2 0 22 FI D I C ONFER ENCE BEHIND THE SCENES Delegates may not have even been aware of them, but behind the scenes of every conference is a team of highly experienced individuals, including event organisers, photographers, and audiovisual staff. These invaluable partners worked tirelessly throughout to ensure the events, sessions and everything else besides, ran beautifully and that the conferences most important sights and sounds were well documented. Two of FIDIs longest-serving contractors share their experiences of Cannes and previous conferences. PETTA NAYLOR OF CONFERENCE ORGANISER START2FINISH EVENTS We have worked with FIDI for many years. My first FIDI conference was in Lisbon in 2001. Over the years, Start2Finish Events has gradually taken on more and more responsibility, culminating in us having responsibility for the logistics of the entire conference in Cannes 2022. This covers a multitude of tasks, from liaison with the Board, FIDI staff, hotel, DMC, and other contractors and suppliers to ensure that everyone is pulling together to deliver a first-class event. Cannes was always going to be special. It was the first time since the start of the pandemic that most of us could get together and meet face to face again. The team was desperately excited to be dealing with a live faceto-face event again. From day one on site, it was apparent from the Board, staff and other contractors arriving that there was a great sense of community with everyone pulling together to make this a very special conference. Cannes couldnt have been a better venue; iconic, sophisticated and with much to offer by way of restaurants, night-life and interesting things to do. It was really good to see that the attendees were as ready to resume face-to-face contact as we were even if the hotel was a little off the pace. Working on the FIDI Conference is a highlight for us, it provides a great variety of work in nice locations with nice people. This one was full on with huge opportunities for networking, interesting speakers and a great social programme. My personal highlight was the Tour4All (once we had managed to dock!) the ptanque competition was a riot, meeting new people, forming teams, with a ros in hand and trying to learn to play ptanque. There are always plates to keep spinning and random incidents to manage but as professionals we remain discreet. After every conference, there is an exhaustive debrief to ensure improvement next time around. Every year we aim for the conference to be better in every respect. Cannes is my favourite conference so far but with future trips planned to top destinations currently under consideration for 2023 and 2024 this title may well not be forever. MICHAEL VERMAAK OF MISSING LINK CONFERENCE COMPANY I have worked on the FIDI conference for 19 years. My role has changed from AV technician to production manager, responsible for all AV production across the event. Working behind the scenes at a FIDI conference can be hectic and challenging but its ultimately a rewarding experience. It helps that we have a team of people who know and trust each other. There are so many different skills needed to help produce an event like this and the team we have in place right now is probably the strongest weve had. 54 FF306 June-August 22 pp44-59 Conference.indd 54 Petta Naylor Michael Vermaak We arrived at the hotel a few days before most delegates, and it was a huge relief seeing the team together and knowing we were all there ready to go. As FIDI Affiliates started to arrive over the next few days, it was amazing to see people for the first time in nearly three years. Watching people spot someone in the crowd and their smiles made for a fantastic atmosphere throughout the week. My team worked hard to transform the room for the gala dinner and make that evening feel completely different from the business sessions and I think the difference was huge. When the DJ started, and the dance floor filled with people I knew we had done all we could to make people remember it for years to come. The evening sits up there with the legendary Geneva party! The joy of working on live events is that they always bring challenges and this was definitely one of the more challenging events I have worked on. The hotel was undergoing a lot of building work and working around that to produce a seamless event was always going to be hard. I hope that we were able to reduce the impact on the delegate experience. Its always so hard to pick a favourite event when you put so much effort into each one. I think Geneva will always be one of my favourites as that was where I took over as production manager. But I have fond memories of all of them and this year in Cannes will always stick with me as this was the one where the FIDI family was reunited. WW W. F I D I FOC U S . OR G 07/06/2022 10:18