WINTER | FEATURE
the company was encouraged to expand into the family-orientated exhibitions market in the UK following the success of its events in Germany , including Paw Patrol . The promoter created a separate division , FKP Scorpio Entertainment , to oversee its exhibition events and has been working with production company Cityneon – which has partnerships with The Walt Disney Company and Marvel Entertainment .
Cassidy cites the Van Gogh exhibition , promoted by the Exhibition Hub , as one of the ‘ unicorn successes ’ of the Covid lockdowns : “ From there , a lot of producers and promoters saw a whole new market economy that the public wanted to embrace .”
The company was also impressed by the success of the Atelier des Lumières – an immersive art gallery which opened in 2018 in Paris : “[ The venue ] was ahead of the pack and heavily invested in the digital mapping world . Obviously , technology is advancing quickly with AR and VR and it seemed like a good sector to get into given the public demand for it . There ’ s a lot of fantastic IP that lends itself to curation , development and building an experience .”
On the difference between running
Shanghai and China . Shanghai was still coming out of partial lockdown and we had to get that container from Shanghai to Folkstone , setup , build , market and launch within three months from May to August . There was a huge team of people non-stop around the clock . There were moments when we didn ’ t know if it
Photo : Philip Volkers
BBC Earth Experience
concerts and exhibitions , Cassidy says , “ When you launch an exhibition it becomes a living and breathing operation . It consumes your whole life , it ’ s non-stop . It ’ s not like preparing for a show , then the show happens , and you move on . When you open an exhibition , that is when the hard work really starts .”
With just over three months to put together all the event ’ s components , including operations , marketing , PR and stakeholder liaison , Cassidy says Jurassic World was a huge learning experience for the FKP team : “ We had to ship 32 crates of production from would happen or not .” Cassidy says the initial plan was to bring Jurassic World to other European locations but the project met with challenges : “ The thing about big IPs , it ’ s all about venue space . Finding a venue to put an IP down for six months is not easy , especially at that scale with 3,000sqm and a nine-metre clearance . There aren ’ t many venues like that .”
The success of these shows is not just attracting investment from concert promoters , venues are also adapting to accommodate them . The team at ExCeL London , traditionally an exhibition and convention centre , plan to build on the success of Jurassic World , which became the venue ’ s longest running event , and expand its entertainment offering . The venue , which also hosts the Formula E Championships and London International Horse Show , is one year away from seeing the start of a 25,000sqm expansion programme , involving major investment in its waterfront area with the aim of it hosting more of these live attractions .
At the forefront of ExCeL ’ s diversification is head of attractions and live events Damian Norman . “ If you imagine the industry as tectonic plates , there ’ s a lot of movement at the moment from big IP owners ,” he says . “ There ’ s a natural strategy from gigantic media owners and producers to have a physical representation of
“ You think building a festival is tough ? Try building a visitor attraction in six months from scratch .”
their brand . There ’ s also a huge market for high quality promoters like FKP who have diversified into immersive exhibitions . “ It ’ s an art-form – a carefully crafted balance of selling the right number tickets and being a good promoter , and making sure things like the dwell time , content , merch and green screen
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