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Why you need a professional photographer at your next event (and how to choose one)

Good event photography is something that lives on well past the event. The photos give attendees an opportunity to reflect on the event once it’s done and show others what they missed out on. They can be used to advertise the next event, or to liven up your social media channels.

While many people take photos these days on their smartphones, chances are these aren’t of the highest quality. When you want to ensure you have captured your event well, you need to hire a professional photographer.

A professional photographer will expertly document important event moments such as capturing the guests as they arrive, speeches, ceremonies, or other important interactions.

Here are some reasons why hiring a professional photographer is the best choice for your event:

They are committed to the event

A professional photographer isn’t there to enjoy themselves like everyone else is, and they likely don’t know any other guests, so their focus is solely on your event and capturing it from every angle.

They are experienced

Professional photographers have years of experience under their belt, along with an assortment of high quality equipment. This means they know exactly how to shoot in various lighting conditions, weather or locations, and it also means they won’t waste time on the job figuring it out.

Good photos speak volumes

If a picture says a thousand words, you can imagine what that means for a bad photo. Good photos are crucial for representing your brand well. Event photos can be used on social media, in marketing collateral, or to advertise your next event – all places that showcase how professional your brand is…or not.

With the world becoming more and more reliant on visuals to inform us, it’s now more important than ever to ensure you’re visually representing your brand to the highest quality.

So, how do you choose a photographer for your next event?

There are many different types of photographers out there, each with their own style and approach. To make sure you’re hiring the right photographer for your needs, consider the following:

View their portfolio

A professional photographer will have a portfolio or gallery of past events and shoots. This will give you an idea of the quality of their work and their range. Often you’ll find this on their website and social media channels. You’ll quickly be able to see whether they are good at capturing moments from different angles, or whether they just offer the usual same old photos.

Ask questions

If you don’t ask, you won’t know, so don’t be shy when it comes to finding out as much as possible about your potential photographer and their suitability for your event. Who are some of their past clients? How will photos be given to you after the event, and will they be edited? What are the costs involved? How long will they be at the event?

Meet with them

It’s a good idea to meet the photographer prior to the event. This way you’ll be able to ask them questions directly, and see how they interact with you and your team. This is important as it’ll give you an insight into how they handle other people and how they will act at the event. A photographer needs to be professional, approachable and friendly, as they will be approaching your guests throughout the event.

Want to create an event worth capturing? Talk to AVPartners today about how to create a visually stunning event.

The benefits of a team building event and how to plan one

Team building is vital to the success of your organisation. When you have a team that appreciates and respects each other, they will likely be more productive, efficient and happy. What’s not to love? A team building event is a great way to deliver on your team building goals and enhance the overall performance of your team.

The benefits

Team building events give employees the chance to test out their teamwork skills and have fun by engaging in activities or challenges together. Each person starts the day on the same level as everyone else, despite where they may sit in the organisation, with a task at hand and a novel approach to it. Everyone has the chance to be heard, have fun, and draw on skills they may not have had an opportunity to showcase within their workplace role. These events are also a great way for your team to form better relationships with each other, and truly bond over common ground.

The objective

When planning a team building event or activity, it’s best to determine a goal or objective before you begin. Knowing what direction you would like your team to go in, and what you want everyone to get out of the day, will assist you in choosing appropriate activities and venues.

Usually, team building events or activities aim to provide fun and boost morale, or they aim to solve a problem or a communication breakdown within the workplace. This is achieved by getting everyone out of the work environment and allowing them to relax and get to know each other better in a new setting. This can help people to open up to new experiences and can lead to a better understanding of each other. Additionally, tackling a workplace problem outside of the usual domain can reveal a new perspective on the issue, and potentially, how it can be solved.

Things to consider

Ensure that the activity chosen is appropriate for your team and workplace. A wine and cheese tasting or a trivia night are great options for fun casual events where the goal is to relax and socialise. If you want to take things up a notch, you could arrange a CSI night, where your team works to solve a ‘murder’, or a casino or games night where everyone can let their hair down and mingle with their colleagues. If the aim is to create greater team cohesion, activities such as ‘escape rooms’ or interactive matrix style mazes really test people and require them to pool their strengths to get out of the game.

