This was hosted at the Sarova Whitesands Hotel & Spa in Bamburi, near Mombasa on the Kenyan coast, and produced by Oriflame's in house production team.
The project, the site and the logistics were managed for Gearhouse by Bill Lawford and Eyal Yehezkely, working closely with account handler Gareth Hadden.
Forty four Gearhouse SA crew - designers, engineers and technicians - worked across all the disciplines, utilising 63 tonnes of production equipment that was air freighted out of SA via Nairobi in a 747 freighter. The SupaDome was transported to Mombasa in seven 40ft Hi-Cube sea freight containers.
The event comprised three main elements, two of which - a conference and a gala dinner for the 1280 delegates - took place inside the Dome.
The SP Dome was built on the site of four tennis courts in the hotel grounds which required a serious amount of preparation work including levelling of the ground, removal of fencing, clearance of garbage and other detritus, tree pruning and the selected relocation of plants and foliage.
Once constructed, the Gearhouse team installed the entire technical infrastructure needed to host the Conference and Gala Dinner, which included building a stage and set - based on three interlinking circles - at one end. The set was constructed entirely out of Milos trussing incorporating main screens and stage entrances. The stretched fabric pieces and curved staircases were custom made by Sets, Drapes & Screens to complement the theme. The set and lighting designs were both created by Hugh Turner.
Lights were hung throughout the venue - its impressive headroom allowing two folding trusses to be rigged at least 10m high across the width of the venue. The rig included 12 Robe ColorSpot 2500E ATs, supplemented by 24 High End Studio Spots and 62 High End Studio Colors lighting the onstage areas.
Turner ran all lighting from a grandMA full size console through two NSPs and using seven DMX universes, which allowed the entire show to be backed up to a laptop.
Sound was delivered via an L-Acoustics Kudo system designed by Gearhouse Audio's Jako de Wit, who engineered the FOH mix on a Yamaha LS9/32 console. With its streamlined physical profile, crisp intelligibility and precise colouration, this was the perfect choice for the nature of both events, which included presentations and speeches, background music and backing tracks for dancers and other entertainment.
Bill Lawford sums up: "This is the type of project that allows the Gearhouse Group to demonstrate its increasing capabilities to operate anywhere in the world, and deal with the logistical challenges faced in destinations where events on this scale are new. We would like to thank Oriflame for placing their faith in the Gearhouse SA Group and providing us with this opportunity."
(Jim Evans)
