Funlab Pty Ltd

Last month, we had an incredible time at the largest ever Funlab Venue Manager Conference! We were not only able to set the business up for huge success in FY25, but we also had the pleasure of recognising our outstanding venue managers in our annual Awards Dinner. These awards celebrate the hard work, innovation and dedication of the managers that keep our venues thriving, and we couldn’t be prouder! 🔦 So, it’s time to shine the spotlight on our award winners:    People Pipeline Pro - Jemma Gilby from Archie Brothers & Holey Moley Wellington for creating a culture that has stoked the fire of motivation and has taken the team to the next level!    Testimonial Titan - Courtney Alder from Hijinx Hotel Chermside for demonstrating the importance of great and consistent guest feedback    Spend Per Guest Rocketeer - Riley Connolly from B.Lucky & Sons Fortitude Valley for achieving our strongest spend per guest result.    Green Fairy Gangster - Pete Tobin from Strike Entertainment Quarter for providing a driven and consistent focus on Environment and Sustainability in their venue.    Magic Maker - Aaron (AJ) Halbmaier from Holey Moley Denver for delivering a single amazing guest experience moment which truly changed lives and captures what we strive for at Funlab.    Profit Powerhouse - Dale Hall from Strike Melbourne Central for returning the highest percentage of 4-wall EBITDA for our business.    Congratulations to all our amazing winners for their great dedication and excellence! Each award is a reflection of our core values at Funlab, and what makes our venues and Motherfunners achieve greatness and be the best in the biz.    And finally, a huge thank you and round of applause to our amazing sponsors: Major Media Pty Ltd, Coca-Cola South Pacific, SouthTrade International, Lion, Diageo and McCain Foods for making these awards possible in recognising and celebrating our talented team in 2024.

We’re beyond excited to share the incredible results of our partnership with WISE Employment for our Archie Brothers Penrith venue! Firstly, we're proud to introduce our amazing Motherfunner RJ, who came to us through Wise and quickly became a beloved member of our team. His positivity and hard work are truly inspiring! RJ isn’t just a check box for I&D—he’s a valued team member who has as much to offer Funlab as we have to offer him. He's led by his amazing Venue Manager Savio Del Duca, who leads with such passion in the Inclusion & Diversity space— setting the bar incredibly high for all of us to strive for! And lastly a huge thanks to Bree McGrath, our wonderful Account Manager for Wise NSW, who we’re so lucky to have in our corner!   We encourage all businesses to embrace inclusivity in the disability employment space, as together we can make a difference! Check out RJ’s journey—it’s moments like these that make our work so meaningful. 👇

Work doesn't have to be all business, and neither does recruitment! At Funlab we believe that bringing a sense of fun and creativity to the hiring process not only sets the tone for our company culture, but it also attracts the right talent who value both productivity and an amazing work environment (where we can all still have fun!) That's why one of Funlab's key recruitment requirements is to wear a costume to your interview that reflects what YOU find fun! When people genuinely enjoy what they do, they excel, and we believe it all begins with the energy you bring to the interview. 🎉

In monumental news, we're incredibly grateful that last night Funlab was listed as #2 in the The Australian Best Places to Work Awards in the Big/Very Big category! These awards partnered by WorkL are judged on a methodology of six drivers of workplace culture and success: Reward and Recognition; Information Sharing; Empowerment; Wellbeing; Instilling Pride; and Job Satisfaction. We're so proud to have the Funlab culture recognised in such prestigious company, a culture centred on inclusion, well-being, collaborative communication, cooperation, innovation and most importantly an all-around love of fun! And as we always say, the world is better when we fun together. Even at work!

