Make the Future London was a four day festival of ideas and innovation, held at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park last month. It featured various activations such as a penalty shoot-out hosted by football legend Pele, a performance by Pixie Lott, celebrity appearances and the main attraction; Shell Eco-marathon which saw over 100 teams from across Europe battle it out to see who had designed and built the most fuel efficient vehicle.
The scale of the festival was massive, especially for me as a fresh faced Assistant Account Executive, embarking on my first major event. 30,000 people were welcomed through the doors over the four days and we hosted over 170 media from across Europe.
Months of preparation and multiple activations preceded the festival, so it was really exciting to see everything come together, in real life as opposed to artist impressions maps and drawings of the site.
My role was really varied over the weekend, my favourite part probably being working with Kimi Raikkonen and the exclusive media partner for the activation, Car Throttle. It was amazing for someone as junior as myself to be given the opportunity to work closely on such a fun activity, creating exciting content with a celebrity like Kimi Raikkonen, I loved it. One of my roles for the day was to be Car Throttle’s point of contact as they had the exclusive interview and driving experience with Kimi. The guys were great to work with which made my life a lot easier as the day went on with an ever evolving schedule. I enjoy working with media, because if nothing else, it’s great to build up your own little network of familiar faces that you can call on when working on your next exciting campaign.
The day definitely wasn’t without its challenges, including the car breaking down mid Kimi/CarThrottle interview, but it was a great first onsite experience. I just love the fast paced, ‘fluid’ environment of events. It’s really rewarding when you see all the work you do in the office on documents and media outreach finally come to life.
Make the Future London was such a memorable experience from the early planning stages, to the final day of the event, and a real insight into the world of PR for someone who was brand new to it. It’s only made me more excited to see what I can get stuck in to next.