When the Encore360 team attended Cultivate last month, we agreed to shoot video content for five of our clients. We met with each one ahead of time, agreed on time slots to shoot, and came up with a list of questions to ask their subject matter experts (SMEs).
We did everything right to plan ahead, and still experienced a few bumps along the way. But if we hadn’t gone through the pre-planning process, who knows how far behind we would be right now, one month later.
The high stakes kept our eyes on the prize: one location, one tight time window, and several clients competing for our time.
Here’s what we did to stay on track.
1. Plan Ahead
Before we drove down to Columbus, the Encore360 team made a master schedule that had all of our client names, when we planned to meet with them, and what they planned to shoot. We also gave ourselves extra time in case one shoot went longer than planned, and noted each booth number before we went there to shoot.
More importantly, we made the deliverables crystal clear with each client upfront. If they wanted a highlight reel, interview clips, and recorded sessions, we made sure to confirm that on a call the week before the show. On that same call, we set realistic expectations on when the video footage would be sent back to them.
2. Organize Your Camera Crew
If you have two videographers, assign them to different clients. That’s exactly what we did at Cultivate: we had two videographers who went to different booths. Since we don’t have a full-time videographer on the Encore360 team, we used freelancers just for the show.
This made for a seamless experience when we arrived at each booth, as they knew who their cameraman was, creating some sense of familiarity. It also helps to have a member from your team—ideally someone they’ve worked with closely—on-site as well.
3. Stay On Schedule
Build in 15 to 20 minutes between every client visit because sessions almost always run long. To that end, it also helps to schedule your most demanding, complex shoots at the start of the day. This ensures you have more energy and time to recover if something goes wrong or you need to reshoot a clip or two.
It helps to keep a shared live doc that you can update, so your team knows if shoots are on time or running late. For your own benefit, you can set alarms or reminders before each transition so you’re never keeping a client waiting.
4. Communicate with Clients
If you’re running late, let the client know. If you need to record another interview because you missed the person at the booth, let them know. Staying in contact and in the loop ensures the client isn’t blindsided if you aren’t able to deliver a piece of content they were expecting.
Remember—many clients expect you to share video content live on-site. If you record an especially compelling video and want to share it with the client during the show, do so. An important part of attending tradeshows is posting in real time, so if your clients are expecting that, deliver on your promise.
5. Handle the Post-Show Workflow
Prioritize deadlines over shoot order—sort the deadlines from the most dire to the least. This flags clients with a hard deadline from those that are more flexible, ensuring those video clips are finished first.
To improve efficiency, it helps to batch-edit videos so you get more done at once. And don’t wait to send the first cuts to the client—don’t wait for polish, since client feedback can change the direction of the video entirely. For the extra b-roll footage you don’t use, keep it stored on a drive in case the client asks for it later.
6. Pitfalls to Watch For
In the moment, it’s easy to overpromise turnaround times. However, it’s important to be realistic. Sometimes, the client will have more edits than you originally expected, which can put your original timeline off schedule.
This personally happened to us—closed captions are typically off when they’re AI-generated. Once you’ve generated captions for each interview, make sure to watch them back, watching out for misspellings, wrong words, and inaccuracies. It may take time, but fix all of these errors before you send the clips off to the client. This will spare you plenty of back and forth.
Multi-client shoots will always have surprises. What separates a smooth show from a scramble is how much you’ve planned for before you even set foot on the floor.
