An event where thought leaders and members of your community come together under one roof is the perfect opportunity to create content that feeds your marketing. Whether that be to promote next year’s event, provide further thought leadership content beyond the conference, or fill your social channels with fun and engaging content. It’s an opportunity to take advantage of having everyone together, instead of scheduling separate time to record content.
Capturing content at these events is also advantageous because there is a different level of energy and buzz than usual. Everyone is excited to learn and further their career development and build a community with like-minded people. Put those people on camera or behind a podcast mic and they’re sure to have positive things to share about their experience! So that’s exactly what we did at EA Ignite.
As is standard with most of our event coverage work, we captured photos and conference broll while on site. We worked with the Diversified Communications team prior to the event to come up with a shot list that we referenced throughout the conference. That way, we could make sure that we were capturing the types of shots they were looking for as well as the must have people, sessions, signage or branding, and events.
Part of our video capture also included recording video testimonials with attendees. Ahead of the event, we met with the client and decided on what they wanted the deliverables to be. We knew they were looking for a new video about their ASAP community and resources, so we planned accordingly! Our team interviewed people about their experience at the event, but also made sure to ask questions that would get us the content we were looking for. The questions were focused on the importance of career development, access to training materials, various certifications, etc. We pulled people aside in between sessions, at various networking receptions, and during breaks to conduct these quick interviews. At the end, we walked away with more than enough soundbites to put together a new video that met the clients goals.
The unique part of season 3 of ASAP’s “The Admin Edge” podcast is that it was all recorded at this event in Nashville. We set up a table with some podcast mics and headphones next to a soundboard and a camera on a tripod in front of a branded step and repeat and voila: we had a podcast booth! By keeping our set up to a small footprint and off to the side, it’s an easy win at a conference like this. Especially because in this instance, all of the guests they wanted to book were in attendance! Rather than trying to book time with each of these guests and find time to come into a studio, the ASAP team could batch record a whole season of podcast episodes at this event.
To celebrate Admin Day, which coincided with the last day of the event, the event organizers decided they wanted to offer a virtual component for one of the panel discussions. Our team helped out by bringing in two cameras and a small board to switch a live stream for this session. Sometimes, you don’t need to live stream every session at your event, just one might be enough (And we actually talked about this on one of our recent podcasts)!
One thing we’ve noticed is very popular at events is headshot booths. Especially at an admin event like this one, it’s a great value add for an attendee to walk away with. Our team ran the headshot booth that consisted of a simple gray backdrop with some lighting and a camera on a tripod. We had a consistent stream of people lining up for photos for the duration of the conference! Some people even came back twice, when they changed their makeup, clothes or hair and wanted their picture retaken. As each person stepped up to get their headshot, we had them hold up a whiteboard with their name and email. Once they were done, we had them record their information in a spreadsheet we had waiting for them as well. That way, it was easy for us to match up who was who and send the right headshots to the correct people post-event!
We also set up a photobooth for attendees to use during the post-conference reception. It was an easy way for attendees to capture memories together with their new friends, or people they hadn’t seen since the last EA Ignite! We brought in an iPad on a ring light stand, and set it up in front of a step and repeat. We used an app on the iPad that allowed the attendees to take a series of 4 photos that would then turn into a GIF that they could send to themselves at the end. It was a hit!
Needless to say we captured a lot of content at this event! So, what did we do with all of it? Our team delivered an album of 500 photos, sent 1,600+ headshots to attendees, edited together one video about ASAP that was also split into 3 shorter videos, and delivered 10 full podcast episodes along with shortened clips for social.
Want to turn your event into an opportunity to create some content? We’d love to help!