Ali Lord’s journey from growing up on a cattle farm in Queensland to becoming the CEO of HeadBox is a unique one. With over 16 years in the events industry, she’s combined her rural upbringing and international experience to bring innovative technology to Australia’s event planning scene.
Passionate about sustainability and efficiency, Ali is leading the way with tools like HeadBox’s 3D Studio, helping venues and clients connect in new and exciting ways. We chatted with Ali about her career, the challenges she faced, and her vision for the future of events.
Ali, you’ve had an incredible journey from growing up on a cattle farm in Queensland to revolutionising the events industry with HeadBox. What inspired you to introduce such innovative technology to Australia’s events market, and how has your background shaped your approach to this role?
Growing up in a rural environment gave me great foundations for hard work, as well as a passion for sustainability which I’ve always carried through the events I’ve delivered, and for the company I now own and run. I was fortunate enough to come across events as a career option when I was 15 and have never looked back.
Moving to London and working in the events industry for 7 years exposed me to such a vast range of events and working with companies such as Google, YouTube and Spotify demonstrated that cutting edge technology will always push the boundaries of events, which ignited a curiosity in me to always explore the latest technology out there.
When I then started working for Dentsu in London we delivered a large volume of events on an annual basis howeverI wasn’t able to grow my team so I looked to partner with an agency that could support us in delivering our events. This was where I was introduced to HeadBox, who at the time was a start-up of 5 people. I was drawn to their approach with tech to remove the inefficiencies, whilst keeping people at the forefront of what they do.
After partnering with HeadBox for 3 years in the UK, I was given the opportunity to bring the model to Australia as my own business. Having experienced the success of this technology client-side in the UK, it was brilliant ‘proof in the pudding’ that this model would be sought-after in the Australian market.
HeadBox 3D Studio sounds like a game-changer for the events world. Can you share what excites you most about this new product and how it’s set to transform the way venues and clients connect and plan events?
There is honestly so much that excites me about this product because it has a multifaceted audience. For venues, it is going to personalise their 3D tours and make them far more tailored to the audience, through both the words spoken with the narrator, as well as the cultural alignment with the chosen narrator.
3D Studio enables the venue to share features of the space, be it historical, award-winning or sustainability focused, with the client they are quoting the event for. It will also condense the conversion period for venues as clients, both domestic and international, will be able to complete a guided tour from the comfort of their own home or office, in another state of country.
For clients, it is going to expose them to venues they previously may not have considered. Simply as they didn’t understand the complexities or flow of the venue, therefore discounting it in their decision making process, or they weren’t given the approval to travel for a site inspection.
3D Studio supports both the venue & client’s sustainability goals, by reducing travel emissions in both the pre-contract stage as well as the planning stage. Suppliers are able to use 3D Studio to understand the flow of the event and from using the model, they can accurately measure out a space down to 1mm to account for items to be added.
Your experience working both client and venue-side must give you a unique perspective. How did your time as Head of Events help you identify the need for a tool like HeadBox 3D Studio, and what problems do you see it solving for the industry?
The majority of events I worked on during my time as Head of Events for Dentsu were in London, therefore catching public transport to view the venue was easy and didn’t impact our carbon footprint significantly. However, for event professionals who plan events interstate and internationally, 3D Studio will support them to view a range of venues and understand whether it’s right for that event
AI-powered narrated tours and personalised proposals are an impressive leap in streamlining the event sales process. What challenges did you face in developing this technology, and how do you envision it changing the way event sales are conducted?
One of the key tech challenges we faced was how to take something that is technically complex – generating AI video in near real-time that could be overlaid on top of Matterport 3D models to create guided tours – and turn it into a product that is really simple and straightforward for anyone to use.
We know that events teams are incredibly busy so nailing this was imperative. This took a lot of very careful design, both from a UX and technology perspective, but we’re really proud of what we accomplished in such a short period of time.
I believe 3D Studio will firstly expose clients to venues they hadn’t previously considered because it can now be viewed from the comfort of their own home or office but more importantly it’s going to share information that is previously lost in pages of quotes.
A great example of this is a yacht company we work with; often they are discounted by clients because boats are seen as having a large carbon impact, however this particular company does a lot to offset their emissions as well as donate to Take 3; a charity organisation designed to clean up our oceans. This information can now be communicated at the beginning of the narrated tour, rather than being buried in a quote or function pack in the hope the client reads it.
As someone with over 16 years of experience in the events industry, how do you stay balanced while managing such a fast-paced, innovative company? Do you have any daily habits or practices that help you stay grounded?
I’m a morning person so it’s really important for me to do some form of exercise every morning – whether that’s running, a HiiT workout or yoga, it gives me the mental clarity and energy for the day ahead. I’m also a big believer of breathwork, even a simple two minutes of breathing exercise before an important meeting or pitch can put me in the right headspace.
HeadBox 3D Studio is designed to reduce the need for travel and cut emissions—how important is sustainability to your mission, and how do you see technology playing a role in creating more eco-friendly events?
Sustainability has been important to me since my childhood. Having respect at a young age for the land we live on and the food we eat which has carried through into my career. As a company we are carbon neutral and on track to be a climate positive company this year.
Further than that though we partner with Trace; an organisation to help businesses achieve net-zero, to offer our clients the ability to offset their event emissions. We still have so much to learn with sustainability but one thing I am clear on is that if options are presented to a client to offset their emissions and it’s made easy to do so, the likelihood of them taking action is far greater.
We’ve brought this level of thinking into our own tech where we too want to make it easy for clients to understand what their emissions are, but also make informed decisions.
Earlier this year we launched HeadBox Zero which is our suite of sustainability products within the HeadBox platform. The first tool is Journeys, which measures the journey guests are taking to a venue by the mode of transport you input i.e. 200 guests travelling by coach, and based on this information combined with the venue options being proposed, it will tell you which is the most sustainable venue based on the guests journey.
The second tool in HeadBox Zero is Venue Initiatives. This tool gives venues the ability to call out what initiatives they are carrying out as a venue to be sustainable, these are then listed in their proposal, just like the facilities of a venue. The purpose of these two tools is to easily inform bookers of the most sustainable option for their event during the booking process
Looking ahead, what’s next for your journey as CEO? Are there any upcoming projects or innovations on the horizon that you’re particularly excited about?
3D Studio is a brilliant tool and truthfully only in its infancy, there is a long way we can take this product. Separate to that, we’re going to be enhancing features within our own event planning tech that will speed up the time in which it takes to send a client brief to venues and for them to respond.
We have a relentless pursuit to continue enhancing our tech with new releases going live every 2-3 weeks. We want to continue at this speed as tech will continue to solve challenges for both our business clients and our venue partners.
Personally, I’m getting married next year in South Africa and I can promise you it would have been 10 times easier if the venues there had 3D Studio.
We have a brilliant team in place and the ideas, both for our tech and how we service clients, that the team come up with will continually make us a cutting edge agency that will continue to grow.
