My name is Neil Scrivener.
I've worked in the live events industry for around 17 years. I am a highly experienced global Project Director, Technical Director and Production Manager. I have worked both on pitching for live events as well as delivering live events.
I have been fortunate enough to have worked on a large variety of projects spanning the Corporate, Private, Experiential Marketing, Exhibition, Touring Concert, Television and Film worlds.
Having cut my teeth in event Lighting (and setting up/owning/selling a successful AV rental business), I moved into Technical Production Management, as well as Site Management. As my experiences broadened, I was afforded more opportunities as a Technical Director and more recently a Project Director.
I have also worked within large global events agencies on a contracted basis working on best practice, business strategy and processes.
Since I began my career in around 2003, I have been lucky enough to travel the world with my work. I can count 41 States in America, Dubai, Russia, Saudi, Doha, Nigeria and of course Europe among some of the fantastic places I have in worked over the years.
I have worked on pitches large and small for a number of years - ranging from regional to international projects. I've worked on pitches for Corporations, the GLA (Greater London Authority), the British Government and the GEA (General Entertainment Authority, Saudi Arabia). I have worked on several projects which have gone from pitch to award, and then delivered the project itself.
A few examples of some of the pitches I've been involved with are as below:
I have worked on a huge range of projects from £100K to $20M. I love to work and no job is too small for me! I also am flexible as to whether I work as a Project Director, Technical Director, Production Manager - or somewhere inbetween. Uniquely, I work between Client, Agency and Supplier 'sides', which I hope allows me to see things more roundly.
On many of the projects I have worked on, there has often been complex stakeholder liason management required to deliver the project. I've worked on events in Automotive, Tech, Pharma, Sport, Beverage and Retail to name a few! Since 2007 I have been security checked to work for the British Royal family, and have delivered private events for the Queen and Prince Charles.
The largest project I've worked on to date is as a Project Director on Saudi National Day where I owned a budget of around $20M and was resposbible for all aspects of delivering the project accross 3 cities.
I've also worked at some of the largest trade shows and conventions in the word including CES in Las Vegas, GDC in San Francisco, MWC in Barcelona, and DRUPA in Dusseldorf.
My skills in project delivery can be summerised as:
As well as delivering projects, I have consulted for a number of events agencies on best practice, process and operations. I've done this on a contract, 'permalance' and adhoc day basis for a number of agencies and events organisers.
Within these roles I have worked to achieve the following;
I am happy to combine these services along side delivering projects, or purely in a consultancy role.
My core competencies in this are can be summarised as:
My direct experience can be summarised as:
My name is Neil Scrivener.
I've been around in the live events events industry for around 17 years. I am a highly experienced global Project Director, Technical Director and Production Manager.
I have been fortunate enough to have worked on a large variety of projects spanning the Corporate, Private, Experimential Marketing, Exhibition, Touring Concert, Television and Film worlds.
A huge number of the projects I've worked on (typically the most complex with the biggest budgets) have been subject to NDA's, meaning that I am not able to share them as part of my portfolio. I'm also extremely bad at getting photos of the projects I am allowed to share!
The projects I think I can add to my portfolio (in no particular order) are:
My name is Neil Scrivener.
I've been around in the live events events industry for around 17 years. I am a highly experienced global Project Director, Technical Director and Production Manager.
I have been fortunate enough to have worked on a large variety of projects spanning the Corporate, Private, Experimential Marketing, Exhibition, Touring Concert, Television and Film worlds.
Legacy Clients
I've had the huge privilidge of working with some of America's greats who have been loyal to me for a number of years. Although much of the work I do these days is slightly different from what I've done with these clients, one way or another they have had a huge impact on how I go about managing projects and have given me experiences some of the best experiences in career.
Autodesk London
Phone:
+44 798 126 6163
+1 615 206 3975
E-mail:
neilscrivener@hotmail.com
Whatever and wherever it may be, I would love to hear from you if you think your project may benefit from my skills.
Please see my details below and do not hesistate to drop me a line!
City Cube, Berlin
10,000
This was the first TwitchCon to be held in Europe, after being a popular event in San Jose with 30,000 attendees per day. I was responsible for delivering the creative creative, which was designed by Trin Basra, who did an amazing job.
