The Women In Leadership Summit & Awards celebrates women leading across agriculture, conservation, education, entrepreneurship, media, technology, health and sport. Our brief was to design a space that did justice to that: serious enough for a summit, warm enough for a celebration, and always about the women being honoured.

Two events in one room

A summit and an awards night ask different things of the same space. By day, the hall needed to work for panels and conversations, with clear sightlines and a stage that framed speakers without overwhelming them. By night, it had to become a gala.

We designed the stage so it could do both. The same backdrop and structure carried through the day, and the changeover came from light, florals and table styling, so the transformation was fast and the room never looked half finished.

A stage built for the moment

Awards nights are made of short moments: a name is read, a woman walks up and the room stands. We designed the stage around those moments, with lighting that followed each honouree and a backdrop that looked right in every photo taken of her.

Behind the scenes

We worked to the organisers' run-of-show, installing ahead of the first session and resetting between the summit and the awards without holding up the programme. When the night ended, our crew struck the set and cleared the hall.