The Rise of the Phoenix

The beach welcome party

Delegates arrived to a beach at the InterContinental Da Nang dressed entirely to theme, illuminated lotus sculptures lighting the sand, a drummer entrance calling the evening open, and a long bar built into the shoreline under a canopy of festoon lanterns. A live band flown in from the UK carried the set. It was the first note of "The Rise of the Phoenix", the sun-and-phoenix story that ran across all five days, and the brief for the next four was set before dinner was served.

The two ballrooms: history and the gamified zone

The InterContinental's two ballrooms became a single expo under the HSBC Expo 2025 gateway, split into two entirely different worlds. One was turned into a history of banking, a fully built environment, made new to look old: a grand hall with a period ceiling and lighting, a vault door built as a working prop, a manager's desk with functional drawers, and a hall built around a working long-case clock, dressed with archival postcards, telephones and every prop brought in for the room. The other was the modern, gamified zone, a "Race for Wealth" stand with real steering wheels and pedals, HSBC Life touchscreen exhibition stands, and mini golf built out onto the terrace, delegates working the room stand to stand.

iMAGINE Events Asia built both rooms to the same standard: the heritage recreation held up to close inspection as a genuine "old" space, while the gamified zone ran as a fully wired, fully interactive floor.

The plenary theatre

The main-stage day was directed as a piece of theatre, not run as a conference. A renowned female Indian director staged the sun-and-phoenix story across panel talks and gamified segments, with singers and dancers flown in from India, kung-fu-style choreography, elaborate costumes and full sets rolling on and off stage between segments.

iMAGINE Events Asia built and ran the technical side of that direction, the LED backdrops each panel and performance played against, the auditorium's full scenic dressing, and the show-calling that kept sets, speakers and performers moving on a single cue sheet.

Hoi An: street party and after-party

The fourth day moved the programme into the middle of Hoi An itself, on a public square in the historic town. iMAGINE Events Asia secured the government licence to hold the party on a live public space and ran controlled access for the evening, dressing the square with a moon-lantern stage and an illuminated painted bar so the built environment sat naturally alongside the town's own lantern light.

A couple of hundred metres across town, the night continued as a mini-Coachella after-party, a "Coe-Chella" build with a CoE letter sculpture lit at night, a festival-style stage, a Glitter Bar, and the square washed in magenta for a live band and DJ set, cowboy hats and glow sticks handed out at the door, and champagne on ice throughout.

The Ba Na Hills gala

The programme's closing night took a barren square in the French Village on top of Ba Na Hills and turned it into the most ambitious build of the five days. The tribunes lining the square were filled with 7,000 candles, arranged to spell "CoE" in flame across the seating banks, with a stage built into the dining floor at the centre. Mist sat on the mountain for three of the build days, at times slowing work to a crawl, then lifted just a couple of hours before doors opened, clearing the sky for the show that had been rehearsed blind through the cloud.

Three tons of technical equipment were flown in via China to reach the site. The evening's headline act was a magician who had won Canada's Got Talent, flown in from Canada to close out the night, with iMAGINE Events Asia running the full technical build, staging, rigging, power and show-calling, at altitude, on ground that offered none of a hotel's infrastructure.

The French Village after-party

The night carried straight on from the gala into a second venue elsewhere in the French Village, an old-school square with its own domed centrepiece, given a full statement-lighting treatment in blue and gold across its balustrades, angel statues and towers. Photo booths were set into the arcades, and a stage hosted the second UK band of the programme, closing the five days on the same site that had opened the evening with 7,000 candles.