A picture is worth 1,000 words
by Bob Hannaford
One of the mantras we use frequently at Naughty Events is that we need to make sure we properly convey our experience so that our attendees will know what to expect at our event. Last week’s blog was about setting expectations and this week we will touch on that more as we discuss photos at events.
We get questions all the time asking us about our photo policy and if its OK to take photos and it has changed over the years. It seems like it would be easy to just say “No Photos” and not allow any photos at lifestyle events to protect everyone’s privacy, but we live in an Instagram world and people’s phones are attached to their hands like an appendage.
We have struggled with trying to keep phones out of our events and we had strict policies for a while but it took up most of our staff’s time doing nothing but telling people to put their phones away and to stop taking photos. No matter what we said or how strict our policies, phones were always out. People were always taking selfies. We finally gave in and had to change our policy.
We finally decided to talk to our attendees like adults and say OK, if you are going to take a photos, then please, do it against a wall or a backdrop or somewhere that doesn’t have other people in the background.
Most people are not trying to out anyone or cause issues, they simply want to document their sexy costumes or outfits so they can show their friends.
What have you seen when it comes to other event’s photos?
When you have gone to events in the past, did the experience match what you saw in the flyer? The ad? The website promoting the event?
Were there photos showing you what to expect or was every picture a photo of a model, usually a solo woman looking directly into the camera in a sexy pose? We see these types of advertisements more and more but what is it telling you about the experience?
Did the event have lots of sexy models when you got there, or were most of the attendees normal looking couples? What was the music like and did the advertisements let you know what to expect?
This is a typical stock flyer many clubs and events use
To be honest, it is hard to have accurate photos of an event because of privacy concerns. Most couples do not want photographers walking around taking photos and most events have no camera policies.
We are seeing more “selfie booths” and places designed to allow people to take a photo at an event with a neutral background which makes it harder to catch someone in the background. People post these event selfies on Social Media and these give the community a glimpse into the event without putting people at risk of being outed by being in the background.
We added 4 of these selfie booths at this year’s Naughty N’awlins and they were very popular. We couldn’t count the amount of people who posted their photos on places like Kasidie.com, in Facebook groups and on Instagram. Lifestyle clubs and events should look into investing in these types of areas so people can safely take a photo and share it online while minimizing the risk of getting others in their shot.
A picture IS worth 1,000 words
At this year’s Naughty N’awlins, we added a couple of events just to make sure we could get some photos of our event without creating issues for attendees who did not want their photos taken.
We scheduled two separate “photo shoots” where we opened up the main ballroom one night and the EDM room the other night prior to those spaces being open to the attendees. We put a call out to anyone that is OK with being in photos for social media and our website. We had over 200 people show up and we got them all on the dancefloor so we could start taking photos and videos of what it looks like at our events.
I think it is important for us to be able to show people what our events look like and while we did not have 1,000 people on the dancefloor (like later in the night), we were able to give a good idea of what it looks like so people would know what to expect.
We took photos of the playrooms while they were empty, it doesn’t take much imagination to figure out what it would look like with people added in….
We also took some photos of the big crowds at the Bourbon Street parties so you can see the energy without focusing on people’s faces.
We also took photos of entertainers and pool parties, while blurring out people in the background so you can see the energy without seeing any actual people in the background.
In the end, our goal is threefold:
To make sure our attendee’s privacy is maintained.
Give people interesting areas where they can take selfies.
Get photos showing what our event is like without compromising #1.