Event Promotion and Photography

Event Based Visual Storytelling, Smartups, Indianapolis, IN
Hello Everyone, In this article, I would like to share some thoughts about the strategy and approach that went into the creation of the photo composition that is featured in this blog post.

Introduction

The image composition was taken in July 2015 at a monthly meetup called Smartups.  The event took place at the SpeakEasy, in Indianapolis, IN, which is a super awesome collaborative co-working space for entrepreneurs.  The speaker was Jeremy Williams from 12 Stars Media a great video production company based in Indianapolis.  The event was well attended and Jeremy gave a presentation titled "Top 10 Video Dos and Don'ts For Marketing."

The Photo Composition

If we take a moment to consider the image composition, the overall goal of the image was to promote the speaker, the event, and to do all of this in one concise image.  The image is actually comprised of three separate photographs.  The first image is Jeremy himself, in action, delivering the message.  Many times, when choosing an image of a speaker, I consider the background as a valuable asset to determine the overall effectiveness of a presenters message.  The trick is... to notice this in real time while shooting an event.  Other times, if there is no obvious asset, the structure of the room/building may be used as inspiration to guide the direction of the final output.  In this case, there is a large display with the message, "Quality over Quantity," which is a pretty cool message.  Looking back at the now... there is potential to leverage this message even further in post production and to make it more readable.

The bottom half of the composition is actually two separate images that have been stitched together to expand the viewing area.  The two images create a fuller view of the venue, the people, and capture the natural interactions that were happening between attendees.

To complete the composition, some basic design was added.  A few white lines were added for effect, a dark overlay was added to make text elements easier to read.  The intended audience for the image was for people on Twitter, so the hashtag and Twitter handle were added.  Many more design elements could have been used in the final output (logos, lead generation links, etc...) but the decision was made to keep it simple.  The thought being, perhaps the hashtag as a design element would entice the viewer to do their own research and see what else is happening on the #Smartups hashtag.  Sort of a "lead qualifier" if you will. It is also designed to engage users without giving them too much information. The tendency to think in terms of lead generation, comes from my years of web development, marketing, and sales funnel creation experience from the B2B SaaS world.

Conclusion

By, mixing together many different concepts and elements (photography, design, audience consideration, and lead generation) we end up with an example of how photography can be used to capture and event, tell a story, and to promote lead generation activities.

I hope you enjoyed this blog post.  If there are any questions, please feel free to contact me anytime or leave a comment below.

Thanks for stopping by and be sure check back soon for updates from Keynote Media!
Jer