Case studies

Conference

UCCF Marquee

The UCCF marquee at Word Alive was delivered in collaboration with OFilms. A flexible space for seminars, break outs, meetings and social events

Discuss your event
A pair of actors sing the finale of a duet

“ Mark was fantastic to work with on our UCCF marquee at Word Alive over several years. His excellent technical skills and genuine willingness to collaborate creatively helped us achieve exactly the right atmosphere we were aiming for.

Thanks to his sound, set up and lighting, our marquee became a vibrant and engaging space for students, supporters and staff. It played a key role in helping us show meaningful hospitality. You could see people’s positive reactions as soon as they stepped through the doors. People felt warmly welcomed and at ease in the space. ”

Rachel Ward UCCF
Evening meeting with purple lighting, chrome chairs and floating cubes
A video switcher, laptop and sound mixer. Red and purple lighting with white star patterns on the stage.
Marquee in the daytime with students sat around tables
A presenter stands in front of an orange backdrop
A sound engineer at work with a man with a guitar on stage and purple lighting
Stage pre-set with cyan and purple lighting
A social event with people stood and sat at tables with mauve lighting
Getting ready for an event, stacks of chairs and a ladder in the foreground, stage lights being tested in the background
A seminar in the daytime, a speaker is on stage and an audience is listening. The room is lit in red and orange.
Sound, lighting and video control equipment. UCCF logo shown on the technical screen.
Three tables with red and white checked table cloths, anglepoise lamps on the tables and vintage lamps hung above
A stack of sound equipment and cables
A presenter gives a talk in a darkly lit room with stage lighting
A close up of pink and purple festoon lights

The Event

Word Alive was a major evangelical church conference which hosted around 4000 guests every year in north Wales. I got involved in 2010 initially as a volunteer on the media recording and editing team.

Word Alive was supported by UCCF and the student track within Word Alive represented one of the largest evangelical student conferences in Europe. In 2016 UCCF decided to host a dedicated marquee to be used for some of the student seminars, to brief the substantial UCCF team, to be open for student revision and break-out space and to host evening meetings with UCCF staff, alumni and supporters.

The Design

I worked with the lead supplier OFilms to design a space that would be comfortable and inviting as well as flexible for the varied programme it hosted throughout the week. The marquee was white lined which we embraced, enhancing it with white drape and a custom-made soft set of white hanging cubes that would be bright and airy during the day and take lighting well to provide a rich colour palette in the evenings.

UCCF also wanted to create a distinct Revision Zone space within the marquee, we helped to make it an attractive area with a set design that included retro anglepoise and hanging lamps, a statement banner sign and checked table cloths. It also had to be practical with plenty of seating in a relatively small space and with charging sockets for phones and laptops.

In Operation

The marquee was busy, open from 7:30am until 11:00pm for four days. I worked alongside the Word Alive volunteer tech team to ensure every session was properly catered for. We provided background music for open times, handheld mics for briefings, headsets and PowerPoint for seminars and full sound, lighting and video for some of the more corporate style evening sessions. The small UCCF event team obviously had a lot to do and it was important the tech ‘just worked’ without them having to worry about it.

UCCF and OFilms were great partners on this event over a number of years and it was a pleasure to be able to serve so many students and the workers who went on to serve so many more across the UK and internationally.

Need a hand with the technical side?

Tell me about your event, the venue and what you’re hoping to do and I’ll see if I can help.

Get in touch