On September 12th 2015, the Department for International Development (DFID) hosted the first Youth Summit at their offices in Whitehall, central London. RTS provided event production and technical support for this summit.

The Youth Summit allowed young people from all over the UK to have their voices heard on global issues. The results of the day’s conference were then taken by Secretary of State, Justine Greening, to the UN conference held in New York.

Last year’s GIRL Summit focused on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and Child and Forced Marriage. DFID’s commitment at the Girl Summit led to this year’s Youth Summit which continued the important work of keeping these issues in the spotlight.

Event management services for last year’s mammoth GIRL Summit which took place over 28 rooms at the Walworth Academy was in the capable hands of RTS and so again “we” were the natural choice for this year’s event.

60 inch comfort monitors and audience relay screens, a D&B Audiotechnik PA system were all suspended from trussing above the audience. The only two items on the floor were the stage itself and the set which was comprised of a 4.5m x 2.5m Absen A3 Pro 3.9mm pixel pitch LED video wall, supplied by PSCo – built on a scaffold platform and included various set panels and surrounds.

This allowed maximum seating capacity for summit delegates. To make the Q‘n’A sessions more informal, RTS supplied several Catch Boxes, containing a radio microphone allowing the audience to throw the microphone to one another.

The Youth Summit was launched by Secretary of State for International Development, Justine Greening. The main stage hosted inspirational speakers such as Fahma Mohamed an anti-FGM activist, a personal video message from Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the United Nations and Malala Yousafzai.

The Youth Summit included interactive workshops throughout the day that focused on global goals that need to be tackled, some of which included:

  • The fight to end poverty – helping young people to gain skills and confidence  and to have one-on-one conversations with those who make important decisions.
  • The meaning of global goals for young people – hosted by Rick Edwards, focused on climate change, education, employment and gender equality.
  • Local action for global change – hosted by the Wonder Foundation, those that attended this session were provided with the skill set to make an impact in their local area.

RTS created a “Marketplace” for delegates to interact with the 25 organisations and charities were represented at the Youth Summit. A live video feed of the main conference was streamed straight into the Marketplace which meant delegates didn’t miss a thing!

Organisations that took part in the Youth Summit were:

Youth Summit Event Management Services provided by RTS

RTS provided comprehensive event management services for the Youth Summit from concept to completion. From the initial project brief, RTS worked closely with the DFID Youth Summit team to deliver a summit that surpassed their expectations…again!

  • Venue facilities and security liaison
  • Production of delegate pack including badges, T-shirts and event information
  • Full audio and visual production including branded backdrop, staging, branded stage furniture, comfort monitors, speech timers, Catchbox radio microphones, presentation and video playback
  • Live onsite video production and editing facilities for the end of show video montage
  • Live web streaming
  • Video and audio distribution over the venue’s own IP network to projectors and screens around the venue in VIP and public areas
  • Event radio communications

A DFID spokesperson said after the event, “For those of us who were there for Youth for Change last year, it was great to see how that thread was integrated and combined with the ICS consortium, and how it all worked together…the marketplace was buzzing all day…what a fantastic event…thanks and well done!”