On April 2nd 2009 the leaders of the 20 most powerful countries in the world, including Barack Obama on his first international visit since taking office, gathered in London to address the global financial crisis.In just 5-weeks of pre-production and 4-days on site, Production Company WRG had the responsibility of transforming the blank canvas that London’s ExCel centre provides into a multi functional environment for the Summit to take place.
Key spaces included the Plenary Meeting Room, Lounge and Dining Areas for the summit’s main business, a press area that included a 700-seat Press Briefing Theatre and six smaller theatres, and working environments for country delegations and the International Media Centre. The key spaces were all connected by a 100m long corridor that acted as a central artery for the event flow and movement.
Working alongside WRG, Essential Lighting designed, provided and installed the lighting for all internal and external elements of the Summit Environment.
Essential asked freelance lighting designer Gary Collins to collaborate with in-house lighting designers Neil Harvey and Chris Farkouh, with each designer focusing on specific areas of specialism.
Lighting to all the spaces was carefully considered to manage a balance between providing the functional lighting requirements for the individual spaces, the aesthetic requirements for International Media Broadcast and the requirement to provide a solution that supported the event’s strict
Environmental and Sustainability Regulation.
The London Summit was unanimously agreed to be a success, and a significant step towards controlling the impact of the economic downturn on the countries involved.
'This will be a turning point in our pursuit of global economic recovery. By any measure the London Summit is historic. It is historic because of the size and scope of the challenge that we face and because of the timeliness of our response. We owe it to our citizens to act now. Today the world leaders have responded with unprecedented effort.’
US President Barack Obama