Soho Green Rooms Live Event Symposium Set For July

Ammonite Studios has announced Soho Green Rooms, a brand-new three-day festival, which will bring together key players and creatives in the theatre and live event industries to explore the future of live entertainment. From 16 - 18 July at the Boulevard Theatre in London's Soho, Soho Green Rooms will present three individual spaces for keynotes, panel discussions, product demonstrations, audience Q&A and networking. Tickets are on sale now and available here. 

The all-new Soho Green Rooms festival will offer design studios, art and creative directors, producers, lighting set and sound designers, general managers, production and stage managers, CAD/Pre-Vis experts, technical directors and others the opportunity to listen to and debate current concerns and trends in the world of theatre and live entertainment. Providing an in-depth look into the multifaceted world of live production, Soho Green Rooms will explore many of the big questions surrounding the industry's future including the evolution of production over the last twenty years, the rise of pre-visualisation technologies,   attracting new technical talent and keeping our audiences ‘wowed' into the future.

Soho Green Rooms is excited to announce the first wave of speakers for the 2024 conference. Speakers include Ryan Amstad, Head of New Production Development at Pophouse; Mark Dakin, UK Principal at TAIT, the global creative engineering group for live entertainment, Dan Shipton, Creative Director at global creative studio Blackskull, international production designer and creative director Chiara Stephenson, and more. 

Founded in 2018 by co-founders and creative directors Jon Lyle and Rob Casey, Ammonite is a leading creative studio renowned for designing experiences across theatre, live events, and installations. Merging video and lighting expertise, Ammonite has been responsible for creating some of the most innovative and successful West End and Broadway shows in history, including the award-winning Harry Potter and The Cursed Child, Les Misérables and most recently the theatre adaptation of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Rob Casey, Co-Founder at Ammonite, said: “We are so incredibly excited to be hosting a 3-day event this year. The industry is unanimous in its view that the big questions about our future should be debated and shared with as many people as possible. We are delighted to be able to champion the platform for these conversations to happen. 

FIRST WAVE OF KEY THEMES ANNOUNCED 

Pre-visualising the Future -. LiDAR laser scanning is a fast, cost-effective method of capturing a 3D digital representation of a space. Ammonite Studios will discuss the benefits of this as a conduit for drafting for collaboration, the use of Digital Twin models, VR for planning live production and the ever-growing dependence on Pre-Visualisation software as a definitive production planning protocol.

Maintaining the ‘Wow' Factor – Looking at the evolution of production over the last 20 years, we ask, ‘How do we keep our audiences ‘Wowed'?  Since the pandemic, innovative theatre and event design has extended the frontiers of the ‘Wow' factor to an ever-higher bar. From Abba Voyage to Dorian Gray - what's next, and how do we ensure audiences continue to be engaged, thrilled and surprised? 

Immersive Stages and Cine-Theatre—We'll ask, where will our next generation of hyper-media-capable technical crews emerge from? We'll look at how the industry must look beyond the Drama School model and reach out to a new generation of talent from a host of different vocational enterprises.

Associated Talent and Paths to the Future - The path to working as an Associate with an established commercial lighting, sound, video or set- designer is nebulous, to say the least. Given diversity is negligible across the category of ‘Designer' in all production disciplines, how do we ensure that new faces, voices and experiences are allowed to emerge into these important junior roles and, therefore, become the future senior faces of our industry's future?

FIRST GUEST SPEAKERS ANNOUNCED 

Phoebe Currie is the Sustainability and Social Values Manager at production company SLX. Phoebe combines her in-depth knowledge of events with her passion for sustainability, helping organisations and productions embed sustainability and social value strategies into the fabric of their operations. 

Mark Dakin is the UK Principal at TAIT. Building on over 45 years of professional theatre experience, his role at TAIT maintains existing partnerships and builds new ones with artists, producers, and organisations to create culture-defining experiences through continuous innovation. 

Chiara Stephenson is an International Stage and Costume designer who works in theatre, ballet, and live music performances. Recent clients include the Barbican, Bjork, The Design Museum London, and The Abbey Theatre Dublin. Chiara was associated with Es Devlin between 2010 and 2017 and trained under Christopher Oram and Michael Grandage between 2008 and 2010.

Gareth Hulance is the founder of Cue 2 Cue, the leading global supplier of world-class show teams and has over 20 years of experience working as an international show caller, production stage manager and show director. 

Piers Shepperd is a Director at Wonder Works, an international production practice that designs and delivers extraordinary live experiences all over the world. Over the past 3 decades, Piers' career has spanned design, production management, audio, lighting, automation and the development of cutting-edge manufacturing. He has been involved in over twelve Olympic Ceremonies as well as some of the biggest music shows of the world's biggest artists. 

Ryan Metcalfe is the founder and CEO of Preevue, a global leader in laser scanning and digital twins for the Creative Industries. Preevue works with leading performing arts companies to create full venue digital twins, with clients including the Royal Opera House, The Royal Shakespeare Company, The National Theatre and more. 

Tom White is the Senior Solutions Specialist at Design & BIM software developer Vectorworks. Tom was recently named Deputy Chief Electrician and EOS programmer at Bath Theatre Royal. Tom's Vectorworks drafting has included projects for St Petersburg Ballet Theatre, Welsh National Opera and The National Theatre of Great Britain among others.  Tom has also worked as a lighting designer.

Ryan Amstad is the Head of New Production Development for Pophouse Entertainment, overseeing the creation of its live entertainment portfolio. Pophouse is the main investor and co-producer of the ground-breaking ABBA Voyage. Ryan has an extensive background as a Creative Producer in the music, live entertainment, and location-based entertainment space. He has worked on live shows with a range of artists, from Britney Spears to KISS. 

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