Hybrid Solutions at Stockholm's Waterfront Congress Centre

Funkisfestivalen is Sweden's largest song-festival for people over the age of 15 with cognitive or neuropsychiatric disabilities. The festival took place for the first time in 2011 and was an immediate success. Since then, it has become an annual event. In 2020, it was broadcasted live from Waterfront Studio, at the Stockholm Waterfront Congress Centre as an alternative to a traditional gala, to ensure follow-through. “Because of Covid-19, we had to adjust instead of cancelling, to be able to carry out our fantastic event. Many in our target group belong to risk groups where it made an event with a large audience impossible.", says Ann Epstein, Project Manager for the Funkis Festival. The goal of Funkis Festival is to create an event to create opportunities for as many people as possible with an interest in singing, being on stage and participating at their own level. On the one hand, attention is paid to people with disabilities, and on the other hand, the competition offers a memorable evening for both participants, audience and sponsor. That the choice fell on the Stockholm Waterfront Congress Centre, was thanks to a long collaboration and new innovative studio solutions that enable streaming to a wide target group from a professional studio. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjmYi5D_3-A Maria Tullberg, CEO of Radisson Blu Waterfront Hotel, Stockholm & Stockholm Waterfront Congress Centre, says, - “Since we opened, we have been a natural meeting place and we constantly develop new solutions to meet our customers' needs. During the spring, we established a Studio solution together with our technology partner Informationsteknik, to enable meetings despite the current situation, which has led to great interest in both company meetings, product launches but also for other types of events. ” Ann tells, “We had our final in Stockholm Waterfront 2019 and were very pleased with the collaboration. We had been planning for a final in the local for a year now and when we heard about the possibility of using a studio in SW, which is as central as possible in Stockholm, we thought it was a brilliant opportunity. ” Maria continues, “To be a place that enables meetings, regardless of format, to reach out to people is something we are passionate about and take very seriously. We are a company where we work together to create better future prospects for everyone and are very honored about the collaboration with Funkis Glädje which is an important event that makes a difference and that makes people come together. The Funkis Festival is an annual event, could you consider to continue to stream the festival live from the studio solution instead of the more traditional format? "Yes, we would, but we prefer to have our event live. Our target group does not have so many obvious activities or set to meet and be the norm. This is one of several reasons why we think our live arrangement is so much more than a singing competition." Discover more about how we are implementing hybrid solutions across our hotels for business travelers and meeting and event planners and how we are constantly ensuring safety for our guests.