THE DAWN OF WORRE STUDIOS
Worre Studios is a state-of-the-art 25,000 square foot facility that brings virtual and traditional events into the future. From live television broadcasts, product launches, live concerts, award shows, press conferences, hosting a speaker series, or even a business meeting, producers now have a way to reach a global audience most efficiently and impressively.
What started as a temporary solution, ended up being a new way of doing virtual and hybrid events that will be here for decades to come, and the capabilities of Worre Studios now stretch even beyond events and into filming and video production.
It was simple at first – she had a problem (COVID shut down the world and she had in-person events planned during 2020) and she needed a solution. She played with the live streams and webinar type of formats, but they were missing the connection piece – interacting with the people attending. It felt like they were just talking and talking to a camera without any feedback, versus educating and making sure those they were teaching were fully engaged and joining in on what was happening. That end-user experience is what propelled her to create this incredible studio facility, which now has morphed into something much bigger in scope, reach, and accessibility.
A pioneer in producing events, Marina is truly paving the way for revamping the future for virtual and hybrid events.
CHALLENGES AND OBSTACLES FACED IN HER JOURNEY
The first challenge was building the studio – in less than 90 days during the pandemic they had the idea for a studio of this nature. They created the plan to build it, and then they constructed it and finished it in time to host their first event. They had to deal with a lot of supply chain issues, like most in this industry face, but they triumphed over their obstacles and found a way to stay on schedule. The other challenge was learning the technology and the capabilities – they continue to find new capabilities and new ways of using the technology all the time so the offerings of what they bring to the table keep multiplying. It’s a good challenge to have!
PORTFOLIO OF SERVICES OFFERED
At its heart, Worre Studios is a multi-use state-of-the-art 25,000 square foot production studio and event facility. What makes it stand out is the technology – surrounding the stage-in-the-round footprint are dual 73-foot wide, 14-foot tall 1.9mm 4k curved LED video walls. It’s incredible! All of the broadcasting elements and audio and video equipment is are highly advanced –she wanted the equipment to go beyond what people were currently using, knowing that they can grow along with the tech housed in the studio for years to come. Since launching, they have hosted globally-reaching events with guest speakers, product launches, educational seminars – they have even filmed a music video! For the large-scale events, they can have a full-interactive/full-participatory style event with hundreds of thousands of attendees in real-time, giving everyone a front-row seat. They also have the ability to stream to multiple platforms to increase engagement; they can create 3D immersive environments allowing guests and hosts to join from around the world, but appear together, and with the use of Unreal Engine they have XR/VR/AR capabilities. They are currently building a full green-screen room to add another layer to what they can do with the content.
She had two huge factors that led her to the foundation of Worre Studios. The first was the capability to interact in real-time with event attendees, which they accomplished seamlessly. The second factor was utilizing the system so they could have real-time translations into other languages – a huge factor when reaching hundreds of thousands of people around the world. During an event I produced in May, they had more than 180,000 attendees registered and they spanned over 100 countries, and it was a really special experience.
HER OPINIONS ON THE CHANGE IN THE MARKET POST-PANDEMIC
I think we are learning first-hand that the event market is a bit unpredictable. Right now, with the rise of the Delta variant of COVID, we are seeing a lot of events that are either still wanting to go fully virtual or are looking to add virtual elements and additional events for their attendees who are still not travelling. I feel the need for this type of studio is long-term, which is why I made sure the technology was so advanced that when we look to five, 10, even 15 years in the future, we have the capabilities to keep up with the changing tech environment. I also think a lot of future events will be hybrid which is why we made half of the 360-degree LED screens available to be moved back to the house a live audience or create a lounge area for a party.
CREATING A WORK-LIFE BALANCE
I believe that balance means different things to different people, it is a subjective topic. I don’t believe in balance in a 24-hour cycle – you can’t maintain it. What my husband and I do is look at our life in seasons. Season to grow, season to maintain, and season to harvest. When we are working on a big project, there might be several months of long workdays with no weekends. Then there will be less intense periods where we work quite less, and then there is a season when we can work for a couple of hours a day and enjoy family vacation time for a couple of weeks. But we are never completely off. We love what we do and for us, it doesn’t feel like work. It’s a passion. So, we don’t differentiate between work and life. For us, it’s all life. It just has different seasons in it.
HER ADVICE TO YOUNG WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS
I like to prove people wrong and constantly raise standards for myself and other female entrepreneurs around me. I don’t mind playing with “big boys”, because I have confidence in who I am and what I’m doing. My advice is to work on your confidence, know your worth, plan big, and speak up!
