The venue chosen was the Messe Congress Halls in Dusseldorf where six halls were booked to cover the main events, the Gala dinner and an exhibition centre. Hall 9 was the main convention site and covered 11,000sq.m. The set was 65m wide and contained two 20ft x 15ft screens. The principal feature of the conference was to reward delegates for sales throughout the year and this entailed up to 500 people on stage at one time. Day two of the conference featured two performances by international group Barrage, and culminated with the award for Distributor of the Year. Day Three was dedicated to the World event and the featured 40 members of the Dusseldorf Symphony Orchestra and a chorus of 10 singers. The total crew tally was 60 headed up by technical director Andy Peat, event producer Steve Penticost of Lighthouse, head of lighting Pete Edwards, head of sound Derrick Zieba, head of vision Paul Volker and stage manager Stephen Richter.
Lighting was supplied by Essential with rigging holding over 300 lamps, including one of their first uses of MAC 2000s. Sound was from TP Sound and VT, live camera feed and projection supplied by Blitz. All software elements were handled by Lighthouse. Stage construction was carried out by German company Trend Event, who additionally supplied all local crew and dealt with all local fire and safety regulations. Other staging elements were supplied by Blackfriars from the UK including 10 x 5.5m pillars and 4 x 8m long banners designed in Photoshop by Lighthouse.
