London event company Drive Productions team up once more with Ronan Keating and long term partners Cancer Research UK for the fourth year running to produce flagship charity event and beat the fundraising goal yet again.

Emeralds & Ivy Ball for The Marie Keating Foundation and Cancer Research UK

Viva La Vida for The Seve Ballesteros Foundation and Cancer Research UK

8Rocks for The Dallaglio Foundation and Cancer Research UK

The annual Emeralds & Ivy Ball, hosted by Ronan Keating, founder of the Marie Keating Foundation, is Cancer Research UK’s annual flagship fund-raising event and has quickly become a standard bearer on the winter season charity event calendar. London-based event specialists Drive Productions have produced this star-studded event for four years now and each year the total funds raised for vital cancer research exceeds expectations.

The recent 2010 Emeralds & Ivy Ball was no exception. Held at a new and exciting venue – the outstanding Battersea Power Station ‘Boiler House’ venue – this was another high-end quality event where up to 600 guests enjoyed a VIP champagne reception, lavish three-course dinner, an auction of exclusive prizes and experiences and an evening of show-stopping entertainment.

Drive Productions Producer Rachel King comments, “4 years on and Emeralds & Ivy is not only a permanent fixture in the Drive calendar and one of our most important gigs, but one we always look forward to. Not only do we enjoy the opportunity to support the cause but it’s also a chance to let our imagination run a little bit wild as CRUK trust our judgement.”

The theme of this years event – a well-kept secret until the very last minute – was devised by Drive Productions’ Creative Director Imogen Hammond. Now at liberty to discuss it, she explains that the 2010 event was based around the symbol of the emerald itself:

“Regarded as an amulet for good fortune, highly valued and desired, the emerald’s brilliant green has never ceased to dazzle and provided an appropriate focus for this glittering star-studded night to raise vital funds for an important cause.”

With the 2010 Emeralds & Ivy Ball raising well over £700,000 the design focus seems to have done the trick. That and the generosity of the attendant audience.

The 2010 event saw POP sensations ‘The Saturdays’, gymnastic troupe ‘Spelbound’ -  Britain’s Got Talent Winners 2010 – Laserman and Optioscopes entertain their showbiz audience in the dramatic surroundings of Battersea Power Station. The main event sponsors were transport moguls The Stobart Group who, in keeping with the chosen venue, provided seven brand new trucks to enhance the industrial feel of the event. Stobart Group have offered 156 people the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have their name painted on the side of a Stobart truck which will travel around the UK, displaying the winning names, for a year. They aim to raise £156,000 – enough to fund six cancer information nurses for a year.

The event was attended by a whole host of stars from the showbiz world including celebrity chef Ainsley Harriott, Magic FM DJ Neil Fox, and Apprentice stars Philip Taylor and Kate Walsh.

To view a taster film of this event click here.

For more information about Cancer Research UK and the vital work that they do, visit their website at: http://www/cancerresearch.org

Event Technology Experts Drive Productions Take Pioneering Light-Mapping Technology to New Extremes for Yota in St. Petersburg.

 

Drive Productions once again took the lead with their latest architectural 3d video mapping project – this time along way from home, in Russia.

The Drive team designed and produced a 5 minute animated sequence that was projected onto the walls of the magnificent and historic Mikhailovsky Castle in the beautiful city of St Petersburg.

The project was conceived as the opening event to publicise Yota Space; the first digital arts festival of its kind in Russia and continues for 3 weeks. Yota Space celebrates some of the world’s leading digital lighting artists and innovators among them Drive Productions and including Musion, UVA, Chris Lavigne, Jason Bruges, One dot Zero as well as Hot Chip and the legendary Brian Eno himself.

Drive are breaking new boundaries in architectural 3d  video mapping technologies by drawing upon the capabilities of the d3 media server and using 8 x 25k Christie Roadie projectors to map the façade of an 80m x 30m building.

Battling against new extremes – minus 25 sub zero conditions – Drive Productions were true to form and the projection spectacular, a solid five hours of back-to-back light shows, was a huge success. The 3d video mapping sequence captivated audiences of thousands, illuminating up the imperial capital like never before and provoking wall to wall TV coverage across the nation.

Click here to have a look at the video mapping…and click here for a behind the scenes peak.