In a ground-breaking move for our burgeoning partnership program, Smartgroup has announced an exciting partnership with Opera Australia.
Barely a year ago, our partnership program was largely sports-based, but tapping into new ways to reach and reward our clients and customers has helped us build a more balanced portfolio with community, First Nations and environmental groups, sporting organisations, and now, with Opera Australia (OA), the arts.
OA is most famous for its performances at the Sydney Opera House and Melbourne Arts Centre. But along with a national presence, this partnership delivers so much more. This year alone, Smartgroup is supporting OA’s musical theatre events like West Side Story, the 20-stop Madama Butterfly regional tour to the NT, WA, far north QLD and regional SA, as well as a 150-stop school program in NSW and Victoria which reaches over 70,000 school children.
Smartgroup CEO, Deven Billimoria, says “It makes sense for us to partner with Australia’s largest arts company. We share a focus on excellence for our customers, and ensures we give something significant back to the communities in which we operate.”
According to OA CEO Rory Jeffes, it was clear from the first meeting that there were a number of ways OA and Smartgroup could partner.
“A great arts-corporate partnership is about recognising, and then realising through innovative and creative ideas, how each party can enhance the other’s business. Smartgroup is a national organisation which delivers services across a range of sectors, from schools, to not-for-profit and corporate, and given the breadth of OA’s activities, it was an easy connection to make.
“For OA, with its hundreds of employees, it is also so valuable for our staff to have access to one of Australia’s leading employment management services company.”
While our partnership is for a year initially, we look forward to a long and prosperous relationship with the OA team.