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TECH PROFILE
WOMEN WALK TOGETHER (WWT) – THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY NETWORK THAT BRINGS INDIVIDUALS AND ORGANISATIONS TOGETHER, IN SUPPORT AND CELEBRATION OF WOMEN IN EVENT PRODUCTION. TPMEA SPEAKS TO RACHEL HAUGHEY.
On 18 July 2018, the world celebrated 100 years of Nelson Mandela, and in honour and gratitude to his legacy, and in support of the Elders 10th Anniversary Walk Together Campaign, the Women Walk Together community united to produce the very first global female production showcase event. The core event was held in Johannesburg, South Africa, with connecting events in India, United Kingdom, Guinea and Brazil. Born of a combination of Rachel Haughey’s production experience, and her work with YPN and international communities since 2010 – impressive feats made possible due to the legacy of Nelson Mandela. Set as an annual event moving forwards, the WWT global showcase will give opportunity to women on the frontline all over the world to demonstrate their incredible talents and connect with other inspirational women for support and understanding; ensuring suffering ends. THE LEGACY In June 2010, directly in response to the influence of Mandela, the World Cup was hosted in Africa
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for the very first time. To mark this historic occasion, a unique World Cup Kick Off Concert was set up by FIFA and Control Room, designed to celebrate and share inspiration from South Africa to the world. For this reason, the artist and audience allocation were designed to include both local and international communities, and the location was specifically chosen as Orlando Stadium in Soweto Township, Johannesburg. When Rachel Haughey landed as part of the global production team, she was informed that the build schedule had been halved at the last minute due to the unexpected South African success in reaching the Super 14 Final - Blue Bulls v Stormers, as the team now required a stadium to host the grand finale. As all other stadiums were being prepared for the World Cup, it was decided that this would be held, for the very first time, in Orlando Stadium, Soweto Township. She told TPMEA: “We attended the game with a view to observe and collect vital information as we experienced the stadium for the first time at full capacity use.” On arrival, the enormity of this historic
occasion was immediately clear, with the majority of the white rugby audience having never been to Soweto Township before. Every conversation throughout the stadium reflected this in a positive way. Furthermore, beyond the stadium, the majority white rugby audience filled every street and bar around the area, and the air was filled with vuvuzelas and joyful celebration - echoing the continuation of Nelson Mandela’s pioneering work with the Springboks in 1995. “The drastically reduced onsite build time, consequently placed enormous pressure on the global production team and we had to immediately redesign 24 hour overnight load in schedules and significant extra crew. My role was to assist the production director, manage all backstage areas and support the full production build. I urgently needed help, but there was little additional resource to facilitate this. I proposed that as this was the first World Cup in South Africa, that there must be thousands of young people who would be interested in joining me on a work experience basis, and I would train them on site to help me as part of my team.
