The Importance of Professional Photography at your Conference in Dublin

www.alanrowlette.ie

© Alan Rowlette

When you’re throwing an annual event such as a conference, your budget is spread over such a wide variety of categories: venue, speakers, materials, refreshments, and a million other things. Finding the right balance of what to invest in often takes a seasoned professional and usually needs to be approved by a board or committee. Justifying a new expense can be tricky, I totally understand.

But I’m here to tell you that if you’re not investing in a professional photographer to document your event, you’re losing out.

Worth Their Weight in Gold - The Photographs, not the Photographers!

Building an incredible conference is important, but if that event is annual, marketing is key. You only have one chance to get the images you need, so having a professional photographer on site, with a targeted list of types of moments you’re looking to capture is the smart call.

Having beautiful, professional pictures of your attendees engaged in the learning, socialising, and growth that a conference or annual meeting provides becomes a valuable tool for putting together the marketing strategy and materials for the next year.

For Attendees

Using the photographs to promote the meeting demonstrates to potential attendees what they can expect from the experience. It’s easy to generate excitement by combining images of people raptly listening to a keynote, laughing with new friends at a cocktail hour, or studiously taking notes. 

Potential conference attendees can more easily imagine themselves as part of the action, inching them that much closer to sending in the ticket fee and booking their flight.

For repeat attendees, the images can trigger a fond remembrance of the activities at the conference. They may recognise a speaker they enjoyed, an activity that was a blast, or even spot themselves or acquaintances in the images. That familiarity is a boost in getting them to come another year.

For Sponsors

Showing potential sponsors what they are about to invest money in is valuable. Professional event photography can be used to demonstrate the level of engagement an attendee might demonstrate, how packed an expo area gets each year, or how prominently the sponsor logos are displayed on stage during a keynote.

They can give a good representation of the demographic and diversity of the attendees (backed up by the stats provided in the prospectus), helping the sponsor decide if they’d be reaching the right audience. Including beautiful conference photography of your event in materials also helps your event and organisation look polished and professional, a signal to sponsors that their money would be used wisely.

Where you can use Photographs of your Event

Okay, so you see the benefits of getting the photographs, but what specifically do you do with them afterwards? You can use the photos in a variety of places, to reach different audiences and achieve different goals.

Promotion and Advertising for Next Year’s Event

The first opportunity to use your images is in invitations, calls for submission, advertisements, web graphics and other collateral intended to spread the word about the following year’s event. Seeing people experiencing the conference can be extremely convincing for returning attendees and new participants alike.

Don’t forget to include images on your organisation’s website and any pages dedicated to the following year’s conference. A lot of the time pages have essentially unlimited space, so you can use lots of photos mixed in with the pertinent details of the next event.

In Calls for Speakers and Sponsors

Putting your best foot forward when convincing people to sponsor the conference or when pursuing amazing keynote or workshop speakers is vital. You want to come off as professional, well-organised, and worthy of their time. Show a good representation of the kinds of attendees, activities, and atmosphere they can expect from this year’s event. Create materials specifically for speaking with potential sponsors or presenters and include the images, as well as specific benefits for supporters, attendee statistics, speaker amenities, etc.

In Social Media and Newsletters

As part of your marketing strategy, professional photography gives you a wealth of social media content to use throughout the year and in the lead-up to the next event. Keeping the conference in the forefront of your audience’s mind with images of attendees, speakers, and activities helps build familiarity and trust. You can even identify a series of photos to use weekly or more often, prep them and batch-schedule to take care of a huge chunk of your promotion in advance.

Use the photos in your newsletters to help the members of your community picture themselves at next year’s event. Highlight specific activities (mixers, panels, etc) they can look forward to the following year, instead of trying to convey all of the information at one time closer to the event.

In your Actual Materials for the Event

If you’re producing a print program, photographs of last year’s attendees or workshops can really fill an important role within your event materials. Images of members listening intently or enjoying themselves help set the tone as an attendee pages through the programs, planning out their schedule. Photos can also be used as a stylish design element, break up text-heavy pages, and help people understand what to expect.

In Marketing Collateral for your Organisation

If your organisation holds other events, produces an annual report, advertises or distributes marketing brochures or digital PDFs, use photographs of your conference to demonstrate some of the value that you provide. Images of events are particularly useful to attract new members, support your position in the community, and more.

• Corporate, Event, Conference, Commercial and Headshot photographer based in Dublin City centre. 

• Works with a team to achieve full coverage such as multiple track conference photography.

• Highly technical skillsets specialising in corporate and conference photography.

• Options for images edited on location or delivered next day.

• Professional attitude – a friendly persona with clients, their sponsors and delegates.

• Experience – Conference photographers who know what to do so you can focus on your job

• Insured – fully insured.

• Professional equipment – the best cameras and lenses for the job.

• Share images with clients.

• Quality images printable up to A2.

• Secure online gallery for you and your clients.

• Member of Dublin Chamber of Commerce, Site Global and Association of Irish Professional Conference Organisers.

• Alan Rowlette Recommended by Meet in Ireland and The Dublin Convention Bureau

Alan Rowlette is a Dublin-based corporate, PR, event, conference and commercial photographer. Alan's corporate photographic practice specialises in corporate headshots, corporate events, meetings, launches  and conference photography.

 Alan's commercial photography focuses on food, restaurant, people, fitness, product and property photography.  

As with all of our work we shoot in a contemporary and dynamic reportage style. 

To make and enquiry, or to view more of our work please go to

 www.alanrowlette.ie.

Alan’s background is firmly rooted in photojournalism and documentary photography and this shines through in his work. Alan specialises in bringing events, brands and businesses to life with his fresh and dynamic reportage approach. Alan's client list includes Google, Meta, Salesforce, Hubspot, TikTok, Diageo, The Royal Convention Centre Dublin, Aviva Stadium, The Convention Centre Dublin, Croke Park, Allied Irish Bank, Bank of Ireland, Bord Bia, Failte Ireland, The Happy Pear, Lidl, Bord Gais, Gala Foods and Wicklow Wolf Brewing.

Alan is a member of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce, The Dublin Convention Bureau, Association of Irish Professional Conference Organisers and SITE Global.

You can view more of Alan Rowlette’s work here:

  Dublin Headshot Photography

Dublin LinkedIn Photography

  Dublin Corporate Photography

Dublin Event Photography

Dublin Conference Photography

Dublin Business Photography

Dublin Press/PR Photography

Dublin Industrial Photography
Dublin Award Photography

Dublin Brand Storytelling Photography

Dublin Portrait Photography

www.alanrowlette.ie

© Alan Rowlette