The Joy Of Sets! India and the handover!
I have been working on the Forever Living Global Rally since 2007. I was brought on board by Richard McCabe when I worked for him at Creative Construction 2007-2009. I took the project over in 2009 when Richard decided to close the scenic workshops in Mold. I have been designing and creating stages and weird and wonderful props for this extravaganza ever since, until this year.
The Rally is a mixture of new product launches, inspirational speakers, entertainment, individual recognition, profit share announcements and keynote speeches by the Chairman and key presidents of each department, who also present the whole two day event. The two day Rally is part of a 6 day event where qualifiers have training days and incentive travel days where they can go and see the local sites and experience the country we are in.
This project has been all over the world and I have travelled with it, learning how different countries and venues operate with local customs, restrictions, and work practices. It has been interesting fun and challenging. From Johannesburg to Bali, Dubai to Budapest, every venue and every supplier we find in these towns, has their own specific way of working that makes you adjust expectations, some in a negative, but mostly in a positive way. In some places where scenic work is cheaper than say in Europe, it is possible to go to town, as we did in Johannesburg with a parade of hand painted 2D life size animals along the 30m catwalk leading to the stage. In other countries, Singapore for instance, everything was so expensive, that we had to minimise expectations and rely on tech, screens etc, to fill the space as it was comparatively cheap for a sqm cost.
So, every city is different. Armed with 15 years of knowledge and experience as part of a team of HOD’S whom I have worked alongside since 2007, we started preparing for the Forever Global Rally in Delhi in October last year with the show date of April 2024. We held our first site meeting in Delhi in October 23, going to the venue of choice. The new signature venue in Delhi, the new ICC, was still shall we say, in development, although it had held the G20 earlier that year! For our rally of an expected audience of 20,000 it was a very complicated space to conceive how it would work with a huge dividing wall across the space blocking any chance of a full auditorium. With windows along two sides that would need blacking out, the need for multiple screens and multiple everything to bring the show to any kind of all-encompassing high end show for all the audience, it quickly became obvious this was not the venue for us.
Now behind the scenes our erstwhile Technical Director for 16 years Mark Gocher had been trying to fit a square peg in a round hole for 8 months and it was only after the scenarios with all the HOD’s had been talked through on site, (scenarios that Mark had already exhausted many times) that another venue was sought.
A new venue was not the only thing to be sought. Our lovely leader Mark also decided that this was the time to step aside from the Rally as it had been a very frustrating few months and to start again with other work commitments and to maintain a his more chilled lifestyle, this was not going to be his bag.
An early morning phone call from Nick Woodward Shaw, Vice President of Marketing worldwide for Forever living was not expected and when you are in a foreign country, early morning calls are very rarely good news, it usually means your taxi driver for an hours’ time has rung your room to let you know he is there, while you are still asleep! Nick after explaining Marks decision , asked me to take on the TD role for the Global Rally 2024.
Now for the past 5 or so years I have been Production managing larger parts of this project as well as stage managing for the past 15 years and having run large projects as Production Manager for other clients, he thought I would be the natural fit. Well, I was chuffed and said yes straight away.
For me to take it on was a natural process of professional progression but like many people who have imposter syndrome it was still a major adjustment. As always you have ideas for implementing new systems and more people, but you must acknowledge that these ideas are mostly not new and there is a reason why some changes won’t have taken place. By speaking to Mark, who is still involved in the training and special event side of the event, I was able to see what was not possible in the past and why, but with his and Nicks’ support I was able to instigate some changes that I believe started us to a different production approach for the Rally. We are still in the process of implementing some changes, but with Delhi now under my belt, I am making these changes with the production team and trying to make sure we are financially efficient by spreading the load into a more substantial team to handle the detail on this vast project and not have to make last minute costly on site changes.
So, a new venue, a new role and a brand new country to explore and a wealth of suppliers all to see around Delhi whilst navigating the atrocious roads. To say that the Venue in Delhi, the Indira Gandhi Arena, needed a lot of love before we could start thinking about the Rally, is no understatement. With no rigging allowed, suspect plumbing, being completely in the round, major floor loading issues and terrible access, we had ourselves a challenge. Throw into the mix amazing cultural difference of which I will explore more next time.
I am now the incumbent TD for the Forever Global Rally and as we plan for the Paris Rally in the U Arena (La Defence Arena) in central Paris, I will be developing the team alongside with designing and developing the overall show with the HOD’s and hoping to deliver a top draw show as we did in Delhi, but hopefully without the dysentery.
I will explore the project in detail next time and along with a list of useful suppliers hopefully inform about the pitfalls and unexpected pleasures that await you in India.
Pictures: Forever Living Products
