Global Education Skills and Forum, an initiative by Sunny Varkey of the Varkey Foundation, has taken place annually across The Atlantis Hotel since 2012 with Showtech devising the sound, audio-visuals and lighting solutions for all areas during the event. This year too, the prestigious event was held at The Atlantis Hotel under the patronage of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.
There were multiple setups planned and designed simultaneously for this event by Showtech. The setup included the Main Plenary Conference at the Atlantis ballroom also encompassing the entrance, terrace area and a pre-function area; meetings and workshop setup at Spice and Silk ballroom, a panel discussion at Ossiano restaurant, the Asateer tent which was divided into 5 breakout rooms i.e., Policy Pitch, Debate Chamber, Master Classroom, Ed Talk and Mentor Majlis, Future Zone and a pre-function area; the magical enchanting recreation of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ setup at the poolside, the first day's after party hosted by the Italian Consulate at Nasimi Beach and finally the GTP Gala Dinner with a walkway and fan zone at the Atlantis Deck.
The event required a large variety of equipment from the Showtech inventory all around the venue. For the audio aspect, Showtech opted to use its JBL VTX and Vertec system powered by the Crown amplifiers with mixers DiGiCo and SoundCraft. Showtech made sure to achieve the independent volume control plus the proper equalisation to have an even sound for both the indoor and outdoor setups.
As for the A/V equipment, Showtech integrated a large stock of LED screens inclusive of P3 panels spanning 200 sq-m, P5 panels spanning 50 sq-m and P6 panels spanning 30 sq-m. There was also a projection mapping done as the stage backdrop in the main ballroom using 4 21k and 2 31k Panasonic Projectors. For the whole setup, 65 plasmas of various sizes were also deployed. Away from the A/V side, the lighting rig was mainly made up from ClayPaky, Philip Selecon and Robe lights. The system was controlled by Avolite and GrandMA lighting desk.
Owing to the magnitude of the production, there were many challenging situations while setting up the event, especially, the outdoor setup. Severe winds were forecasted and eventually led to bringing down the LED Screens during GTP Gala Dinner set up. However, the Showtech team worked on a wind management plan and took every safety precautions possible before putting the LED Screens back up. Despite all the challenging situations, Showtech made sure the event went smoothly, highlighting the fact that we can provide an entire technical setup for large scale events with highest safety standards and meticulous planning.
The event was once again hailed a success with more than 1600 delegates in attendance. The various panel discussions had guests such as two Chibok girls who were abducted by Boko Haram, spoke about their tragic experience. Another segment of the show comprised of the first batch of refugee athletes who participated at the Rio Olympics under the Olympic flag spoke about how they triumphed in spite of the refugee crisis.
Amongst the international high-profile delegates and speakers that participated in this event we had Thomas Friedman, New York Times columnist, Julia Gillard, former Prime Minister of Australia, Sadhguru, the renowned Yogi and humanist and a bestselling author and Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, Andreas Schleicher, Director for the Directorate of Education and Skills, OECD; Tariq Al Gurg, CEO of Dubai Cares; and Jim Ryan, 11th Dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Andrea Bocelli, an Italian classical crossover tenor, recording artist, and singer-songwriter, presented an evening of soaring arias as the welcoming performance of the Global Teacher Prize Ceremony. Adventurer, survivalist and TV presenter Bear Grylls arrived in style by jumping out of a helicopter in order to bring the coveted Global Teacher Prize Trophy to the ceremony. The winner of The Global Teacher Prize 2017 was dramatically announced by French Astronaut Thomas Pasquet via a video message from the International Space Station. His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum presented the coveted award to the winner, Maggie MacDonnell, a school teacher from a small Inuit community from remote Canada.
The Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau offered his congratulations in a video message which was broadcasted at the event. The Prime Minister of Italy Paolo Gentiloni, former Prime Minister of Kenya Raila Odinga and Prince Harry paid tribute to the work of teachers around the world in a video message which was also broadcasted during the event.