Neptunus builds Press Centre for world’s top security conference
The Assignment
The Munich Security Conference 2020 attended by world leaders from politics, academia and civil society is the largest global forum to discuss international security policy. The annual conference has taken place each year in Munich, Bavaria since 1963 with the 56th edition, MSC 2020, staged over three days at Hotel Bayerischer Hof from February 14th to 16th.
The premier event for international diplomacy attracted hundreds of high-ranking decision-makers including more than 30 heads of government and heads of state, over 100 cabinet ministers and prominent representatives from industry, media and academia who took part in a wide range of intense debates.
Among the participants were French President Emmanuel Macron, German Minister of Defence Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Such an important and prestigious gathering naturally attracts a huge global media following. For MSC 2020 Neptunus was assigned to design and build a temporary Press Centre to accommodate more than 1,000 journalists attending the conference.
The Solution
Technicians from Neptunus took just one week to construct a dedicated media centre, spanning 1,600 square metres, in the Emperor’s Courtyard of the Munich Residenz with a further week to complete the internal fit out. The state-of-the-art Evolution II temporary building met all the requirements for journalists reporting from the conference including hundreds of workstations, a reception desk and a small lounge with coffee machine. There was also a separate workplace for the organisers.
It took just a week to dismantle the demountable structure after the conference and return it to Neptunus stock for use on other assignments.
The Challenge
The Press Centre had to be constructed on an extremely compact location within a quadrant in Munich Residenz. This required tonnes of equipment and materials to be unloaded outside the quadrant, and then taken on to the build-site through a small gateway.
The Verdict
Sebastian Zäch, Press Centre Project Manager, said: “The cooperation with Neptunus has been well established and is working smoothly. With a set-up time of one week, one week for the interior and one week for the entire dismantling, the demands on the surface are also kept within limits. We will certainly continue to use Neptunus in the future, when the press centre needs be built again with a mobile building.”
