Celebrating 15 Years of Known Associates
In 2007, I had just been through some major life moments. After 29 years of not knowing who or where he was, I’d just met my dad. This involved saving up a lot of cash and travelling 15 hours by multiple planes to Kenya to meet the family I’d recently found out existed. A family who wanted to meet me! As someone who’d grown up in Australia trying to figure out my identity for all of my adult life, going there, meeting him, really gave me the confidence to complete a puzzle and relax into my own skin. To quote a total cliché, I’d found myself.
Right after Africa, I started a full-time role with the Fremantle Dockers as their Events Coordinator. I loved this fast-paced, high-turnover, pressure-filled job that took me out of my comfort zone time and again as we worked with athletes, TV and radio personalities, and world-class entertainers in world-class venues. After a year of churning out several events to the same audience of guests, hampered by the consistent colour scheme of purple, I yearned to channel my creativity in other ways. I asked myself, how can I put on my own eye-poppingly fabulous events and align them with tangible purpose? I wanted my guests to be left with more than sore feet, full bellies and beautiful memories. I wanted to put on events that made a significant impact in our communities through something other than sport. I wanted to pay it forward in style!
A byproduct of an early career in Hotel Management meant my network was vast. I was sure I could pull a cool crowd if I came up with an idea. I set to work on an event to rival the increasingly expensive and repetitive Perth Cup on New Year’s Day. I wanted it to be everything the Perth Cup wasn’t. Classy, central, by the water, and not a port-a-loo in sight. I named it Milan on the Swan and held it at the newly ritzed-up Raffles.
So, in August 2007 I trotted down to St Georges Terrace and filled in the paperwork to register Known Associates Events as a WA business. The name came from a term referring to a network of underworld figures, often heard on the 6 o’clock news. I wanted it to be edgy, but also about true connection. The fingerprint logo was born from these subversive undertones but held a double meaning of individuality and rarity – the perfect symbol.
I engulfed myself in a world where I worked full-time at the Dockers and spent every other waking minute building Known Associates’ first shindig. You’d think the workload would’ve killed me but I was on a high! I had the toolset, I had the network and I had the naive drive to pull together a showstopper – The West Australian and Network10 News agreed, touting Known Associates’ Milan on the Swan as one of the Top Ten events to attend for 2007 New Year celebrations!
We quickly went on to host more of our own events, donating proceeds to various charities. I eventually left the Dockers on maternity leave and Known Associates kept growing alongside my beautiful newborn son. The team expanded to include interns who needed experience whilst at uni. As I wasn’t drawing any profit from the business this was a perfect arrangement where I could teach, we could create, and charities could benefit.
In 2009, I met the formidable Ros Worthington and Lifeline WA became our first official client. From my kitchen table, and one bundle of love and joy named Lola later, the business grew into the renowned events company you see today.
In 2020, we took a giant leap and added Known Associates Australia to the mix to focus on engaging with bigger industry and building a strong Indigenous-owned side of the brand for our children to cherish.
Today, Known Associates Group resides in a city office, employs several full-time team members and delivers all kinds of wonderful marketing events, activations, design and communications work to the people of Australia. We’re a close-knit team who live for the party. We live to create. We live to bring people together and expand our network of known associates further with each bold project.
I never set out to be a Director, an employer, a boss. The dreams I had for doing events my way, riding on a newfound confidence and comfort in who I was and what I had to offer, led me to this point. And I wouldn’t change a thing. Watching my team flourish and mature, dreaming bigger and riding the wave of the unknown with me each year is the most reward I could ever ask for. They are my family and Known Associates is our home – the party house on the block where everyone’s welcome.
Happy 15th birthday to us and here’s to celebrating with you and all our Known Associates far and wide! Hip Hip!
— Tam x
