Claypaky fixtures support Nu Skin in Salt Lake City
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Nu Skin turned to Atlanta based Executive Visions (EVI) to create a tailored experience for distributors and guests from around the world.
For 2017, EVI president & CEO Michael Marto had something very special in mind. “Nu Skin is an especially rewarding company to work with,” says Marto. “We wanted to weave an experience unlike any other, that broke new ground for a customised corporate event, and told the whole Nu Skin story.”
He adds: “We wanted to use a massive social program to attract young people to the company as part of a strategy for growth for Nu Skin. We didn’t have Maroon 5 and Hans Zimmer just because they are massive global talents, but also because they speak especially clearly to a millennial audience through the international languages of music, and movies.”
John Featherstone, principal at lighting and visual design firm Lightswitch picks up: “Several years ago Michael ‘dared me’ to dream of a bespoke corporate experience that featured musical genius Hans Zimmer, and since then it has been a shared goal of ours. Michael does nothing by half measures, so he wrapped this exclusive concert experience in a targeted message of excellence and virtuosity, and bookended the audience experience with a massive opening fundraiser for Nu Skins charity Force for Good, featuring Maroon V. Then for good measure, he arranged for the whole thing to be webcast around the globe to millions of people - that is not your everyday corporate show!”
Donny LoDico, now with Video West and Featherstone have teamed on the past four of the biannual Nu Skin events, which contain elements of big awards shows and have large entertainment components.
Nu Skin global LIVE! began with a Wednesday night gala fundraiser and silent auction on the floor of the arena. Later that night the arena filled for a special concert by Maroon 5.
Thursday featured business sessions capped by a Nu Skin’s Got Talent show starring contestants selected from around the world. Friday wrapped up the business sessions and concluded with company awards and a concert headlined by composer Hans Zimmer and his band backed by the Salt Lake City Symphony orchestra and members of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
With such a diverse array of activities and needs across three days of the event Featherstone was challenged to design a flexible and versatile lighting rig. “We designed a core rig, which worked well for all functions and included some feature pieces,” says Featherstone. “We used close to 1,000 moving lights.”
The support provided to Featherstone by Video West represented a recent significant capital investment by the audio, video and lighting equipment vendor.
The Nu Skin event marked Featherstone’s first use of Claypaky Scenius Unico fixtures. He mounted 50 on truss hoping to “get comfortable with them and give them a good test drive,” he says.
“One of the hallmarks of Claypaky lighting,” says Featherstone, “is that it’s organic: the fixtures have beautiful peak fields,” an attribute that served him well using Scenius Unicos for Nu Skin. “We did a series of kabuki drops to define the arena floor for the fundraising dinner,” he explains. “Then we wanted to light the audience for the Maroon 5 concert.” Unicos also lit the audience for the business sessions and for the Hans Zimmer concert. Featherstone also used 28 Mythos2 on trusses above the stage.
Francesco Romagnoli, Claypaky area manager for North and Latin America, added, “This was a very impressive show and we were proud that our fixtures were able to deliver everything they needed.”
(Jim Evans)
