University of Southampton Summer Graduation 2023

Twenty ceremonies, 4,500 graduates and more than 6,000 guests – they are just some of the numbers from Brighter Events’ fortnight co-ordinating the University of Southampton’s graduation programme!

A total of 21 brave souls headed south for the event which followed the success of last year's Super Graduation where more than 40,000 people attended over the course of just one week.

After months of planning, the team arrived at the O2 Guildhall in the centre of Southampton to build the stage, organise the graduation village and make sure everything was perfect for the students to have a memorable day.

The Brighter crew managed to escape the hustle and bustle of the city as they travelled to the picturesque Winchester Cathedral as on-site support for the Winchester School of Arts section of University of Southampton graduation.

Between these two locations, the Brighter Events team was also joined by 16 audio visual crew and six sign language staff. The more the merrier, right?

With 3,000 online views from people from all over the world, the team dealt with one ambulance call out, a tent collapse due to high winds, one trip to A&E and helping Ruby Wax to get changed into her robe!

All in a day’s work for the team which saw them collectively cover more than 1.5 million steps during the course of the fortnight – that’s almost the same as walking from London to Glasgow, and back!!

Joanna Lake, Operations Manager – Special Projects, for Brighter Events, said: “It was a momentous effort by the team who pulled together through two long weeks to help bring the event to life.”

It’s time to start planning the university’s winter graduation now.

See you soon, Southampton…