What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 20 July

Welcome to another week and seeing as we have just had all of the photos in from our recent client event which was a Spinal Conference, we thought it timely to talk about photography for events this week.

Photo Booths are still playing a key part in both the private and corporate events scene and as we love an excuse to don a large hat, a whopping pair of sunglasses and a boa, we are no exception here at Cloud 9 Towers.

As well as increasing popularity at weddings there has been a new wave of photo booths at Proms, miles stone celebrations such as Christenings and Bar and Bat Mitzvahs and Birthdays as more and more people realise that not only are photo booths a great ice breaker and fun for guests, but they also capture unique and special memories especially those offering a post event guest book.

In the corporate and public events industry then its certainly the case that social media enabled photo booths are the way forward. These enable users to engage with the experience both offline and online, having a physical print and the ability to share their photos through hashtags, facebook, instagram and more. You can event create your own animated photos (GIFS) and flip books – again both as an actual flip book and a digital animation you can share with the world.

But once the fun stuff is out of the way, how about the professional photography?

Photographing special events is not the most glamorous gig in photography, but irrespective of the size or location of the event, getting the right images that capture the essence of the event can make all of the difference for you and your clients.

When you run a big corporate event it’s always a good idea to hire a specialised events photographer to capture the day. It’s also great to give your staff a reminder of your successful event because these photos can help them to be motivated and build their team spirit. High quality photos are also good to use as promotional materials and brochures.

Once you have chosen your events photographer you will need to brief them carefully to make sure that you get the shots that you want. The event only happen once so you don’t want to miss your chance to get things right so make sure you give a good brief.

Here are 9 ideas for you to make your photographer work for you and get it spot on!

People Count and if you have any keynote or guest speakers, or senior officials or celebrities then make sure your photographer know where and when to capture them. Introduce your photographer to the people that they will need to capture so that they will recognise them in the crowd and know who they should be looking out for. 

It may sound obvious but if you want your photographer to get the shots you need then they will have to be in the right place at the right time. You will need to give them an up to date schedule of the event and highlight any key note speeches, break-out sessions or team building games that you particularly want photographed. Remember they may need to get to a room early to set up their equipment so allow enough time between sessions for them to do this.

Many events these days have numerous stakeholders or sponsors, and they have probably invested a fair bit in both terms of time or financial support, so make sure you get shots of the key people involved, any exhibition stands or sponsors logos. Keep your photographer aware of any live sessions which have been sponsored.

If it’s an awards do, then again, keep those sponsors happy. Its not just about taking shots of the winners, but also capturing the essence of the entire event and sponsors giving out prizes will make for great memories for everyone involved.
 
Sometimes it’s hard to convey what you want out of a photograph in words so why not use a picture instead. Before the event have a look at other corporate brochures and search the internet for styles of photography that you feel will suit your brand. Then you can easily show your event photographer how you want your shots to look and the type of images that you are expecting from them.
 
Set up photos can also be a great way to show the befores and afters of an event. An empty space at 8am can look completely different at 10am when its packed with delegates and a good photographer can show the difference a few warm bodies can make to any space.
 
You will have briefed your photographer on who you want in your photos but you also need to tell them what you want in your photos. There’s nothing more frustrating than getting a great shot of a speaker but having an object such as a chair or lectern blocking your company logo. Be clear that you want full logos in the background of any shots that they take. If you are having your conference in a stunning venue or fantastic location you may also want them to get shots of these in the background too.
 
After a hard days of work your staff would want a chance to unwind. Many large corporations organise a party with food, music and dancing in the evening. Whilst it’s great to have the formal shots from the conference it can also be fun to get some more relaxed pictures to capture everyone really enjoying themselves. Let your photographer know if you want them to take some evening shots – they will definitely make everyone smile!
 
Finally, make sure you can get your photos quickly post event. There is nothing worse than having to wait ages to get the photos up and available for sharing. With the rise in social media, you need to make sure your guests and delegates can have access immediately to the shots!

There, we hope you have found that useful. Have a great week!

  

What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 23 June 2014

Welcome to yet another week at Cloud 9 Towers! 

Last week we told you that the Bristol Media Brand You Awards will be closing for entries on Friday 20 June. There's a good quality of entries into the Awards again this year, but know that there are more of you out there who deserve to be recognised for your work. So they have extended the deadline to Friday 4 July, there's no excuse to miss it now!

Friday 4 July is proving to be a rather popular date for deadlines as The Fresh PR and The Fresh Creative Awards entries are also closing then. Fresh is an independently owned organisation that works in conjunction with a variety of leading industry titles, delivering awards programmes designed to recognise and reward creativity, effectiveness and innovation in the Creative, Digital, Media and Public Relations arena's in the UK and Ireland. Established in 2003, Fresh has quickly become a recognised brand and important highlight in the industry calender, with an original approach to awards delivery and a policy of keeping the process of entering awards as transparent as possible. 

Fresh is committed to ensuring the appointments of only the very best people to judge the awards across all three of the programmes as well as making the events themselves, not only spectacular but also a real chance to network. You will never find plastic chicken and soggy veg at Fresh - they take their awards and entrants work very seriously, but want to offer great value and more importantly make the ceremonies as fun as possible. So can you sock it to 'em and get Fresh in 2014?!

Cloud 9 are quite heavily involved with both of the Awards programmes, so as you can see we will have a rather busy next couple of weeks. Moving on to this week though, we have a couple of exciting events that we're attending starting with the Visual Media Conference on Wednesday. 

Visual Media are the diverse technologies of the communications industry: print, broadcast, email, websites. The conference is in the North because the industry is buzzing and the appetite for informed debate is strong – the concentration of media companies, digital agencies and printers is a magnet for the leading experts, industry resources and suppliers.

This conference is a direct response to demand for a follow-on conference from Media Market Place’s 500+ attendees. Bringing together leading figures across the spectrum of media to inform a debate of how integration will continue to disrupt the current thinking on comms. This is a first to take Visual Media from the brand owners’ perspective right through to the consumers’ emotional response with all the links. 

The speaker line up is pretty impressive with interesting talks from VPress, Sky Adsmart, Prolific North, Bloom, Proco, Media-Plaza, HP and many more. 

Also this week, we have been invited to take part in The Accor Agent Football Tournament on Saturday. It has to be said that the team at Cloud 9 have no experience in football but we're all for the taking part! The five a side football tournament will take place at Lancashire Football Association, Leyland with an overnight stay at the Mercure Dunkenhalgh Hotel & Spa, so its sure to be a fun day. We even have an official Cloud 9 uniform....!

This football tournament is part of Accor's new 2014 incentive Footballers Lives. The campaign will allow venue finding agents, meeting planners and event agents to earn "goals" for every meeting they book at any of Accor's UK and/or Overseas hotels. As 2014 is the year of football with Brazil being the very heart of the action. Accor would like to give you a taste of that with their exclusive prize draw, giving you the chance to with the life of a soccer superstar! 

That's all for this week folks, enjoy!