Photo and video coverage for conferences in Barcelona: what to include, team size and deadlines
How to scope photo and video coverage for a conference: parallel rooms, posters, exhibition area, sponsors, speaker portraits and daily deliveries.
By Juanjo Vega Santa-Cruz · Noomadik
A conference is not one event, it is many at once. Plenaries, parallel rooms, posters, an exhibition area, sponsors, networking and often a dinner. For photo and video coverage to work, it needs to be scoped properly from the start: what is covered, by how many people and with what delivery deadlines.
This guide is aimed at organisers of scientific, medical, institutional or industry conferences. If you are an exhibiting brand at a large tech trade show, you will find more detail in our guide to MWC Barcelona.
What to include in the coverage
Plenaries and main sessions
This is what gets published most: speakers on stage, panel discussions, officials at the opening and a full room. Ask for several shots of each speaker (wide, medium and close) and photos of the audience listening and asking questions.
Parallel rooms
Many conferences run simultaneous sessions. You do not always need to cover all of them in full: the usual approach is to decide which sessions are a priority and, for the rest, do a round to get at least one photo of each room with speaker and audience. At the European Commission’s S3 forum we covered plenaries, panel discussions and parallel sessions across several rooms of the same building.
Posters and presentations
At scientific and medical conferences, the poster area matters to the authors and to the organisation itself. Photograph the posters with their authors explaining them, not just the empty board.
Exhibition area and sponsors
Sponsors often ask for photos of their stand, their logo on stage or their sponsored session. Draw up a list of commitments for each sponsor before the conference and share it with the photo team. For more on photographing a stand, see our guide to trade show stand photography.
Networking, breaks and dinner
Coffee breaks, lunch and the conference dinner give the most natural photos and the ones most shared on social media. If there is a social event away from the venue, include it in the plan. The same goes for client events organised alongside, such as the one for HPE and Intel during HPE Discover Barcelona at the Museu Marítim.
Speaker portraits
A corner with a neutral background and a few minutes between sessions are enough for quick portraits of speakers and the organising committee. They are very useful for the conference website, press releases and the next edition.
Group photo
Of the committee, the speakers or all attendees. Set aside a slot in the agenda and choose the place in advance. At Battery Innovation Days, for example, the group photo was part of the coverage alongside talks, panels and networking.
Venue and signage
The venue set up, registration, signage and the welcome area. Simple shots that work for the conference report and for promoting the next edition.
How many people on the team
There is no fixed number. What decides the size of the team is how much happens at once and how much of it you want documented in detail. Some guidelines:
- One main room and shared areas: one photographer is usually enough.
- Priority parallel sessions: one more professional for each strand you want covered continuously.
- An exhibition area with many sponsors: it is worth having someone dedicated to it during the busiest hours.
- Speaker portraits: if there are many, a fixed portrait spot with its own photographer works best.
- Video: always with its own professionals. Photo and video happen at the same time and each needs its own space and pace.
At Noomadik we have a team of photographers, videographers and content creators, and we organise it around each conference’s programme. We coordinate the group from the agency, so you have a single point of contact throughout the conference.
Video for conferences
Video greatly extends what you can do with the coverage. The most common pieces are:
- Highlights film of the conference, for the website and to promote the next edition.
- Short interviews with speakers, organisers or sponsors.
- Social clips, short and vertical, posted during the conference.
- Session recording, if the venue’s AV team does not already cover it.
Decide in advance which pieces you need and by when, because they change the size of the team and the plan for each day.
Delivery deadlines
During the conference
At multi-day conferences, the most useful thing is to receive an edited selection at the end of each day. That way the communications team can publish daily, send photos to the media and respond to sponsors without waiting until the end. If you need photos on the same day, for example of the opening, say so beforehand so a mid-day delivery can be organised.
After the conference
The full gallery, edited and organised by day, room and moment, arrives a few days after the close. The highlights film needs a bit more editing time; agree the deadline when you confirm the proposal.
How to organise the gallery
Ask for the gallery to be organised so the photos are easy to find: by day and, within each day, by room or by moment. If you have sponsors, one folder per sponsor saves a lot of work later.
How to prepare the conference with the photo and video team
- Full programme with times and rooms.
- List of speakers and officials, with photos if possible.
- Sponsor commitments that affect the photos.
- Key moments: opening, keynotes, awards, group photo, dinner.
- Venue floor plan and accreditation for the whole team.
- Delivery deadlines and who receives the photos each day.
If you need a starting point for all this, use our brief template for your event photographer.
If you are preparing a conference in Barcelona, see our conference and trade show photography in Barcelona page or send us the programme.
