In November 2020, The Venue was approached by Warner Brothers studios with the shortest lead time we had ever seen. This enquiry would become the winning Season Finale event for Celebrity Apprentice 2021, where comedian Ross Noble and interior designer slash TV personality Shaynna Blaze battled it out to see who could hold the most epic VIP Charity Event and raise the most funding for their charity of choice. That’s right folks, it’s not all smoke and mirrors, Shaynna Blaze really did pull off that incredible fundraising event within only two days. While Ross Noble’s admirable efforts to stage a fake bank heist raised $83,500 for the Australian Red Cross Disaster and Response Recovery, Blaze’s classy gala event at The Venue raised a whopping $326,000 for her charity Voice of Change. This mammoth achievement awarded Shaynna Blaze the title of winner of Celebrity Apprentice 2021, and an additional $100,000 for her charity, bringing the total to a whopping $426,000 raised.

General Manager John Rohanna and Technical Manager James Forsyth met with Blaze a single day before the event, with the mammoth task of arranging catering, furniture, entertainment, and audio visuals. Luckily, the fact that The Venue’s AV Team at and equipment resides on site made it possible to install staging, lighting and staff for the event within this short time frame. Technical manager James Forsyth from NW Group said it was a real team effort. “It was clear that Shaynna had a vision of what she wanted and what direction she wanted to take for the event” said James, sharing that defining and redefining scope, handling budget restrictions and sourcing resources and suppliers were all challenging tasks within such a short time frame. Despite the challenges, Shaynna and the team were able to pull off this hugely successful event with an amazing outcome for Shaynna and her charity. All accounts deem the event an impressive feat with such a large scale occasion on a tight budget and even tighter timeline.

The event featured a charity auction, and an emotional surprise performance by Blaze herself, who sang ‘Lullaby mother to Son’. The colourfully lit space gave off a sense of excitement, the spotlights giving a nod to the showbiz origins of Blaze’s Charity. Shaynna created her charity, Voice of Change to amplify the stories of survivors and the families of victims of family violence. Using creative mediums such as music, art, theatre and film to spread awareness, and educate the public, the charity supports the action against and prevention of family violence. The idea for Voice of Change was conceived when Blaze was working on ‘The Fort’, a film which illustrates the impacts of family violence. The crew of the film came to recognize the ability of the creative arts to heal, educate and communicate domestic violence issues, and start conversations that Blaze felt needed to be had. The charity continues to support arts based projects to highlight family violence issues and with the financial and publicity boost from this event, we will likely see more incredible projects under development in the coming months.

See The Venue in action: Watch the full final episode of Celebrity Apprentice here