What should have been a grand event with 700 visitors was reduced to a live broadcast without an audience. Mid-October, the presentation of the Jubilee Prize by the Brain Foundation took place in the Beurs van Berlage with, among others, presenter Art Rooijakkers, illusionist Victor Mids and singer Ernst Daniël Smid. Unique about this event? The launch of Studio Berlage, so the event could still be followed live by thousands of viewers.

Virtual events, or partially virtual events – the so-called hybrid events – are indispensable in present times. Green screen studios and event studios are popping up like mushrooms. Because physically coming together is not or hardly possible at the moment, event venues and their partners are looking for new and flexible ways to bring speakers and audience together, to connect people in a virtual world. Because the need to meet each other is and will remain strong.

In June this year, the Beurs van Berlage, together with its partners Faber Audiovisuals, Univate and Plugged Live Shows, formed the Beurs van Berlage Virtual Live Events platform, which offers event organisers the opportunity to expand their physical event with a virtual experience. During such a hybrid event, guests visit the Beurs, designed by master architect Berlage, both live and virtually and really experience the ambiance of this unique event location.

This platform has now been expanded with Studio Berlage, an event studio that was taken into use by the Brain Foundation on October 13^th to celebrate their 30^th anniversary with a grand award ceremony. During this jubilee show, 1 million euros was awarded to the most pioneering brain research in the Netherlands.

Studio Berlage is not just any green screen where a speaker is projected flat onto a background, it is a real stage in one of the historic halls of the Beurs van Berlage. They work with an LED base surrounded by a virtual world, which enables a lively interaction between audience (both live and virtual), presenters or multiple keynote speakers at a distance.

“What is unique about Studio Berlage is that it is set up in the Effectenbeurszaal of the Amsterdam Conference Centre. This makes it easy to expand a fully virtual event with a live audience as soon as this is possible again, due to the 700 square meters the room offers,” explains Geert Klaibeda, Digital Support Specialist at the Beurs van Berlage. “And what is even more fantastic is that with Studio Berlage, as part of the Beurs van Berlage Virtual Live Events platform, as a viewer you really have the feeling as if you are physically present in the Beurs van Berlage. It is not just any ZOOM presentation that you start up, you really experience your arrival at the Damrak, after which you are welcomed by our doorman, enter our main entrance and continue to the Beursfoyer. The only thing you don’t have to do is virtually hang up your coat! ” smiles Klaibeda.

The possibilities of Studio Berlage are endless and it offers event organisers sufficient possibilities to have their event take place in the Beurs van Berlage in these uncertain times, as the Brain Foundation has proven. Would you like to know more about the content of the evening, which was made possible by the Beurs van Berlage, Faber Audiovisuals and Univate? Watch the broadcast again via https://www.hersenstichting.nl/jubileumprijs/ or have a look at the showcase we created.