The New Colombo Plan sends Australia’s brightest undergraduates to live and study across the Indo-Pacific, and its annual awards bring the newest scholars to Parliament House to be celebrated. 

Working with Palladium, who deliver the program with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Damsel and Sprout designed and produced an evening that treated a room full of students like the future leaders they are.

Client: Palladium + Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Year: 2023, 2024
Venue: Great Hall and Marble Foyer, Parliament House, Canberra
Format: National awards ceremony and reception
Audience: New Colombo Plan scholars, government, universities and diplomatic guests

What we delivered

• Event concept, theming and styling
• Custom drape and projection installation
• AV production, staging and lighting design
• Scholar photo gallery custom design and build
• Stage management and program delivery
• Full set up and pack down
• Guest list & name badge management
• Parliament House security, loading dock and logistics management
• Catering coordination
• Seating plan and management;

Designing for a room full of firsts

For most of the scholars, this was their first night at Parliament House, and for many, the biggest recognition of their lives so far. The design leaned into that sense of occasion at every turn.

An arrival that felt like crossing a threshold

Guests entered the Great Hall through a corridor of sheer white drapes, washed in projected light that shifted and dappled as they walked. A simple idea, beautifully executed: the moment you stepped through, you had arrived somewhere different.

A stage that looked to the region

The stage was framed by a glowing globe and a map of the world reaching across the screen, set in deep blues and purples of the New Colombo brand, with the flags of partner nations standing throughout the room. The message was built into the design: this is a program, and a generation, that looks outward.

The scholars on the walls

Illuminated gallery panels carried the portraits of the awardee and alumni themselves, turning the scholars into the artwork of the evening. Guests gathered around them all night, finding their own faces and each other’s.