Meeting of G7 Development Ministers, Berlin, May 2022

In 2022 Germany held the annually rotating presidency of the G7. The meetings of ministers from Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Japan, Canada and the USA as well as representatives of the European Union are considered a platform for developing a key impetus to the solution of global problems. In the middle of May, Svenja Schulze, the German development minister, welcomed her fellow ministers to a two-day meeting in Berlin. The agenda included items such as the rebuilding of Ukraine, the food crisis and climate change.

We were hired as a technical service provider and were responsible for coordinating and controlling all technical services. Over a period spanning many years, we have gathered expertise in realising top-level international conferences and are also familiar with the rules of protocol associated with political summits, so it is no surprise that we were closely integrated into the event's organisation team.

First we established a planning overview and performed the layout planning in accordance with requirements for artloft.berlin, the location chosen for the meeting by the client. The loft-like event space in the restored former ironworks covers six floors, each with several rooms. We equipped the location for the plenary sessions of the ministers' summit as well as for bilateral meetings. There were also breakout and "listening" rooms, press workplaces and various offices and rooms for the teams from the different disciplines.

We also designed the central conference table and a conference system for easy communication between the attendees, which was simultaneously interpreted into six languages. We put the technical equipment in place for this service as well as for the hybrid parts of the conference with up to 15 virtual participant. The press conference was also held in a hybrid format, with our technicians providing the seven audio tracks required.

During the working session of the G7 representatives there was a live link-up to the Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Schmyhal as well as local discussions with the current G20 Presidency from Indonesia. Other representatives from India, Senegal and the African Union also joined in via video link along with the head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the President of the World Bank and various G7 Engagement Groups. Furthermore, a joint session with the G7 health minsters, who had also gathered in the city, was broadcast from Berlin's city hall.

As far as equipment was concerned, we set up the rooms and provided the furniture, office equipment and privacy screens. We also designed and set up the photo platform and backdrop – for the initial "doorstep" in front of the parade flags up to the customary "family photo" to mark the end of the event (which we had prepared for both good and rainy weather).

To make sure that we could adhere to the tight schedule, an additional workspace was provided for the preliminary set-up (and dismantling after the event) of all the equipment including control desk and the ten interpreter booths. As the event covered four floors of the building, we decided to route the cables outside and along the facade. The two central event locations – the plenum and the press conference – were basically only connected via one fibre optic cable, which led to greater efficiency as it was used across the various technical disciplines. At the same time, the security zones had to be maintained in all areas (including the stairwell and lifts). These were monitored by Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office. We closely coordinated the entire set-up and dismantling operations with the other tenants at the location and made sure there was ongoing communication with all concerned.