Photo from evsimon.com · Book your event
Photos from a company dinner, an opening or a corporate anniversary are put to good use when they are used to communicate, not left in a folder as a keepsake. The work starts before the event. The company decides what it wants the images for: social media, the website, the press, internal communications or promoting the next edition. It hands the job to someone with experience in corporate event photography and gives them a script setting out everything that is going to happen. After the event, the photos are shared out by channel. LinkedIn and Instagram are for the days that follow, the website is for showing what the company is like on the inside, and an organised archive is for preparing the next event. In business, the group photo is usually the first thing people ask for and, on reflection, the one that adds the least. The images that tell a story are different ones: guests arriving, speeches on stage and conversations between attendees. That is where the culture and values of the organiser come through.
Six steps before, during and after the event
The first step is to decide on the goal. For an anniversary, it might be recognising the team and strengthening the company's culture. For an opening, it might be getting official photos for the press and social media. If this step is skipped, you end up hiring a photographer simply because everyone else does, and the photos have no clear use. The second step is choosing who to give the job to. Photos taken by people without experience tend to be of poor quality, and the function rooms and restaurants where these dinners are held have little light. According to an analysis of common mistakes in event coverage, poor indoor lighting accounts for approximately 40% of technical failures caused by incorrect camera settings. A professional also knows how to keep pace with the event without getting in the way. The third step is to prepare a briefing, in other words a set of instructions for the photographer, together with the running order: the timetable of speeches, toasts and presentations, and who is who. Without a complete running order, the photographer cannot anticipate what is going to happen and misses key moments. It is also a good idea for them to coordinate with the videographer and the organisers. The fourth step is to ask attendees for their consent, because some people do not want to appear in photos. Publishing without that permission is a mistake that cannot be undone. The fifth step is the photocall, a backdrop with the company's logo and colours where guests have their photos taken. That way the brand appears in every image the attendees share. Many companies only use it during the event and do not make the most of it in their digital communications afterwards. The final step is delivery. The photos need to arrive ready for social media, the web and print, and be published in the days that follow, not months later.
Photo from evsimon.com · Book your event
Where to start
The simplest way to start is to open the diary for the next event and note down three things on a sheet: what the photos are wanted for, where they will be published and who would rather not appear in them. With that sheet and the event's running order, you can already talk to a photographer who specialises in corporate events and agree which moments they should cover. If you still have photos from a previous dinner or anniversary, it is worth going through them carefully, keeping the ones that are still useful and using them to announce the next celebration.
Photo from evsimon.com · Book your event
