One video plan for delegates, speakers and sponsors

An association conference has several audiences for one video. Plan for each audience separately and one coverage plan can serve all of them.

Who uses the video, and what do they need?

Start with the people, then pick the outputs. This table is a starting point.

Our guide to turning conference recordings into learning resources and the sponsor video coverage checklist show how to plan the last three rows.

What do speakers and delegates need to agree to?

Speakers decide how their talk is used. Delegates decide whether they are happy to appear in shots of the room. Settle both before the day:

• Add a recording and publishing line to the speaker briefing.
• Note which sessions are closed or confidential, so the crew does not film them. See confidential presentations and off-record segments.
• Put up a notice at registration that filming is taking place. See participant notices and filming preferences.
• Keep recording and publishing separate. See recording an event versus publishing it.

How do you handle parallel sessions?

One camera operator films one room at a time. Ask three questions: which sessions overlap, which ones must be recorded, and which can be a fixed camera with no operator. The simultaneous coverage planner maps the clashes, and our guide to planning for simultaneous activities explains the trade-offs.

An illustrative two-day example

This is an example to show the thinking, not a package. Imagine a two-day conference with a main hall and two breakout rooms.

• Main hall: a crew with full recording of keynotes and the closing panel.
• Breakout rooms: only the two sessions members asked for, recorded as full sessions. The rest are covered by short highlight shots.
• Between sessions: networking, sponsor booths and arrivals, filmed by a roaming operator for the highlight film and promo.
• After the event: full sessions, speaker clips, sponsor clips, one highlight film and a short promo.

A published conference brief shows how detailed a request can get. The 2025 SIDEC conference brief (a historical example, not our work) asked for coverage at two venues, separate crews, daily highlights by the next morning, a next-year promo and a raw footage handover. Daily highlights and a raw footage handover are extras, so we agree them with you up front.

What decisions need an owner?

Give each decision to one person so the crew has a single answer:

• Who approves the highlight film and the promo?
• Who signs off sponsor clips?
• Who decides which sessions are priority if the programme changes?
• Who holds the final files and for how long?

The conference and convention videography page explains what we film at conferences. For a multi-year event, see how to keep video consistent across an annual event series.

What we confirm for your event

• Which sessions each crew covers, and which sessions are left out, before you book.
• How speaker clips are cut, and who on your side approves them.
• What we do if a session runs late or the programme changes: we follow your priority list.
• Which files you receive and how they are delivered.

Tell us the venue and date, and we confirm the crews and travel. The quote moves with the number of days, rooms and crews, and with the outputs you choose: recording every talk in full is a larger job than a highlight film. See pricing.