The Video Rich Event

How many ways can video add to your event? If I could create my dream video package for an event, I would do any or all of the following:

1) Pre-Event Teasers:

Create a series 10- 20 second fun, catchy teasers to build excitement about your event. Links to these videos would be email to potential attendees, possibly with a VIP pass code to download them to their iPhone or smart phone of choice. Maybe (for example) even encourage attendees to collect all five for a door prize!

If you have an exciting VIP attendee/celebrity/musician/speaker that will be at your event, try to schedule an hour of their time prior to the event to capture a couple shots and catch phrases from them to use in the teasers.

A couple of well written zingers (a la SNL promo spots) released over the weeks leading up to your event could help build the anticipation and excitement around your event.

2) Video Blog

Spend a little time each week sharing with the world what new preperations have been made for your event, reveal your exciting guest speaker, tour the event facilities and show the attendees where to find the best booths, speakers, networking lounges, any little insights and insider info you can share with your audience on how to get the most out of your event before they arrive.

3) VJ

Live visuals mixed onsite at your event. If you are having a DJ or musician at your event, most venues also have screens or monitors. Turn those monitors into an opportunity to get your brand/product/or message in front of your audience in a very visceral manner. A motion graphics designer can create custom graphics integrating your logo or any other image or graphic of your choice into visuals that can be mixed with other images to compliment the audio at your event. Fully integrate your brand into your attendees sensory experience.

4) Case studies, high energy vignettes, spoofs . . .

There is an endless variety of visual content that can be created for keynote speeches, smaller sessions, kiosks, distribution to mobile devices. Any information you have for your audience can be packaged into a visually stimulating video presentation. Let your imagination run wild.

5) Roaming Camera Crew

Conduct onsite interviews, find out what people think, what they learned, what they loved, what they hated, how they plan on using the information they gained after the event is over. Capture the excitement and energy of the event. Included an editor in your camera crew and create fast turn around videos that can be shown at later sessions or dinners. You can even give footage to your VJ to mix in with your branded motion graphics.

Use all of this material after the event in a wrap up or thank you message or as a part of a multimedia press package and save it to build up excitement for your next big event.

These are really only a few suggestions. There are so many possibilities for using visuals to create a lasting impression and so many ideas that can be developed specifically for your company, your product, even shaped to the specifics of your venue and it's unique opportunities for creating a media rich environment for your attendees. What can video do for you?