With the COVID-19 pandemic almost behind us (hopefully), everyone in the industry is eager to get back into ballrooms, tents, exhibition halls and stadiums. However, there are still virtual events happening and the number of hybrid events is increasing. So, what does the post-pandemic event world look like? 3 Monkeys has supported a series of events throughout their evolution from in-person to virtual and then onwards to hybrid, serving a diverse client base in both the Middle East and the US. The transition from in-person to virtual was painful for many event professionals and dominated by attempts to apply everything…
Author: Peter Iantorno
Robe is rejuvenating theatre in South Africa with an unmissable opportunity to inspire lighting designers and technicians, young and old. Leading the LED theatre lighting innovation, join DWR Distribution for the Robe Theatre Workshop – a world tour, presented by renowned UK theatre designer Andy Webb. Andy will be joined by Robe Theatre Products Manager, Dave Whitehouse, who is no stranger to South Africa, and Jordan Tinniswood, a lighting designer and programmer based in the UK. The workshop will be hosted at the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town on 1 August 2022 and at the UJ Arts Centre Theatre in…
US premium loudspeaker manufacturer 1 SOUND has expanded its international presence with two key appointments. Leonardo Dani and Leonardo D’Andrea have both joined the company as Sales Executives focusing on Europe, Middle East, and Africa. 1 SOUND was founded in 2019 by designer Lou Mannarino and has spent the past three years growing its business in the US pro-audio market and developing its catalogue of innovative products. Dani and D’Andrea will work together in developing 1 SOUND’s global network of distributors as well as handling 1 SOUND sales for EMEA, taking the US brand international. Leonardo Dani has 15 years…
From the outside looking in, many would assume that Saudi Arabia’s history of public entertainment events is a relatively short one, with the country’s General Entertainment Authority only established in 2016. However, behind closed doors, the scene has been thriving for far longer than that, with a youthful generation of creatives doing everything in their power to express their passion for music for the best part of two decades. Talal Albahiti is very much part of that generation, and when the veil was lifted and live events were suddenly permitted in the country, he and the founders of MDLBEAST leapt…
The TPMEA Awards sponsored by Even2 made a triumphant return on 19 May, as over 400 people gathered at Dubai’s Hard Rock Cafe Festival City. With over 900 people nominated across all categories, and more than 4,000 votes collected in total, the industry turned out in force to celebrate the achievements of the best and brightest in the sector during the past year. Expertly hosted by Flo Akinbiyi, the evening featured entertainment from Greg Pearson and Chady courtesy of Sennheiser, with DJ Red Wyne providing the soundtrack for the after-party celebrations. A total of 22 awards were given out on…
It’s been a long break from tradeshows, but hot on the heels of Prolight + Sound in Frankfurt and ISE in Barcelona, the Middle East got in on the act with SLS Expo taking place at the Riyadh International Convention & Exhibition Centre from 16-18 May. TPMEA was on site and witnessed a buzzing tradeshow floor filled with a mixture of old industry friends and new contacts from the burgeoning Saudi Arabian market. The show was also punctuated with interesting insights from the SLS Summit, which included talks from the likes of Area Four Industries Middle East’s Paul Hadfield, the…
Following the inaugural Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in 2021, Formula One returned to the Kingdom’s Jeddah Corniche Circuit in March for the second year running, bringing with it another stellar line-up of artists to wow crowds at the traditional After-Race Concerts. While last year’s shows featured the likes of Justin Bieber and David Guetta, the 2022 edition stepped proceeding up a notch, with a packed weekend of concerts from Mohamed Ramadan, Wiz Khalifa, and DJ Axwell, as well as Chris Brown, Black Eyed Peas, and R3hab. Curated once again by MDLBEAST Presents, MDLBEAST’s arm for talent booking and event production,…
Ever since its inaugural race in 1996, Dubai World Cup has been a mainstay on the emirate’s live events calendar. For many years, the ‘world’s richest horse race’ has been accompanied by an after-race concert, with the likes of Seal, Jennifer Lopez, Kylie Minogue, Janet Jackson, Sia and Gwen Stefani among the A-list acts to appear at the famous Meydan Racecourse venue. Unbeknownst to many concertgoers at the time, Gwen Stefani’s 2019 show was the last time the event included a concert, with subsequent Dubai World Cups favouring a firework display before sending punters on their way to party elsewhere…
The African music sector has not had an easy ride of it in recent years, with the COVID-19 pandemic having a particularly devastating effect on the industry. However, there is still plenty of hope for the future of the sector, thanks to schemes such as Music in Africa Gender@Work. A training programme aimed at upskilling and increasing the participation of female professionals in the industry, which culminates in the participants working on the annual ACCESS festival, the initiative provides a much-needed way into the industry for talented and driven women throughout the African continent. For its latest edition, the programme…
What position is the company in compared to where it was before the COVID-19 pandemic? We’re back up to around 75% of the team we had before, but we’re matching our pre-COVID-19 levels of revenue. How? Because we’ve organised. We took the opportunity to look at how our technical structure was as a whole and we’re now working in a much more joined-up way – not just here in the Middle East but across the entire global network. Here in Dubai, we’ve still got the two sides of the business – venues and staging services – but we work in…
DWR Distribution hosted an AV Open Day on 23 March, held at the company’s offices in Johannesburg, where visitors experienced technical solutions for the AV and corporate markets from brands including tvONE, Magenta, Green Hippo, Visual Productions, Sharp/NEC, Absen, Audix, Magnimage and Quest. “The purpose of the AV Open Day was to raise awareness regarding DWR Distribution’s offerings when it comes to AV,” said Dylan Jones of DWR, who orchestrated the event. “We wanted to attract new and current clients to come to our offices and catch up, while also showing them our products in action across the board, from…
For many of the countries and companies represented at Dubai’s Expo 2020, the top priority was a pavilion that told a story, immersing visitors in a unique cultural experience. It’s no surprise, then, that the technology of visual storytelling technology company, disguise powers a multitude of these pavilions – including, but not limited to, the UK, Belgian, Hungarian, USA, DP World, ENOC, and Mastercard pavilions. A prime example of disguise’s technology in action comes from the Hungary pavilion. Inspired by the country’s natural thermal waters, two disguise vx 4 media servers together with disguise’s projector calibration system, OmniCal, powered 12…
