Project Description

If you do it, shout about it: Shropshire academy trust invest in training conference event video

The Marches Academy Trust is based in Oswestry, and is responsible for 10 schools across the county of Shropshire.

The trust holds an annual conference, so that teachers can come together, celebrate their success, and learn about the latest research and strategies for education.

The trust contacted VideoHQ for help with creating an event video from their 2022 conference, which was held at the International Centre in Telford.

They wanted a video which showed off how much they invest in the development of their staff, which could be used to help recruit teachers to the trust.

What was the filming process like?

Teachers love an early start (or at least, they do them regularly!) so with everyone arriving for 8:30, I had to have my kit set up and be ready in advance. At least it was nice watching the sun come up as I drove out of Eccleshall!

The first part of the conference was a talk by Mick Waters to all 400+ teachers. I positioned my camera at the back of the event space with a long range zoom lens on it, so I could still get close up shots of the presentation.

In order to get crisp audio, I mic’d Mick up with a lavalier microphone on his lapel, so that I’d be able to use clips from his presentation in the final event video.

When I’m filming events like this, I’m always grabbing interviews with attendees and facilitators, to get all the different perspectives about how the day went. This makes it possible to craft engaging narratives while editing, rather than just making it about the conference itself.

I’m a trained journalist, which basically means you can throw me in front of anyone and I’ll be able to help them be confident on camera, and ask questions which get the responses I need for the video. I know the Marches Academy Trust found this really useful, as they could just leave me to it, rather than needing to stick around and feed me the questions to ask.

Finally, there were workshops going on throughout the day, so I popped around and filmed these so that I had loads of footage to make the video more interesting, and to illustrate what was said in the interviews.

What was the editing process like?

For me, editing an event video like this is all about crafting narratives. I want one interview to link to the next, so the flow of the video keeps the audience engaged and watching to the end.

That means knowing really well which interviewee said what, and when, so that you can start linking it all together.

That does mean I sometimes feel a bit like this though!

Once the video narrative is laid out, its a case of creating sequences and adding footage which really illustrates what each interviewee is saying. 

An inspiring backing track the caps the video off nicely! 

How has the video been used?

The event video sits on the ‘conferences’ page on their website. Video really helps to boost the search engine ranking of your site, because organisations like Google look at how long someone is staying on the pages of your website. This is obviously higher if someone is sticking around to watch a 5 minute video.

The event video was posted onto the Trust’s social media pages, and advertised in the school newsletter’s so parents could see how much training their children’s teachers received. 

The conference is happening again February 2023, so the trust are using this video to promote that event.

The video has also been added to the Trust’s YouTube channel.