About
Dene Harris is an MC for hire in Cairns, QLD.
Cairns based MC who's hosted Melbourne Cup events every year from 2010 through to 2025, along with private events around Australia and overseas. Client list includes Ferrari Brisbane, Katarzyna Group, Lions Medical Research Foundation, Valley Chamber of Commerce and Skal International. The approach is warm rather than loud: keep the room comfortable, keep the run sheet moving, read the crowd. Works across corporate functions, gala and awards dinners, cocktail parties, lunches and weddings. Two planning meetings are included before the day, and arrival is an hour before the start for soundcheck and any last minute changes.
The show
How he works depends on which slot you're filling. Daytime VIP hosting runs a few hours; evening VIP hosting stretches longer, up to six. Beyond that the bookings are shaped around the event itself: a lunch, a cocktail party of a few hours or a longer one, a full day event, or a day rolling through into the night. Gala dinners and awards nights are their own thing again, both built for a six hour run. Registered charities are handled case by case, so ask. Whichever it is, you get two planning meetings first and he's in the room an hour early for soundcheck.
On the day
Dene arrives an hour before your start time to sound check and pick up any last minute changes to the order of things. Two planning meetings sit in the diary before the day, and a draft run sheet or script wants to be with him a week out so there's time to work through it properly. That lead time is the difference between an MC reading names off a page and one who already knows who's speaking, what the room is for, and where the night is meant to land.
