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Organisers of the 40th National Day of Oman entrust Middle East event logistics experts EFM to handle their international logistical challenge

Added August 10th, 2011

Avantgarde were appointed by the Ministry of Education in Oman to organise the 40th National Day of Oman Celebrations in December 2010 at the Sultan Qaboos Stadium in Muscat. With over 90 production consultants for the event and 120 suppliers from around the world, including Germany, UK, Italy, Spain, USA, Australia, UAE, Qatar and Oman, the vast logistical challenge was presented to EFM, to manage the safe and on-time transportation of technical production equipment in and out of Oman over a 6 month period, with the first shipments leaving by sea in August 2010 and the last containers returning to suppliers in January 2011.

In total for the project, on behalf of Avantgarde and their multitude of event suppliers, EFM arranged the door to door shipping of around 80 shipping containers, over 300 tons of airfreight, and 20 trucks, in addition to EFM on-site project management and supervision, customs clearance and liaison with the Omani customs and government authorities, as well as the provision of on-site material handling equipment including a fleet of cranes and operators that worked around the clock.

The materials transported into Muscat, by EFM, for the event included a vast array of costumes, set and props, specialist floor covering for the stadium, lighting, video, audio and rigging equipment, power distribution, pyrotechnics, special effects, cabling, cameras, broadcasting and communication equipment, all requiring careful handling and a significant amount of detailed and accurate advance planning, and paperwork preparation. The EFM offices in UK, Germany, UAE, USA and Australia all came together as a slick team for this event, coordinated by EFM’s Global Director, Lisa Ryan, Middle East Regional Director, Dylan Owen, and Regional Manager, James McSweeney – all working in close partnership with Avantgarde, its technical and production team, and appointed event suppliers.

Given the volume of equipment needing to be cleared quickly through customs, both in and out of Oman, and in coordination with Avantgarde and the relevant authorities, a procedure was devised for clearing all shipments through customs directly at the stadium, to ensure there were no delays on the way in or out. A logistics office was set up in the grounds of the stadium by EFM, to house senior local customs officers and the EFM project management team, for the load in and load out of the event. Although much of the audio visual equipment came in over a staggered period of time as per the production schedule, once the event had finished, EFM had to return costly rental equipment back to suppliers across Europe as quickly as possible, in the run up to Christmas, successfully moving 200 tons of equipment by air within a 7 day window.

In response to being asked about the logistical challenges surrounding the event and other events being handled by Avantgarde, their technical team commented, “In our case for the event in Oman, we worked closely with EFM. They understand the nature of our business perfectly!”

EFM’s successful delivery of a reliable and on-time logistical solution to the Oman National Day Event at Sultan Qaboos Stadium, demonstrated once again the importance of enlisting an expert freight company with solid experience of handling multi-modal shipping for international events and particularly one with local knowledge of the processes in the Middle East.