Wellington-based company Verve Consulting has been awarded the event manager's contract for the Lawrence 2011 Clutha Gold 150th celebrations.
The company has been active in Dunedin for just six months, and the Lawrence celebrations are its first big event in the area, project manager Sam Heeney said.
Verve wanted to give the event next March national significance, she said.
"Finding gold had a national impact. We want to create something that does stay local ... but reaches a wide audience by showing what happened in Lawrence and the impact that had."
The Clutha Gold celebrations will mark the 150th anniversary of Gabriel Read striking gold in the gully at Lawrence which now bears his name, and are set to take place over four days in March.
"Going out and getting funding from funding partners and sponsors is going to be the key to success," Ms Heeney said.
Clutha District Council district development manager Julie Pearse said the event manager's position attracted responses from 14 organisations.
Ms Heeney said she would be meeting the working committee each month as the celebrations developed, but it was important to take a step back initially, to look at all the plans and ideas the Lawrence community had generated.
