The graduation of IE excites its students in Ifema
The graduation of the Instituto de Empresa (IE) has become an unstoppable event. With its 1,935 graduates and 5,930 guests, the graduation has come from being held in Hall 6 in the last edition, to Hall 12 (one of the largest) in this edition. On July 20, the eighth edition took place in the IFEMA MADRID facilities, where the emotion and recognition of thousands of students was immortalized under the watchful eye of families and friends in an event that goes beyond representing an institutional and academic, a moment of pride that they will remember all their lives.
The student is the great protagonist
One of the main objectives of the IE graduation is to design an event where the students are the protagonist of it. “At the request of the IE, we have made a stage with 101 meters of mouth With five plenary stages, imitating the format of the” Super Bowl “, a very American concept. Why five scenarios?” For the collection of the scholarships, the prizes, and all the functionality of the event, we´ve designed five scenarios within a global scenario, to give the students the full importance of the event, points out Sergio Pozo, from the agency 4foreverything, responsible for the production of the graduation.
From purely institutional graduation to an emotional event
Under the idea of evolving the concept of graduation to event, that is to say, that it is a day where students can enjoy all day with their family, friends, and organise activities, and not to limit themselves exclusively to the academic act as such. IE has been a pioneer in making a more modern and spectacular format without losing the protocol. According to Sergio, “the presidential table is maintained the importance of the deans, but giving priority to the enjoyment of the student.”
The challenge of ordering and distributing to students
There are five scenarios for five schools. IE has different schools and in this edition they have graduated five schools within business schools, divided into laws, humanities and architecture (this year as a novelty). According to Sergio Pozo, “we organize students by blocks within their specialties. Each master is made up of 25 or 28 students, we distribute them with a plan to locate them by sectors, in this way, each student is identified to get up in alphabetical order, and to maintain control and order during the graduation “.
One of the challenges in production: acoustics
Managing five scenarios simultaneously to deliver the degrees is a challenge that thanks to of IFEMA MADRID´s soundproofing, is possible. “We are lucky the client does not skimp on acoustics, and we can make a balanced sound distribution. In addition, IE does not name each student, they simply go up, their dean waits for him, congratulates him, takes the picture and prepares a video for each student, “says Sergio Pozo.
In total: 1.329m of structure mounted on the back, there are more than 1,450m2 of wood on the stage, and between the tarpaulins and screens: the central screen measures 24x5 meters, two side screens of 8x4.5mh. The production is demanding: work at 9.80m in height.
The “protagonist” moment reflected in the main screen
To immortalize that moment of glory that students experience during the event, “we have a multi-window system, the main one is divided into five, and each screen is assigned to a student: those two or 10 seconds are absolutely exclusive for the student”, points out Sergio Pozo.
A very international event, with more than 90 different nationalities
Most of the graduate students are international, the Spanish profile is a minority, therefore, the event and communications were all in English. “In total, 96 different nationalities. Both the family, friends or the students themselves dominate English, and in the opposite case, we have a simultaneous translation system in Spanish. Also as a detail to claim the international meeting, we put on the stage all the flags represented by students´ nationalities, “says Sergio Pozo.
IFEMA MADRID as the venue for the IE graduation
IFEMA MADRID is a perfect space to perform this type of event, for space and services offered. According to Sergio, “It oncentrates all the variety of services you can hire, we have worked the last eight editions, and for us the experience is positive. We have an interlocutor of the IFEMA MADRID house from the beginning, as well as pavement or rigging services companies that help and collaborate with you and do not see you as an external agent.”