Client: Centaur Media
Event: Design Week Awards 2019
Date: 20.06.19
Venue: Illuminate at the Science Museum
Number of guests: 370
In-house Partners: Moving Venue and White Light
Why did you choose the Science Museum for your event?
The Science Museum is an iconic building and the new Illuminate space offers amazing views and cutting edge AV – we wanted to completely re-vamp our event and bring it up to date, moving from a standard sit down awards dinner to a more accessible networking event, plus awards, and most importantly the ability to showcase the winning work on screens dotted around the main event space. It was a complete departure from having the event in a dark marquee for the last few years and the views, light and space that Illuminate offered was really appealing and worked brilliantly – it gave the guests a completely different, and hopefully enhanced experience of the event.
Please describe the brief of the event, when did it take place? Who was the event for? How many people? What were the core goals and objectives?
The event is for the Design Industry, we had a theatre style set up downstairs where we held the awards ceremony and we had a pre and post drinks reception upstairs with canapes and bowl food. We played show-reels of all the winning work on the screens dotted around the upstairs room (showcasing the work in this way was one of the key objectives we had been set). We also wanted to be able to offer a lower price ticket to make the event more accessible to the wider industry and to increase the audience number – we managed to achieve all the objectives!
Which spaces at the museum did you use as part of the event and how did they enhance the experience for your guests?
We used both floors of the Illuminate space – the lower floor for the awards ceremony and the upper floor for the drinks receptions and food. The contrast in both space and light was amazing and clearly defined the different aspects of the event. The lighting and views on the upper floor really enhanced the guests experience, especially combined with the DJ playing in front of the main windows, and the food and drinks circulating.
Please give details of the logistics of running the event.
We had a team onsite during the day for set up – we ran through the show with the White Light team during this time at the production desk, and helped with the layout of furniture upstairs. During the event we had one team downstairs at the groups reception checking people off our guestlist, then another team upstairs liaising with White Light.
Did you opt for any bespoke catering or AV during the event?
Moving Venue provided the bar, drinks, food and furniture and White Light ran the production desk for us. Moving Venue prepared sage gnocchi, roast pumpkin and tomato sauce, shaved walnuts and Korean fried chicken with sticky chilli glaze, kimchee slaw.
How did the setting of the Science Museum contribute to the overall feel and purpose of the event?
It’s an iconic building that people were excited to experience – it is a London landmark and having that cache was brilliant when we were trying to re-launch an established event in a new format. The Location was brilliant!
What feedback did you receive from the guests?
They loved the space – it felt new, bright and modern and it really helped to establish a feeling that we were running a new, more up to date and relevant event.
Client comment:
As above, the space really leant itself to the experience we wanted to give our guests of light, space, cutting edge AV, and a modern setting with amazing views of London to boot!