As with many projects of this nature, there were a large number of stakeholders involved, who we regularly updated on progress, designs and budget.
Vodafone HQ, Newbury
Vodafone HQ, Manchester
300
In September 2019 Vodafone launched their 5G network, and I was asked to work with Senior Producer Neil Warburton to deliver the production.
The Newbury HQ was the main venue which required a large ground supported truss structure, blackout to make a 'theatre box', full lighting, audio visual and staging. The key to this event was to go from a stage which had the basic appearance of a standard conference stage, to a reveal of a hologram provided by Musion, where a young football fan would meet her idol Steph Houghton.
In the Manchester HQ footballer Steph Houghton was filmed, and both live video and audio was sent over a 5G network to the video system in the Newbury HQ.
The key challenge with this project was taking the Newbury HQ and turning into a large fully blacked out theatre venue. This was achieved by designing a bespoke ground support truss which sat just millimeters from the roof.
Adidas Store, Oxford Street, London
Adidas launched their new flagship store in London's Oxford Street, and I was asked to oversee various installations on the ground floor and ensure it was delivered correctly and on time, ahead of the store's opening. Suffice to say it was, and Adidas were very happy with the end result.
Private Hire, Convent Garden, London
1,000 daily
I was brought in to deliver a marketing/experimental by invitation event for Asos. The event took place in a private building near Covent Garden, and the requirement was to deliver a number of scenic and technical elements.
Gran Fira, Barcelona, Spain
101,000 daily (according to MWC stats)
I was brought in as one of many Production Managers to assist with the famous ‘Android Avenue’ at Mobile World Congress.
The ambitious design was around 34 trucks of equipment, with just 36 hours to build and around 6 hours to strike.
I was part of the overnight team managing a team of around 90 carpenters and electricians, and 20 local crew. Ahead of delivering the project, I worked on the pre-production designing various audio visual and power solutions.
Images courtesy of Stage One
Tobacco Dock, London
1,000 daily
Autodesk London is a major event in the calender for Autodesk where around 1,000 people per day attend Autodesk’s event.
The event is split into multiple sections which included a Keynote/Plenary, around 20 Breakouts, around 20 meeting rooms/spaces, 4 classrooms each with 80 computers, two exhibition halls and a large number of activations around the site.
I was responsible for delivering the project with Executive Producer Jilly Dungay from pitch stage right the way through to delivery and post-production.
The 02 Arena, London
1,200
The BITC Awards changed venues for the year from the Royal Albert Hall to 02 Arena. The event was a sit-down dinner for 1,200 guests, including HRH Prince Charles.
I was brought in by Production to manage Lighting, Rigging, Power, and to nominate a Lighting Designer.
The requirement was also to manage rigging and trussing for not only lighting, but audio, video and draping too.
Legend Gladys Knight has been one of my 'legacy clients' for a number of years, playing venues from small concert halls to arenas - and quite a few casinos inbetween!
I started working for Gladys in around 2014 as her Lighting Designer, and have since worked with her Tour and Production team.
Gladys is every bit as warm and funny off-stage as she is on-stage and working for her has been a complete privilege.
Rock and Blues legend George Thorogood has been a client of mine since around 2012.
Since, meeting GT's team we've formed a close transatlantic bond, and when GT's in Europe I help them out with their production needs.
IHG Hotel Berlin
1,000
The IHG Conference is held yearly in an IHG location, where IHG franchisees are invited. There are various sub-events including a party and an exhibition.
Old Crow Medicine Show are another band which rightfully get the title legends. Their amazing country music has been taking America by storm for decades. I’ve never worked for a band who each can play so many musical instruments!
It’s been a true pleasure to work with these guys – and if they’re on a bill near you, I can’t recommend strongly enough going to see them!
Olympic Park, Stratford, London
10,000
Parallel London was a wonderful opportunity to deliver a fully all-inclusive project for those of all abilities. The premise behind Parallel is that it is a charity fun run at various levels and whatever your ability you are invited to run (or walk, or wheel) in races 10K, 5K, 2K or 1K.
Critically, we had to make this event 100% accessible and that involved bringing in 13 trucks of Matrax trackway to allow wheelchair users full access of the site.
We also installed a stage, multiple marquees and a ‘super sensory’ run.
