Breakthrough Energy Summit
'The Globe' in East Mall 1
About the event
Breakthrough Energy is an organisation founded to tackle the issues of climate change and to convene the world’s leading innovators, business leaders, politicians and entrepreneurs to find and fund solutions that will propel us to Net Zero.
Breakthrough Energy has distilled the scope of their activities into five key Grand Challenges tackling the primary drivers of carbon emissions: Electricity, Manufacture, Transportation, Agriculture and Building. The Breakthrough Energy Summit congregates innovators in each of these fields, giving them the opportunity to showcase their products and solutions to an elite selection of global leaders.
Primarily the Summit is aimed at facilitating the networking between industry leaders and innovators, providing them with innovative concepts and solutions to propel industries, companies and governments into action over climate change.
Facilities and facts
Secure venue
A tightly controlled perimeter, expert security from Oracle, and collaboration with the Metropolitan Police allowed attendees to move freely and comfortably within a secure environment.
Sustainable event
This zero to landfill event made use of Tobacco Dock Food's meal resharing initiative as well as donating much of the fabrication from their set design and furnishing to local charities.
Flexible spaces
Tobacco Dock's unique layout allowed the organisers to create a compelling journey through the venue, using both indoor and outside areas and making use of the existing division of spaces.
Why Tobacco Dock?
Breakthrough Energy tasked their chosen production agency, Agency EA, with finding a London venue that had to be unique, with plenty of natural daylight, a selection of flexible spaces that could flow together and, most importantly, a strong sense of place and character. Having worked with Breakthrough Energy on their previous summits, Agency EA were well versed in what their capacity requirements were likely to be and knew that they would need a large-scale plenary space for up to 1,200 guests with a secondary space for 250 attendees. In addition, they would need a wide roster of breakouts, meeting spaces, catering, expos as well as the ability to section off spaces for the highest-level delegates.
Tobacco Dock ticked all the boxes on their wish list, with a supremely versatile layout that allowed the organisers to create a compelling delegate journey through the venue, utilising both indoor and outdoor spaces and taking advantage of the existing division of spaces to build their event.
With a large number of extremely high-profile individuals both among the speakers and the attendees, security was top of mind for the organisers. It was key to create an environment could allow those guests to feel safe and to feel comfortable enough to walk through the entire event without the need for extra security. The layout of Tobacco Dock, paired with the efforts from our security team, Oracle, providing stringent security offered a tight boundary ensuring only invited people were allowed in. With such a tight perimeter, security could be minimised once inside, meaning guests could circulate as they pleased without concerns. In addition to the onsite security, the Tobacco Dock Events Operations team liaised with the Metropolitan Police to ensure they were aware of the event and its requirements. Agency EA worked with our traffic management providers to close Pennington Street for the duration of the event to extend the sterile perimeter of the venue, adding a further layer of security.
Our sustainability initiatives were another tick in the box for such an ecologically focussed event. The organisers made use of Tobacco Dock Food’s food resharing initiatives with leftover meals shared in the local community. This zero-to-landfill event also made sure to make sustainable choices in their set design and furnishing, with fabrication donated to local charities after the event.
Ground Level
Vaults Level
How we made it work
The organisers, led by Agency EA, utilised the spaces in the venue to phenomenal effect to hit their brief. The five Grand Challenges, Electricity, Manufacturing, Transportation, Agriculture and Building, each had their own expo space with distinct scenery and booths for the different companies to showcase their ideas and products addressing those challenges. These ranged from early-stage projects looking for first-stage funding, to projects that were well underway, to existing products that may already be in the market.
Quayside 1, as well as serving as the event’s ‘Summit Central’ hub, was used to house the showcases of the most prominent catalyst companies, with projects from across all the challenges. They also made use of the Quayside Walkway and erected a marquee, where more companies were able to display their products and talk about their innovations with attendees.
The event began with an evening reception on Tuesday evening, starting on the Quayside Walkway to which everyone was invited. A ‘Best of British’ theme was carried through the use of florals, creating a typical English summer pub garden, and the catering, which featured classics such as fish and chips, sausage rolls and strawberries and cream. Cocktails were themed around the five challenges, with each served at the entrance of their respective expo spaces. Guests could sip on Building Bliss, Transportation Tango, Electricity Elixir, Agricultural Ambrosia, Manufacturing Manhattan, or a Net Zero Spritz for the non-alcohol drinkers.
Breakthrough’s founder, Bill Gates, and its Executive Director, Rodi Guidero, gave a welcome speech from the stairs in the centre of the venue, after which guests could explore the Grand Challenge expos set up in the Quayside spaces and marquee.
Wednesday and Thursday’s sessions were started with plenary talks in Great Gallery (renamed The Stage for the duration of the event) and then divided into breakout sessions and workshops and opportunities to engage with the challenge exhibits.
More content sessions were hosted in ‘The Square’ (Little Gallery) which featured a square stage and truss and ‘The Globe’ in East Mall 1 which was set up as a theatre in the round with bespoke seating arrangement to encourage a sense of collaboration.
The event wrapped with a speech from His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, who was speaking in his capacity as the Founder and President of the Earthshot Prize, an initiative with corresponding mission to that of Breakthrough Energy. He was also able to tour the event and learn about the many projects on exhibit.
Tobacco Dock was the perfect venue for the 2024 Breakthrough Energy Summit.
'From the unique space to the beautiful setting on the canal, we couldn’t have asked for a better location. Without the collaboration and team at the venue, it couldn’t have been the event it was.’
