Heineken National Distributor's Conference

In an effort to move away from the traditional theater setting, Heineken decided to try something new for the their National Distributer’s Conference at the Dallas Convention Center. This was an opportunity to show their audience of 1,500 distributors and employees an entirely new and immersive environment.

As the designer responsible for lighting the entire multi-day, media-based show, we incorporated a “blackbox” environment comprised of 270-degrees of LED screens surrounding the audience in always-changing branding. With hundreds of brands in their portfolio to present, this design allowed Heineken to change the environment with the push of a button. The stage was long and narrow, encouraging presenters to walk around and be part of the environment, rather than standing in one spot. Properly lighting a moving presenter for camera in this environment presented several challenges: how could we effectively light the presenter or presenters for a wraparound audience and not wash out the LED branding not only around the audience, but was also on the floor of the stage? We addressed this by using a new technology called “Follow Me” which utilized automated fixtures on the lighting rig to follow the presenter wherever they walked with minimal light and a clean look.

Flexibility and cost control were inherent to this project, because Heineken owns so many different brands. Because of our repeated work with Heineken, we know their brands well and were able to support each one throughout the project.