Events are tailor-made to attract specific audiences and funding while maintaining their integrity. There is never a shortage of ideas, only budgets.

Some of the events Mary-Anne Waldren has pioneered include:

National media shows themed to science, such as Good News Week, How Green Is My Cactus and Radio National forums. This enabled live blockbuster events to be held during festivals and they were seen or heard by millions of other viewers around Australia.

Forums that appeal to general audiences
Mary-Anne pioneered this style of event. The Australian Science Festival uniquely produces scores of these each year. They are often broadcast nationally, thanks to a unique partnership with the national broadcaster, which was also pioneered by Mary-Anne.

National experiments
Millions of rural and city participants have taken part in everything from the plastic-bag famine to the sleep project. Rural dwellers are particularly responsive to net-based events.

Parliamentary briefings
Politicians and journalists have benefited from topical and expert briefings on subjects ranging from stem cell research to water.

High-profile media launches
The Water Olympics was devised to launch one festival. It ranked tap water from every Australian capital city and was covered by every major newspaper. Other successful launches have involved a staged customs breach by then Governor-General, Sir William Deane, who was apprehended by sniffer dogs and sci-fi drama involving science cabaret, life-sized Daleks and an intergalactic search for fresh water.

Interactive exhibitions
Mary-Anne has been involved in mounting dozens of revenue-raising exhibitions and exploiting the marketing opportunities they present.

She has staged media events at them that have involved everything from milking the world's most dangerous snake, the taipan, to announcements by Federal politicians. She has spear-headed and been involved in outside broadcasts at these events by media outlets ranging from ABC local radio and Triple J to live television weather broadcasts by Win Television and by the national morning TV show, Today. And she has staged valuable networking events that utilise these events as backdrops and sources of information.

Roving performers
Mary-Anne has created extra interest at events by engaging roving performers ranging from life-sized fully functional Dr Who Daleks and other elaborate high-tech creations to musicians and balloon, body and chalk artists. Well-chosen roving performers can create colour and the unexpected in a cost-effective way.

National tours of celebrities
Mary-Anne has brokered dozens of sponsorship deals that have covered the costs involved in importing celebrities and touring them around the country. Celebrities who have participated in these tours include:

Author of The Creative Economy John Howkins; vacuum cleaner baron James Dyson; creativity specialist Charles Landry; psychologist and best-selling author Dr Susan Blackmore; NASA astronauts Franklin Chang-Diaz and Sally Ride; author and creative industries' specialist Kate Oakley; inventor of the term "lateral thinking" Edward de Bono; environmentalist David Bellamy; Britain's Chief Scientist Sir Robert May; Author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and a book on endangered species, the late Douglas Adams; Editor in Chief of New Scientist Alun Anderson; Director of Britain's Royal Institution and popular science writer Professor Susan Greenfield; authors, broadcasters and award-winning documentary makers Heather Couper and Nigel Henbest; IVF pioneer and BBC Broadcaster Sir Lord Robert Winston; British geneticist, author and broadcaster Steve Jones; Neurologist Professor Colin Blakemore, and the award-winning young inventor of the dripless teapot Damini Kumar.

A solar boat race
This was staged on Lake Burley Griffin for six years running and attracted contestants from around the world.