While every moment is huge at Funlab, last week saw one of our most important moments yet with our biggest ever Funlab Venue Manager Conference! Kicking off with an amazing trade show led by our family of suppliers, the Conference moved to the gorgeous Fairmont Resort Blue Mountains by MGallery in the NSW Blue Mountains for a huge 72 hours. Here, we set the scene for our biggest FY ahead and followed the immortal words of the legendary Wayne Gretzky to ensure we’re skating to where the "puck" is going in 2025! In addition to presentations from our Leadership team and venue focused workshops, we were also blessed to have the inspirational Amanda Stevens join us and impart words of wisdom to create a whole generation of brand advocates. This year was our biggest yet, with over 160 attendees spanning 3 countries and our Venue Managers joined by Senior Leadership and our amazing extended family of Conference sponsors. They joined us for our most glittering Conference dinner yet and were absolutely crucial to helping us deliver our greatest event (yet!) In addition to our first ever Platinum Partner Major Media Pty Ltd, we wanted to give a huge thanks to our Gold sponsors McCain Foods, Diageo, SouthTrade International, Lion and Coca-Cola South Pacific as well as our other sponsors Print Star Vic, Supercare Property Services, Mango Communications, Bensons Trading, Onset Arts Workshop, Chef's Hat Australia, SPIKE DIGITAL, Campari Group, Merkle, LIVELEC, Cookers Bulk Oil System and ESS. We can’t wait for next year’s iteration and to see what is in store next for Funlab and how much better the world can be, when we all fun together!

Know you pars from your bars? Like the idea of creating suite escapes at the only hotel where you play, not stay? If you fit the bill, we'd love to hear from you! We're on the hunt for an Assistant Venue Manager for our Holey Moley and Hijinx Hotel venue in Canberra, helping lead our Motherfunners in one of our latest and greatest venues. ⛳ 🏌♀️ 🏨 🍸

At Funlab we're incredibly blessed to work with a range of fantastic suppliers and partners on our varied projects. One such partner who has been instrumental to the successful roll-out of our new venues are the fine folks at Major Media Pty Ltd, led by the amazing team of Steve Blight and René Paccagnan. Major Media has been our incredible signage provider for over 2 years on our Funlab builds, providing fabricated and illuminated signage, wall treatments and display media for our varied builds alongside our Development team of Shane Britter and Sam Milionis. On every project, they demonstrate the Funlab value of going Above & Beyond both in their fantastic communication and work, with Major Media assets in our venues becoming true signature elements (while blowing up lots of Instagram feeds!) We're super excited to continue working with Major Media, including them being on board this year as our Platinum partner for our 2024 Funlab Venue Manager conference in August.

After taking the Lone Star state by storm, next week we open the doors on another Holey Moley in the heart of the Mission District, San Francisco! The fine folks at the San Francisco Chronicle previewed the launch on July 19, with the former Urban Putt space taking on a hole new life of it's own with our unique brand of pop-culture inspired mini-golf! With a range of brand new and exclusive food and drink items on offer, there's a distinct San Fran flavour for what will be an amazing location in the iconic party and nightlife district just minutes from downtown.

At Funlab we're as serious about our bars as our pars, so this Dry July Foundation we're super pumped to offer an amazing 0% alcohol menu for anyone still wanting to have a big night out, without the hangover. Recently our Global Chief Operating Officer Blaise Witnish featured alongside our partners at Lyre's Spirit Co on Channel 9 Australia News, talking about our range of zero-alcohol cocktails which are all $10 for the month of July and as a category has grown 34% in sales over the last 12 months. With a range of classics as well as our own signature creations all on offer, it's the perfect way to kick putt at any of our Funlab venues while helping support the great fundraising initatives of the Dry July Foundation.

We're incredibly thankful for Archie Brothers Chadstone to have been featured on this week's Sunday Footy show, as part of the amazing work of What Ability and their athletes, including Kyle Langford. Led by Steve Dresler, the amazing folks at What Ability believe in putting the FUN in disability support for their participants, from bushwalks to beach days, bowling to cafe trips, holiday camps or even a round of dodgems or mini golf. As we believe the world is better for everyone when we fun together, we're super proud to be part of this amazing initiative and cause.