4 Keys to Conference Video Planning

Your company is having a big conference. You’ve got the venue booked, the speakers selected, and are finalizing the food menu. And then it comes – the request to have the presentations recorded. And wouldn’t it be great to have an overview video of the event to promote it next year!

While 100 ACRE FILMS can’t help you with choosing the venue or the menu (can’t go wrong with a beach-close location and a nice steak), we can help you with the video production side of things. We’ve worked with many companies at their tradeshows and conferences, so we have a lot of experience. We’ll cover things to consider at tradeshows in a future post, but for now, let’s focus on conferences. When planning a conference, get your video production team involved as early as possible. Here are some things to keep in mind when you want to hire a video production company for your conference:

WHAT DO YOU NEED

I know this sounds simple, but it’s an important question that can have a lot of follow up questions. Let’s start with something simple – do you need just the presenters and/or keynotes recorded? And if so, do you want them edited afterwards for viewing online? If you want them edited, do you want any power point slides the presenters used included in the finished video? Is there a Q & A following each presentation, and do you want that included? How long is each session? How big is the room the sessions are happening? That lets us know what kind of lens to use on our camera(s).

Are any of the presentations panel discussions? If so, we’ll want to have at least two cameras to better cover the session.

Do you want a sizzle video to show at the open of the conference? Something to get the crowd excited about the conference and your company. Do you need any animations for presenter intros?

Do you want to film any interviews or testimonials during the event? If so, do you want them in formal sit-down style, or more informal “man-on-the-street reporter” style? How do you ultimately want those used – edited into their own videos, edited into something else, or included in an overview video. Which leads to…

Do you want an overview video of the event to promote for next year? Or do you want a video to show at the end of the conference? Something to remind everyone of the great time they just had, and let them know you’re excited to see them next year.

All of these things are important when helping us form a budget and quote for your project. We know – it seems like a lot of information, but trust us when we tell you that it is all vital stuff. To accomplish all of that can take a small crew or a large crew. And we’ll need to build that crew for you to make sure everything gets covered as you need.

WORKING WITH AN A/V VENDOR

Most likely you’re going to hire a company to handle all the A/V needs for your conference – the staging, the lights, the projectors and screens, the microphones, etc. It’s good for us to know who they are so we can talk with them about what they’ll need from us as well as what we’ll need from them. If we’re creating any videos for playback during the conference, we’ll need to know any special formats ahead of time to make sure that A/V team get exactly what they need.

Doing a location scout ahead of time sometimes can be very helpful. Knowing the layout of the room(s), where we can park, unload and load in from, and where we can get electricity from are all good things to have worked out prior to the first day. We even ask for a setup day ahead of time if the conference requires a lot of complex set up.

Another important thing is audio. Will we be able to have access to their audio feed for our cameras? This is very important as we don’t want to have to double mic everyone who presents, so being able to pull audio from the sound board of the A/V company is a huge help.

Also, knowing where we can set up in relation to where they will be in the room is important as well. We usually like to be as close to their setup as possible in case something comes up.

ROOMS AND SPACE FOR US

Shooting video usually requires a lot of gear. And we’ll need a place to store some of that while we work. Having a locked room where we can put our gear is something we’ll need. Also, if we’re going to be doing any editing on site, we’ll need a room to do that in as well. And if your event is a multi-day event with early start or late wrap times, getting rooms at a hotel might in order as well.

TIMELINE FOR DELIVERABLES

Knowing when you’ll need to have everything is important. Often, clients want to get the presentations and/or interviews posted to their company website and/or YouTube channel as soon as possible after the conference ends. We can do that, but we’ll need to know that before we start so we can have our team editing while the show is going on, or start right at the conclusion of it. Editing can take a lot of time, so getting a jump on it helps us meet your deadline.

We hope this information helps you as you plan your next conference. As we mentioned earlier, having a high energy video to kick things off, stylish animations to introduce presenters, and an overview video to get people excited and registered for next year are all things that can take your conference to the next level. Posting the presentations online for those that couldn’t attend is also a great way to get people interested in attending the next year. But accomplishing all that takes some pre-production planning, and 100 ACRE FILMS is happy to help with that.

As one of San Diego’s premier video production companies, we’re here to help you get what you need, and deliver the highest quality video to tell your story to your customers. Give us a call when planning your next conference. We look forward to working with you!