Biotechnology Innovation Organization Reception

P R E F A C E

Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) is the world’s largest trade association in representing biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state biotechnology centers, and related organizations across the United States and in more than 30 other nations.

In 2019, BIO held their annual conference in Philadelphia and selected Synergetic to design an audio, lighting, and video experience for their 3,000 person, pop-up cocktail reception on a downtown street.

This event was only going to be for 3 hours and it was the opening party after the attendees had been at the conference for the entire day.  

T H E   C H A L L E N G E S

The planning for this event started almost one year prior to the event, and several challenges presented themselves:

• First and foremost was figuring out how we could set up staging, trussing, lighting, and video on a street that was not going to be shut down until mid-morning for an event that had doors opening at 5pm.
• Finding ways to be efficient with our management of trucking, technicians, rigging, power, cases, and time was key.
• Assuring the customer that our design was going to be creative and unique. This was challenging because previous vendors had promised the same thing and she was very underwhelmed.
• A portion of the event was going to be when the sun was still up, so choosing a design that would allow the guests to “see” something.
• Staying within budget

T H E   S O L U T I O N

We knew we needed to stay in constant communication with our direct contact, making sure  every detail we were working on was being approved by her. So needless to say, lots of CADs and revisions to CADs were the best way to keep everyone on the same page. Some of the trussing we had to set up came down to the inch.

Our design consisted of:

• (2) 10×20 truss boxes that would be the central locations for the bars and be the position for our (20) Elation ACL 360 Matrix Fixtures. These fixtures gave the guests the eye candy that we had to achieve given that there was sunlight for most of the party.
• Outlining the truss bars with Astera AX1 tubes. We used these tubes on a project before this and really fell in love with them.
• Seven (7) individual truss sticks down each side of the street for a total of (14) each containing an Elation DaVinci on top and (2) Martin Mac Aura’s side-hung.
• Multi-level band stage, including a 14×8 upstage outdoor rated video wall, a JBL VRX line array sound system, and a discrete lighting package.

The entire lighting rig was networked and programmed with a Grand MA 2. The Elation ACL 306’s were pixel-mapped with the Astera tubes to create continuity with the colors. 

We had a 40-member crew which comprised of 3 project managers, 4 department leads, and 6 specialists, as well as members of the IATSE Local stagehands union. Load-in started at 7:00 AM and we were show ready by 4:00 PM. Strike started at 9 PM and the last truck was loaded by 2 AM.

T H E   R E S U L T

Our client was thrilled within 30 minutes of guests walking into the space. There was consistent praise to everyone on our team about how great everything looked. She especially loved the attention to the visuals that she thought gave the high-tech feel to a BIO-tech party.

The attendees were able to enjoy entertainment, cocktails, and networking in an environment which was saturated by color, sound, and visuals without being overwhelmed by the technology.

We would like to thank the team at All About Events for the recommending us to the client. Click HERE for their information.