It aimed to bring to life the latest scientific research, exercise plans, expert knowledge and lifestyle tweaks for delegates. The event was designed to empower and inspire those in attendance to be the happiest, healthiest versions of themselves.
A number of top brands were associated with the event, including Harvey Nichols, Tetley’s Cold Infusions, Argos, Hello Fresh, Blackwell’s, Abel & Cole and Decathlon. It was delivered by Hearst Live, a division of global lifestyle magazine publisher Hearst. This was the first time that we have worked with Hearst Live and we were the main contractor for the expo.
We provided full fabrication, installation, lighting, AV and production for the event, which ran for three days at the Business Design Centre, in Islington.
The event space was split into several zones, all of which had their own AV requirements and different noise levels. To mitigate this and create a more immersive experience for guests, we utilised wireless headphones across the site. This allowed delegates to listen to different talks and presentations around the venue, without being interrupted by background noise from other areas.
The venue is in the middle of a residential area, so we had to be mindful of the impact of noise on some of the neighbours and take steps to keep this to a minimum through close control of the AV production. There were 30 channels of radio mics to manage, each requiring an individual license for the RF frequency it was using.
Tetley’s Cold Infusions stand was situated on an island in the middle of the venue, so we had to create a bespoke method to deliver fresh drinking water from the mains supply to the stand and remove waste water.
Finally, a build of this size required three articulated trucks full of equipment, so we needed a crew of 70 people on the install and 40 people to take it down and pack up.
We created a central retail space for the event’s main sponsor, Harvey Nichols, enabling the high-end designer retailer to create a pop-up outlet within the main exhibition area.
We fabricated an experiential area for Tetley’s Cold Infusions range, where delegates were given a free bottle and tea sachet, so they could sample their favourite flavours on the stand.
We provided build and production support to a number of themed stages, including the main stage, a science and nutrition stage and a mindfulness stage.
We created a quiet zone, called the Zen Den, which was home to a number of talks and meditation sessions.
We created and provided lighting, AV and production support to four dedicated exercise areas, all of which hosted a range of live workout sessions for those in attendance.
One of these was called ‘Sweat’, a live fitness demonstration area which had a high specification for the production elements.
Guy Eaton, our Managing Director, said: “This was a huge event, so it was fantastic to be trusted with such responsibility by Hearst Live, a first-time client of ours.
It required a remarkable amount of fabrication and kit to bring this to life, but because we have so much tech in-stock at our Midlands HQ, we were able to cover all of the requirements and deliver a fantastic event.
Managing a complex production environment with a wide array of technical elements proved a challenge, but our team has a huge amount of experience in managing large scale events such as this and because we invest in best-in-class technology, we were able to not only ensure the event looked amazing, but the content, lighting and AV all came together to ensure a seamless production across the three days.”
