Digital Armour's DAX at the NSW Local Government Excellence Awards
Category: Corporate Events | Location: Sydney, Australia
On 4 June 2026, Digital Armour Corporation brought a very different guest to the NSW Local Government Excellence Awards at Royal Randwick: a humanoid robot.
The Digital Armour team named him DAX — Digital Armour Experience Assistant. DAX danced, posed for photos, high-fived guests and gave attendees a direct, playful interaction with emerging technology.
This is how Digital Armour used a humanoid robot as a branded event activation, rather than treating the robot as a static display.
The Brief: A Sponsor Activation That Needed a Moment
Digital Armour Corporation works in managed IT and AI strategy. For its presence at the awards, the activation needed to match that positioning: forward-thinking, memorable and easy for guests to engage with.
RobotForHire deployed DAX as an interactive guest — able to move through the room, engage attendees and create photo moments around Digital Armour's brand.
The brief: show up, stand out, and start conversations.
He delivered on all three.
What DAX Actually Did on the Night
The moment our robot entered the room, the dynamic shifted. Digital Armour CEO Maria Padisetti captured it perfectly on LinkedIn:
"Some people couldn't wait to meet him. Others kept a safe distance. Some were fascinated. Some were slightly terrified."
That's exactly the range of reactions a well-deployed robot produces - and it's what makes robot hire so uniquely powerful at corporate events. You can't get that response from a photo booth or a DJ.
Throughout the evening, DAX:
Danced - and not awkwardly. The kind of dancing that gets pulled out on the main floor and draws a crowd.
Posed for photos - racking up more selfies than anyone else at the event, including the CEO, who joked she may have some competition for her own role.
High-fived guests - a simple interaction that never gets old when it's a humanoid robot doing it.
Networked - moving through the room, engaging with groups, and giving people a shared experience to talk about all night.
The reactions spanned the full spectrum of human emotion: curiosity, excitement, scepticism, wonder. And that's the point. A great awards night creates memories. DAX created a lot of them.
Why This Works So Well at Corporate Events
Maria's reflection on the evening was sharp: "What I loved most wasn't the technology. It was watching human behaviour."
That observation gets to the heart of why robots work so well at corporate events. They're not just entertainment - they're a social catalyst. The robot becomes a shared reference point for everyone in the room. Conversations start because of it. People who wouldn't otherwise interact find themselves standing next to each other, watching, laughing, debating.
For a company like Digital Armour, whose core business is helping organisations understand and adopt AI and emerging technology, the symbolism was also perfect. DAX made the abstract tangible. He showed that AI doesn't have to be a boardroom concept or a slide deck - it can walk into your awards night, take a selfie with your CFO, and prove that the future is already here, and it's fun.
As Maria put it: "Technology doesn't have to be intimidating. Sometimes it can simply be fun."
The Detail That Made It Work
The success of robot hire at any event comes down to one thing: the robot has to be genuinely interactive, not just present. A robot standing in the corner is a novelty. A robot that moves through the crowd, responds to people, and creates individual moments - that's entertainment.
Our Unitree G1 humanoid robot is built for exactly this kind of deployment. Standing at human height, moving fluidly, and capable of dancing, gesturing, high-fiving, and engaging in real time, it commands attention without being intimidating. It reads as impressive, not industrial.
The Digital Armour team understood this instinctively, which is why they gave their robot a name, a title, and a personality brief before the night even started. DAX wasn't just a robot at the event - he was a character. And that detail made all the difference.
What Guests Took Away
The event produced photos, LinkedIn discussion and a simple story people could repeat: Digital Armour brought a humanoid robot to the awards. Maria's post asked followers whether they would rush in for a selfie or watch cautiously from across the room, extending the interaction beyond the venue.
Ready to Book a Robot for Your Next Awards Night or Corporate Event?
If your next awards night, gala, product launch, or corporate function needs a moment people won't stop talking about - our humanoid robots are available across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and all major Australian cities.
Whether you're hosting 50 guests or 500, a robot delivers something no DJ, photo booth, or comedian can: genuine wonder.
Get in touch today to check availability and pricing.
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