CFA Global Conference at QEII & ExCel London

EXCEL EVENT PHOTOGRAPHY BY HARRY RICHARDS

For the last 15 years, it’s been a privilege to work as an event Photographer for the CFA Society of the UK and the CFA Institute.

In 2011, I worked solo on my first CFA Annual conference in Edinburgh. These events have grown enormously in recent years with the Chartered Financial Analyst program emerging as the leading qualification for responsible investment professionals.

Back in the UK after 8 years, the CFA Global Conference 2019 was to be held at ExCel London. Not only would it be impossible to shoot the 2019 convention solo, it became clear that the client’s new brief required a much larger team. I was tasked with assembling and managing a crew of 4 photographers and 3 editors.

With live streaming and breakout talks across ExCel's Capital Hall and smaller auditoriums, visitors could enjoy a bespoke experience. There was plenty of opportunities to cover delegate interactions with the sponsors and dynamic brand activation photographs.

While we delivered 3482 edited images between us, the photographs featured in this blog are my own work only.

ICC Auditorium

The ExCel Centre is an international exhibition arena hosting over 400 world-leading events each year. The enormous and versatile ICC Auditorium is only a small part of the complex but it will host up to 4200. From Big Tech and Gaming Conferences to Medical conventions and Industry Trade Shows.

Located on the northern quay of the Royal Victoria Dock in London Docklands, the Elevate arena & ExCel can be reached within as little as 12 minutes from central London. Stress free travel connections and certified carbon neutral, nearby Canning Town or Custom House stations.

Keynote speakers included Francesco Guerrera, Professor Viktor Mayer-Schönberger and Strategist Peter Zeihan. They energetic body language translated into dynamic photos incorporating shots of live relays with the audience. An interesting trend this year. Artists often attend to sum up conferences visually with mind maps. Pretty cool to watch them expand the themes and concepts into something rather beautiful.

Shooting in low light, often with an ISO of 8000 and an aperture of 1.4 means excellent colour and detail with the Sony mirrorless system. Brighter than the eye can see!

CFA GLOBAL SOCIETY LEADERSHIP CONVENTION 2019 AT QEII LONDON

From the 9th > 11th May 2019, the CFA Society Global Leadership convention kicked things off at the Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre in Westminster.

As ever, my brief was to discretely capture a record of the speakers, the delegates and the settings. Using my state of the art mirrorless full frame camera system I was able to work silently with only available ambient light. No clicks or flashes!

Multiple break out sessions across the QEII venue meant a close working relationship with the marketing team. Because of the live nature of the event, image delivery was needed at prearranged points but the schedule allowed for this.

EVENT PHOTOGRAPHY TEAM

Working as a solo London conference photographer is a little like travelling solo. It’s fun and you get to meet a lot of lovely people but working in a team is refreshing. Over the years I’ve worked many times with Neil Walker, a very experienced and wonderfully cheerful photographer. Neil shot delegate headshots during the SLC and then joined me to shoot event reportage at the annual conference. (Update : Neil has recently made the move to work full time with the NHS in 2020 and I have since been regularly working with the wonderful Alistair Veryard. We initially met through the Event Photography Awards where we both had took home trophies).

Overlaps and long hours meant that Lorenzo Ali did the honours during the closing night party at Old Billingsgate.

Michelle Beatty took over from Neil to capture headshots at the Annual conference. The client built a booth area with sponsors branding integrated. The brief was to print photos with downloads available by individual short links. Michelle worked with her editor Ben to edit and print the delegates choice of image, usually within an hour. Delegates could collect their print, branded with the sponsor’s logo and download the digital version at their leisure.

With a long list of people needing quick access to edited content, David Baird was a life saver. It was clear that using my usual offsite editor wouldn’t work for the annual conference and so David set up at ExCel. He would cull, edit and deliver our images as fast as we could shoot them.