Project Description

Enhance the reach of your conference content with video – and get more people hitting the ‘book’ button for the next event

Shropshire organisation SAND (Safe Ageing, No Discrimination) works with care providers and agencies across the county, to make sure they’re providing a good experience for older and old LGBT+ people.

In October 2023, for the first time they brought all of those organisations together at the Small Steps Big Difference conference to share best practice, and discuss what more they can do.

SAND approached VideoHQ to discuss filming the event, so that the presentations could have a wider reach than just those present at the event.

Also, even though it was the first conference, it definitely wouldn’t be the last! So they also wanted a highlights montage to generate more sign ups when the next event rolled around.

 

What was the pre-production process like?

I’ve worked with SAND many times over the past few years, so am already well on board with their target audience, messaging, and aims.

Therefore much of this pre-production process focussed on what the schedule of the day was (so I knew where to be and when), and what final video products they wanted from the day.

 

What was the filming process like?

I arrived at Shrewsbury Town FC at 8am, and while unloading my kit Sal from SAND shouted to me that there was a rainbow over the pitch! You don’t miss that kind of visual opportunity at an LGBT+ event, so I grabbed my camera and ran outside. It made the perfect opening shot of the highlight video!

Image shows rainbow over one of the stands at the Montgomery Waters Meadow football stadium in Shrewsbury

The morning of the conference was made up of a series of short presentations, which would be filmed in full and used by SAND as educational resources.

I set up my two cameras at the back of the room on tripods: one capturing a wide shot showing the presenter and slides; the other was a close up of the presenter. This means in the edit, I could cut between the two shots.

Image shows a camera monitor recording an LGBT conference at the Montgomery Waters Meadow stadium in Shrewsbury, Shropshire

While the visual set up was quite simple, the audio was more complicated! Although there was an in-house AV team capturing live audio, I don’t like to rely on this for my own work, in case there’s any technical problems.

Therefore, I mic’d up each presenter with lapel microphones, which have a magnetic attachment to make the changeover super speedy. I simply stood at the side of the stage, and as one presenter left the podium, I took the microphone from them, and attached it to the next presenter. 

The rest of the day was spent filming highlights of the workshops and feedback session, and also grabbing video feedback with participants.

I’m a former BBC journalist, so this kind of on-the-ground interview is my happy place. I mean, they used to send me patrolling the streets of Hanley asking punters about Brexit, so this is a piece of cake in comparison!

 

What was the editing process like?

We’d discussed in advance what order SAND would like the videos to be produced in.

So I kicking it off by producing the event highlight video, so they could post it really quickly onto social media, while it was still fresh in people’s thoughts.

The idea was that it’d be a good recap for people who attended, and it’d make people who hadn’t jealous!

After that, I put together the eight short presentation videos, which SAND are now using as part of their training and other events.

 

Looking for video coverage of a conference of business event you’ve got coming up? Get in touch to chat through your plans.