Last week The Student Housing Company brought together its students, staff and partners to celebrate the official opening of University Square and the launch of TSHC in Australia! Taking place at our brand new student accommodation building in Carlton, Melbourne, the evening was filled with tasty treats, live entertainment and surprises.
If you missed out on the night or couldn’t make it to celebrate with us don’t worry, because we’ve made a top 10 list of the highlights from the night to fill you in on all the details.
1. CAPI Drinks Bar
Our friends at CAPI Australia came along to help us serve up four very tasty mocktails. The mocktails menu was custom made for the University Square Launch Event and they were inspired by some of the countries our students come from around the world.
The mocktails were an absolute hit, and even though they were non-alcoholic, our partners enjoyed them just as much as the students!
2. Photobooth
To make sure each of our guests had something to keep as a memory from the night, we had a photobooth set up to capture the best moments! With props, photo printing and a sea of yellow and gold balloons, our photobooth activation was unsurprisingly very busy all night!
3. Food, Food and Even More Food
Of course it isn’t a party without food, so we thought we would cover all bases. From tacos, to pizza and an assortment of Chinese dumplings and buns we had it all.
Gourmet wood-fired pizzas were served up by the Happy Camper Pizza truck. They even did Nutella dessert pizzas!
Tacos are always a crowd pleaser, and of course we had to have guacamole and chips too!
Lastly, Oriental Teahouse brought their entire yum cha set up to our Level 3 outdoor terrace to put on a show as they steamed dumplings.
4. Live Typography
Many people didn’t know exactly what live typography was before our event, but Casey’s typography skills did not fail to impress anyone! She was able to write absolutely anything in all sorts of colour and styles at our students’ request.
Many of our students chose to get inspirational quotes or their names written out, to decorate their rooms at University Square!
5. Roaming Magician
To add a touch of magic to the event, magician Dom Chambers came to our event to wow all of our guests. Groups of amazed students could be seen all night gathered around Dom and his magic tricks did not disappoint.
6. International Students of Aus
Our students come from every corner of the world, and we love to celebrate the diverse cultures and backgrounds we have in our community. An Instagram which embodies this passion for diversity is International Students of Aus. The owner of the page, Andrew, interviews international students in Australia and tells their stories through his social media page, to create a community that shares advice and experiences about living down under.
Andrew talked with out students about their experiences and we can’t wait to see their stories on his page – watch this space!
7. DJ
Every party needs good music, so we invited along Chris Fong to play tunes all night long at our event. As a Melbourne University student himself, Chris was a crowd pleaser as he played a mixture of current hits from Australia and around the world that are popular amongst our students.
8. Speeches and Welcome to Country
As we celebrate the beginning of our community in Australia, it is also important to reflect and be thankful towards the original land owners who first occupied this area. Aunty Joy is a Aboriginal elder of the Wurundjeri people and she was invited to the event to perform a Welcome to Country ceremony. Aunty Joy spoke about the importance of finding a place to call home, which was fitting for our students who have moved overseas and now call us home.
9. Donut Wall
The only thing better than donuts its a wall of donuts. So we got University Square’s Mr Fix-It, also known as Robert, to build us our very own custom donut wall for the event!
We had to get the best for our guests, so we ordered in boxes of fresh Krispy Kreme donuts for our donut wall and it’s safe to say they didn’t last very long.
10. Meeting the team
Perhaps our favourite part of the night was all of our students, staff and partners being together in the property. It was a great opportunity for our students to meet all of our staff and for our staff and partners to talk to the students about their experience living at University Square!
The University Square Launch event was definitely a night to remember and it was great to bring together our students, staff and all of the people involved with the building of our first Australian property.
If you’d like to join in on the fun and live with us in 2019, you can book your spot now! Booking for student accommodation in Melbourne and Perth are now open. Visit our display suites to see our rooms for yourself and meet our team – you can book a viewing online in advance.
Lastly, if you joined us on the night, we would like to say a big thank you for coming along and making the night unforgettable! We hope you had as much fun as we did and don’t forget to use #studentgoals and tag us in your party pics!
@thestudenthousingcompanyaus on Instagram.
The Student Housing Company Australia on Facebook.