More ideas for your next team building event include cooking workshops, live drawing, community service, bowling, and outdoor sporting activities such as bootcamp, rock climbing or rowing. These can all be fun activities, but you might find that some are better suited to your team than others.

At AVPartners we love supporting team building events to bring your team closer together! It’s important to think about what technology will be required to make your event a success – from getting the lighting and sound right, through to ensuring you have the right projection screens, or even considering what app technology you can leverage to strengthen communication and engagement – technology can often make or break an event.

When dividing your team into groups, keep the group sizes to a maximum of 10. This will mean that each group member can be fully engaged and it’s far more manageable than larger groups, where people tend to detach themselves.

Keep the momentum rolling after the event by setting action plans at the end of the day for everyone to take back to work with them. This could include making sure employees say hi to a new friend made that day, or keeping tabs on the progress of solved problems. These actions can ensure the team building event has a lasting and meaningful effect.

Keen to bond your team together with a team building event? Contact us today and we’ll show you how!

Take your event to the next level with event styling

Event styling is one of the most impactful and cost-effective ways to add that wow factor to your event. At AVPartners we’ve helped create nearly every event theme or style you can think of – from the Oscars, to Great Gatsby, Moulin Rouge, Masquerade and many more.

Event styling incorporates furniture, decor, centrepieces and table layout, props, audiovisual and digital elements. It takes your guests on a journey, showcasing your theme, your branding and your ideas.

You want to make sure that your event is hitting the mark and delivering your desired event message to your guests. How can you be sure that your event will do this successfully?

Begin by confirming the reason for the event, and why you are gathering together. This is the message you want to get across. Think about the power of your message and how you can convey this to your guests.

Next you will want to look at what new, fresh ideas are available for your event, to impress, inspire and connect your guests. These days, event styling and theming draws heavily on technical production with content displayed on digital screens, unique lighting and other audiovisual elements creating a dynamic, immersive experience.

By combining traditional styling with bespoke ideas, themes and modern, digital options your event can really make an impact.

This article originally appeared at Business Events News.

5 Reasons Why You Should Keep Parties in the Marketing Plan

The last few years have seen many marketers take events, conferences and seminars off the marketing plan and instead focus more of their resources on digital according to Ryan Taylor, Partner at Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre, AVPartners.

The main reason for this is cost. Events are seen as more costly than seemly inexpensive, and sometimes free, digital channels. However, digital activities cannot replace the powerful human element that events can deliver.

In fact, it shouldn’t be one or the other. Marketers should be using a combination of both offline and online marketing tactics to achieve cut through.

While digital marketing can reach tech savvy audiences with bite size information to elicit an action, it requires a large effort and volume of content to get a response; hence the conversion rate can be quite low. But with events, you hold an audience’s attention much more effectively and are able to use the human element combined with great AV and staging techniques to create a lasting positive impression that results in a much higher conversion rate.

Before marketers make the decision to strike events off the marketing plan, they should consider that events have the ability to:

Directly and physically influence an audience

In an increasingly digital world where many interactions occur online, events provide a human and physical element which can be powerful and influential, leading to higher conversion rates and hence an increased ROI

Share content in a truly immersive and engaging manner

With increasing focus on the impact of effective content on customer behaviour, events remain one of the best ways to deliver content in a way that is immersive, erasing ambiguity and creating engagement because of person-to-person interaction.

Convert customers while they are in a state of interest and excitement

In a world where marketers are fighting to gain attention from increasingly distracted audiences, events provide the opportunity to focus the attention on a single proposition, person or idea. They can also create excitement and leave audiences in a state of anticipation, the perfect opportunity where you are more likely to be effective in achieving sales conversions.

Create a meaningful and memorable experience for your customers that correlates to a positive brand experience

The importance of positive branding and consumer sentiment cannot be underestimated. Events can allow you to leave a positive imprint on your audience by creating an in-the-flesh, in-the-moment wow factor that has a lasting effect and can stimulate positive word of mouth.

Engage your audience to become your marketers to amplify your message beyond your event via social media

The combination of physical and digital can be powerful. People attending and posting to social media about an event can quickly amplify to become trending topics. Savvy event organisers that use social media hashtags, handles and pages can take the brand beyond the physical event.

This article originally appeared at B&T.