The Two Sisters Food Company Conference Event, September 2012
Following their merger with Northern Foods, the 2 Sisters Food Company now supplies the leading Supermarket Chains with high quality ready meals.
Craft of Communication had already run Presentation Training for some of their Senior Team. The Group Head of HR requested our help with their September 2012 conference at the ICC in Birmingham.
This being the first conference after the merger, the event had two themes: ‘One Team where Everyone Counts’ and, as it took place soon after the 2012 Olympics, ‘Going for Gold’.
The event was highly ambitious, combining speeches, live interactive events, films, live interviews, presentations and demonstrations by Olympic Medal Winners and the company’s own Awards Ceremony.
A Director to stage the conference
Craft of Communication’s Director, John Abulafia, with his background in staging plays and large scale operas fulfilled this role. His task was to ensure that the day had a strong narrative flow, integrating the disparate elements of the day, so that one event flowed seamlessly into the next. John created a detailed technical cue script to ensure the company’s ambitions were realised by the ICC’s technical team. He also rehearsed the entire conference.
An MC to introduce and/or interview speaker and provide continuity.
Steve Grihault who has experience as an actor, director and Forum Theatre Practitioner, fulfilled this role through the day. He interviewed for Sir Charles Allen, the company’s chairman, who was Mayor of the Olympic Village in the 2012 London Games.
A Script Editor
The company wanted to ensure their script worked as a piece of conference-theatre. John Abulafia, with his background in writing for theatre and TV, fulfilled this role.
Coaching for all Conference Speakers.
This was provided by Tara Shaw, Co Director of Craft of Communication and two of our Associates, Julian Stolzenberg and Molly Greenwood. This included both Presentation Training and Voice Coaching.
One of the most ambitious conference events was the creation of a series of stalls around the ICC auditorium, where each speaker would run interactive events. The audience was to be divided into six tour-groups, and led from stall to stall at regular intervals.
To realise this ambitious idea we:
- Trained up the Guides who would take each group round.
- Mapped out the route around the auditorium to ensure there were no ‘traffic jams’ and so reduce the likelihood of accidents.
- Given the noise level of this event (six speeches taking place simultaneously) we gave the speakers Voice Coaching to ensure they were heard.
- Paid special attention to the timings of the interactive events so they had the same running time. This meant that no group was kept waiting.
- Oversaw the technical aspects: lighting, sound, PowerPoint, Films for each stall.
The closing event, the Company’s Awards ceremony, also required us to manage the movement of large groups so the ceremony could progress safely. We created a cue script to facilitate the integration of awards announcements with PowerPoint, Lights Sound, Film Clips and Music.