Creative UK (formerly Creative England and Creative Industries Federation) champions the UK’s creative industries and runs Creative Coalition, a flagship multi day festival bringing together hundreds of speakers and thousands of attendees from across the country.
The challenge
When the pandemic hit, Creative UK needed to turn its in person festival into a high quality online experience at scale. The first virtual year was delivered in house at speed, but they wanted a more reliable, polished setup that could cope with complex programming, big name speakers and large audiences.
They asked Floating Harbour to take on full virtual event production for Creative Coalition across multiple editions.
What we did
We became Creative UK’s end to end production partner for the festival, delivering:
- Virtual studio and live control
Design and build of a virtual studio, a vMix live production pipeline and the full technical run of show. Across the first festival we brought around 80 remote guests through the studio in two intensive days, across multiple strands and sessions. - Branded graphics and online interface
Creation of the full graphics package, including titles, lower thirds, stings and overlays, giving the online platform a clear, consistent festival identity that tied together the different stages and themes. - Remote guests and content
Technical onboarding and live management of high profile speakers and performers, plus VT packages to introduce sessions and showcase creative projects and initiatives from across the UK.
Hybrid evolution and impact
As restrictions eased, Creative Coalition evolved into a hybrid event. We relocated core production to Creative UK’s London office, running a pop up control room that linked in person contributors with a nationwide online audience, while still supporting a strong digital main stage.
Our work helped Creative UK turn an emergency pandemic pivot into a repeatable virtual and hybrid festival model for one of the UK’s key creative industry gatherings, with a reliable technical backbone and production values that matched the ambition of the programme.
See our Live Production page for more examples of our live work. Or visit our kit hire pages if you are looking to hire live streaming equipment.