.

The gala dinner has quite a reputation of being a night of elegance and a time for planners to let their hair down and relax after three days of intense sessions.

This year's delegates will be dazzled by the musical works of Australian greats including Glenn Shorrock of Little River Band fame. Shorrock will be joined by Wendy Stapleton, singer and songwriter James Reyne, Jim Keys, Ross Wilson, Russell Morris, and the Peter Sullivan Big Band.

The other kind of stars will be served to convention delegates on arrival at Colonial Stadium when, if weather permitting, the roof of the stadium is opened.

While gazing skyward, delegates will be shown to their seats and after all delegates are seated, the roof of the stadium will be automatically closed, in a procedure that takes more than 12 minutes.

And if delegates are concerned that the venue will be tight on seating it should be stressed that it is not only being held in the stadium, but more to the point, on the pitch which has become well known as one of the homes of Australian Rules Football.

It will be, for the first time in its short history, that the ground of Colonial stadium will play host to a formal dinner.

The multi-million dollar sporting complex opened in March this year and is located in the Docklands precinct, part of a $6 billion waterfront development adjoining the Melbourne business district.

With more than 12 months of meticulous planning under her team's belt, FPA social co-ordinator Jan Tolley says she is daunted by the thought of 2500 to 3000 people being invited to sit, eat and be merry at the Gala dinner. For Tolley, this year's event is like "having a small dinner party for 2,500 people".

Tolley says as it's the first time that such an event has been held at Colonial Stadium, every detail has had to be planned, hopefully to perfection.

Despite the logistics of having to cover the turf and bringing in sophisticated staging infrastructure Tolley says all has been carefully planned.

On the night, more than 250 tables and 2500 chairs will be arranged in group formats, and to ensure that meals are served promptly and consistently eight restaurant-quality kitchens will be located throughout the arena. There will also be 120 waiter stations.

Covering the arena would have been carried a hefty $54,000 price tag so instead of covering the entire arena the organising committee has decided to limit covers to walkways between and around the tables.

For those people who will still feel the need to move about the money saved on flooring has enabled the committee to hire a dance floor.

Despite initial problems with a slight rise in the middle of the ground, a 350 square metre dance floor has been specially constructed for the event. Since this will represent a good deal of the covered space there are less excuses than last year for not having a go and tripping the light fantastic.