Bling Productions wins prestigious WOW Asia Award for ICTA’s Disrupt Asia 2019

The main stage LED Wall

Sessions on the main stage

 The exhibition stalls

Bling Productions Ltd., an innovative and visionary event production company in Sri Lanka, has won the prestigious WOW Asia Gold Award for its conceptualisation and execution of Sri Lanka’s premier start-up conference and innovation festival Disrupt Asia 2019. 

The WOW Awards celebrates excellence, innovation and the pure brilliance of live events held throughout the region under purview. The nominees for the various categories are selected by an expert panel and are validated by KPMG.

This year the awards were held as an Extended Reality Awards Ceremony on 14 August. Bling’s award falls under the Association/Industry Convention of the Year category which recognises an annual event of an industry segment/industry association, with aspects of a conference or a meeting, business exchange, knowledge sessions, gala evening and/or exhibition.

Working together with the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA), Bling has conceptualised and developed Disrupt Asia for four years. This year’s team included Conceptised and Designed by Obed Kushan and Abul Basith, Visuals/3D Projection Mapping and Interactive Installations by Eyeon, Light Effects and Interactive Installations by D4 and Dhanushka Aruna, and Festival Layout and Production Coordinated by Charith Laheer Samarasinghe, Lasitha Abeyrathne, James Thambyraja and Roshan Tharaka. 

The Bling Team is headed by Marlon Jesudason, who 10 years ago created the company with a vision of shifting the way events are produced in Sri Lanka and taking our design acumen to the world. 

The team at Bling were provided a brief by ICTA to come up with a simple yet technologically driven, creative concept to showcase Sri Lanka’s digital capabilities to the world. Last year’s conference theme was ‘Going Global’ and as the event management company, Bling was required to ensure that all aspects of the event were connected to the theme. 

Working with the limitations of a public performance theatre, Bling came up with a game plan that used spaces effectively with complete digital backgrounds with video effects and 3D elements no matter where a participant would go. The Nelum Pokuna Theatre which can seat about 1200 attendees within the auditorium has one of the largest stages in Sri Lanka. 

To complement this large stage area, the full width of the stage (51.1 feet) was setup with a 19.6 foot tall three-part LED screen. The visuals used in the screen were made in such a way that the audience member can experience immersive-ness. 

The stage setup was also accompanied by lights that brought in an element of celebration and grandeur to the stage. Apart from these light installations in the exhibition area captivated audiences with each installation telling a unique story.

With more than a decade of experience, Bling Productions has also evolved as a company that continuously pushes the boundaries of event productions by using the latest technological advancements and global concepts. 

Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Bling has successfully navigated changing paradigms in the event management industry and executed a large number of virtual events and conferences in the last couple of months including Virtual Conferences for SLENDO 2020 partnering with Asia Tours and the 29th Annual Scientific Sessions of The Sri Lanka College of Microbiologists partnering with the Dentsu Aegis Network, and virtual AGMs for Sampath Bank PLC, Seylan Bank PLC, NDB Bank PLC, Dialog and the Carsons Group.