In under two months, GEM transitioned its traditional in person graduation ceremony to an online format in full compliance with pandemic restrictions. This event took place on April 10, just like a live television show with a TV set, a director, projectors, hosts, dancers… for five and a half hours. A show recorded on campus worthy of the greatest academy awards. GEM is one of the first Business Schools to have achieved this feat. The replay will soon be available too.
5 turret cameras; 3 cameramen; 28m² of LED wall, the equivalent of 4 heavy goods vehicles; 22 screens for feedback.; 110 people onsite (while respecting health constraints), 6 hours of rehearsals, 12 hours of editing, 5 and a half hours of broadcasting, 3 ceremonies, 2 000 connections, and approximately 5 000 spectators estimated. The GEM Gala broadcasted live on the internet last Saturday, April 10, was open to the 2 500 new GEM graduates with two guests of their choice each. It was filmed on the School campus that was turned into a life-size television set for the occasion.
Five and half hours live from the GEM campus
« This was not our first experience in taking an event online. In a year, we have made our classes accessible to our students wherever they are thanks to GEMHyflex, classrooms, our new school year challenge (rewarded in the AACSB Innovations that Inspire Challenge and the Digital Learning Trophies), our Welcome Forum, Open Days, Business Forum, and more recently our Geopolitics festival are all examples" explains Jean-François Fiorina, the vice dean and director of GEM.
"To organize the GEM Gala, the student association 'Le Gala' and a team of GEM staff were hard at work since June 2020. The idea was to organize a hybrid event. In February, it was neither possible to postpone the event nor to go forward with an in person option. The GEM teams therefore devised a completely new and unseen solution in the Business School panorama. They did everything they could to make the young graduates behind their screens feel as united and as celebrated as possible. The new graduates could wear their graduation scarves sent to directly to each of their homes across the globe, and two famous actors, Alain Chapuis ('Kaamelott) and Zachari Saal ('New Voices'), presented the ceremonies.
The show included
- presentation of the GEM Trophies of the year;
- Speeches from Program Directors, the Dean and Vice Dean, and the Gala Association;
- song and dance performances and fashion show organized by the School talents and arts group;
- animations on social media;
- a behind-the-scenes tour of the show, testimonials from alumni shared live and pre-recorded for those who could not attend;
The ceremony was followed by exchanges between the alumni and the staff from each of their programs.