The event was a great success and I look forward to working on future Parallel events!
Private House, San Francisco, USA
30
In 2019, Facebook launched their new Portal range of devices and I was to travel the USA to deliver the project.
Facebook had chosen to invite just 30 individuals from top media outlets and influencers to view the products in a private residence. Although the project was modest in size, the importance of ensuring that the ‘venue’ felt like a home environment was paramount.
I worked closely with Union 16 who provided possible the best Local Crew guys I’ve ever worked with to provide a range of services; from installing AV to hanging curtain rails!
Gran Fira, Barcelona, Spain
101,000 daily (according to MWC stats)
Having worked on the pitch for the Vodafone Stand at Mobile World Congress, when we won the project I was invited to deliver it.
The stand itself was 60M x 20M, and had a central stage, numerous demo pods, meeting rooms and a large round LED screen.
A connection was made via 5G to the Sony Ericson Stand where band was split 50/50, and played together combining the 5G signals to the live half of the band in each location.
The ultimate success of the Stand was confirmed by a visit from the King of Spain.
Nightclub, East London
500
This was a really fun project to do, and a fantastic design by Creative Director Ben Peate.
As guests entered the building, they walked through a maze which contained a ‘jungle of thumbs’ (as per the Voxi adverts); before entering a corridor with a giant cat; another corridor with a float wall; and finally an endless corridor.
Having successfully completed the maze, guests found themselves in the cloakroom, before heading off to be entertained in a main room with food, drinks, and entertainment from Mabel.
Images courtesy of PSP AV.
Sofitel T5, Heathrow
500
This project is a huge blast from the past! I thought I’d add it because I found the pictures, the Creative was nice, and the end result looked good.
This was a wedding for the daughter of Surinder Arora, owner of the Arora Hotel chain. The event (from memory) was a wedding then a party held in one of Mr Arora’s hotels art T5.
From what I can recall, the in-house AV suppliers did most of the work (for free), and I oversaw/managed the overall production end of the event.
Between around May 2018 and July 2019, I took a ‘perma-lance’ Contract for The Freeman Company, being brought in by Senior Management to assist on the turnaround of the Agency model and creation of a Technical/Production Department.
The basic remits of my contract are detailed above, and during my time at Freeman I worked in the Agency office in London, as well as closely with the Coventry office. I also worked closely with a number of people in the Dallas head office and other offices in North America and the Asia and Pacific Region.
I worked on around 76 pitches and projects in the year, and took a number of projects that were pitched on, and won, to delivery stage.
My role finished by assisting management to recruit a full-time Head of Production and full-time Production Manager.
My personal bottom line impact on Freeman’s balance sheet was around an additional £2,500,000 of revenue in the financial year.
The role was great fun, challenging, and I learned a huge amount from my time at Freeman.
I welcome more challenges like this and other ‘perma-lance’ contracts!
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Daman, Saudi Arabia
25,000+
I have led as a Project Director a number of events at Saudi National Day, working across Saudi’s three main cities. On the largest project I led, I handled a $20M budget, and oversaw large projects teams in multiple locations.
Many of the Saudi projects I’ve worked on have included large-scale lighting, video, fireworks, live music and parades.
I’ve since built up a large network of suppliers and freelancers in Saudi and/or who have extensive at working in Saudi – and always keen to go back.
Montenegro
Macedonia
Germany
Croatia
Poland
25,000+
This was a large-scale Christmas project with T-Mobile and Deutsche Telekom working in partnership.
In strategic cities in Montenegro, Germany, Macedonia, Poland and Croatia a large white ‘present’ with a bow on the top appeared, with a large countdown clock next to it.
Crowds in their thousands drew to the ‘present’ and when the clock reached 0, the front of the ‘present’ opened to reveal Mariah Carey, who sang “All I Want For Christmas Is You” to the crowds.
But how did she do this in 5 cities simultaneously?
Various
British Airways have been making huge changes to their corproate stratergy for the last few years, and part of this project was to work with BA's Communications team implement the new corporate messaging to BA's colleagues - and encourage collaboration.
The brief was to take 44,000 of BA's colleagues through an immersive, informative, fun experience which would not only inform the colleagues of how BA operates and the new corporate stratergy - but also to encourage teamwork and interaction between different areas of the business.