Background
The Publican Awards are established as the biggest event in the pub industry’s calendar. This is Corporate Event’s eighth consecutive year producing the show. Each year the main objective is to create an impactful and entertaining event that involves delegates in a true celebration of the industry’s successes. In 2016, William Reed made the decision to move the event to Battersea Evolution, giving us a huge space to bring our creativity out in abundance!
With 1,400 delegates attending the 2019 Awards, the production needed to be extravagant, creative and professional, with exceptional attention to detail in order to meet the expectations of the awards sponsors who play a significant part in the event’s success, as well as exceed the expectations of the audience who see what we put on each year!
Solution
The team at Corporate Events work with William Reed on every element of the event’s production including the projection mapped ‘giant 3D PUBLICAN AWARDS’ lettering central to the set design, lighting design, audio support for the awards and entertainment; film, creative graphic design, animation and event management.
On the rig/day of the event we had a staggered team of around 50 crew including audio-visual technicians, set builders, show callers, data technicians, event managers and project managers all ensuring that each and every element to the event ran like clockwork.
Pre-event, the event manager, the project manager and our in-house creative team worked on the design of the set and stage, the animation of the opening sting, the awards slide deck and all printed promotional material. The event management team worked with William Reed’s event team pre, during and post event to coordinate the logistics, awards host (Alan Carr), entertainment and delegate management.
To ensure the awards would make an impact that left the audience in awe we designed and produced an engaging and visually stunning transformation of the space. The venue, Battersea Evolution, allowed us complete flexibility to make anything and everything possible for our client. The focal point within the main room was undoubtedly the mammoth set and stage. The production included two 30 foot screens either side of the projection mapped giant 3D ‘Publican Awards’ lettering which were the centre piece of the entire set! The mapped lettering was on a huge plinth so the visual impact was impressive. We then had 1:1 camera relay screens on the outer part of the set for a point of difference. For funny man host Alan Carr, we felt it only right to design a bespoke layered stage with black shiny flooring, lighting could be reflected off it for added impact and it was finished with LED around the edge. A fully star clothed ceiling and a comprehensive lighting show added to the fully immersive event. Even the innovative table centres worked to complement the lighting production with bespoke Publican event logos that we had designed, once DMX’ed with our lighting desk they looked incredible!
Outcome
Outside of the venue our aim was to ensure the delegates experience started well before they entered the venue, emphasising the client’s objective of a night to remember. Guests arrived on tuk tuks for a bit of fun before walking down the red carpet and entering thorough the LED columns with the events logo. No expense was spared in order to create a phenomenal and memorable event for the client and their audience.
Inside, the space was split in two. The awards set and stage in various forms spanned the entire room. Projection mapping implemented by our technical team, and content created by our internal studio truly brought the space alive. An impressive, animated opening sting, again created by our internal team of graphics designers and animators was shown across both 30 foot screens and the giant 3D lettering. Both 1:1 screens showed live relay of the host and winners ensuring all guests within such a large space were engaged with the production. And the 30 foot screens held all hero content for the Awards presentation.
As with any live event of this size and scale, the management behind the live relay and filming needed to be extremely precise. There was no margin for error when cutting to and from speakers and the audience, ensuring a seamless and professional experience for everyone involved.
To add to us giving a point of difference to this year’s show we worked with William Reed on the stage entertainment, they booked DUKE, a beatbox band to do the live walk up’s….this was the perfect fit to work with Alan Car and celebrating everyone’s success. We had the legendary Status Quo guitarist Rick Parfait’s son, Rick Parfait Jnr, and his band RPJ play on the after party stage, he always gets keeps the party going!
“I just wanted to say a massive thank you to you all for your hard work. It was nothing short of amazing. Everybody on site worked so hard, we can’t say a big enough thank you.”
Events Manager