Don’t Forget to – VIDEO IT!
At Premier Meeting Services we are advising clients to revise their AV budgets to include a professional video production company. Like most meeting planners who produce continuing education programs and company training sessions, videotaping high profile presenters and breakout sessions is nothing new for us. But, recently, we have upped our game.
We realize how valuable a complete video record of every event is to attendees, clients, and meeting planners alike. Professionally produced video re purposes and magnifies an event as follows:
- Educational sessions and trainings can be turned into webinars.
- Customer interviews can become case studies.
- Recorded content can be streamed for a blended event of live and online. In member-driven associations, for example, members who cannot attend the event are often willing to pay to attend online. This is a great additional revenue source.
- Your event never really starts or ends; it just takes place over four or five days and the other 360 days it lives on as you drip-feed the content out to people who went to the conference as well as to people who didn’t.
- The most valuable information is captured on tape. Whether it’s a recent medical breakthrough or an educational session for certification, when it’s captured on video it’s value to your organization is expanded dramatically.
- Your marketing department can broadcast your event’s culture via YouTube or Vimeo.
Do you need a Pro?
Each of these different uses requires different content and production value. Only a professional video production company can replicate the true value of your event. We have found, for example, that if your video production company can make content available immediately after a breakout session, the people who just walked out of the session often want to go back and watch something they may have missed or need a reminder of. If you wait two weeks to make it available, very few people will watch it.
Yes, You Do!
We have all noticed the difference between the videos we take on our iPhones of our child’s holiday pageant and the latest Hollywood blockbuster. The difference, of course, is production value.
- Filming with two or three cameras
- HD sound recording and dubbing
- Editing and producing for a wide variety of uses
- Adding AR/3D/Special effects, etc.
Because we have found so many professional applications for our event videos, home production is out of the question for us. Putting your camera on a tripod and turning it on will give you a record of your event, but shooting with a mixture of wide and tight shots then editing it together will give you a significantly better product that only a pro can produce.
For example, pros shoot what is known as B-Roll – other stuff which could conceivably be happening at the same time as the main event action (audience reaction – slides on the screen – crowds coming and going at your event – an aerial view of the venue – etc.) that adds drama, texture, and context to your event narrative.
The video pros we work with often suggest stage lightening. Stage lighting isn’t about accuracy, it’s about mood – and for that reason pros often use unique colors to light action at an event where the whole set may be bathed in blue, or red to create an effect that will alter the narrative in ways that you would never have imagined.
Whatever You Do – VIDEO IT!
A professional video recording of your entire event is no longer an event extra – it is an essential. Check with your event planner to make sure that they have a professional video production company they work with and gladly include the cost in your budget.
