It should go without saying that SXSW needs no introduction, but just in case you don’t know me very well (or Austin), here’s the short of it: SXSW is a ridiculously large ridiculously amazing festival held annually in Austin, Texas that attracts over 400,000 attendees from across the world. Its focus is large, wide, and all-encompassing, including but not limited to, innovation, technology, music, film, health, gaming, and more. If SXSW 2023 is your first rodeo and you’re planning an activation, event, or happy hour to engage and interact with your target audience, I’m here to give you a little bit of advice from a photographer’s perspective. Organizing a successful activation or event at SXSW requires careful planning and you’d be remiss not to include photography in your budget for a number of reasons (more on that later!). In the meantime, though, I’m here to help you figure out how to determine your SXSW event photography needs, regardless of the size of your installation or activation.

Austin corporate Event photography by Lauren Lindley of SXSW
Austin corporate Event photography

I may be a bit biased, but I think that photography is a crucial aspect of any event. Not only is it the only way to preserve memories, but it will allow you to promote future events of similar nature, create images that can be used for recruiting and internal communications, and it allows you to document the return on investment for any additional co-sponsors or brand investors. That being said, I often find that brands and companies over-estimate their photography needs at SXSW. I’m here to help you understand them and to plan accordingly to ensure that you capture the essence of your activation or event, at a budget that you can afford.

What are your purpose and objectives for the activation or event?

The first step in determining your photography needs is to understand the purpose and objectives of your event or activation, along with the end use of your images. Is your company looking to create networking opportunities, promote a specific product or piece of tech, create brand awareness, establish yourself as an expert or leader in your industry, hoping for customer engagement or recruitment purposes? Understanding these goals will help you determine the type of photography that you need and where to maximize your efforts.

For example, if you’re looking to create networking opportunities, you’ll want your photographer on site for any busy hosted networking happy hours or events that create exceptional engagement between participants. If you’re looking to promote a product or piece of tech, you’ll want photos of participants interacting with the products. If you’re looking to create brand awareness, make sure those brand signs are placed everywhere to really maximize their focus in the background of your images.

Austin corporate Event photography by Lauren Lindley of SXSW
Austin corporate Event photography

Consider the end use of your images

The next step is to consider your the eventual end use of your images. Custom event photography provides visual documentation of an event, capturing key moments and important participants. This documentation can play a critical role in demonstrating the return on investment for sponsors and company investors. At SXSW, most activations and installations are busiest surrounding well-promoted scheduled (read: hosted and open bar) events. You will want to ensure that you maximize having a photographer there during the busiest hours only so that your activation, installation, or event looks busy and well-attended.

Throwing an event at SXSW is no small feat and when a company invests significant resources like money and manpower, it’s incredibly important to make sure that you document how well the brand exposure comes across. This visual representation can be used to demonstrate the sponsorship’s impact and the reach of the brand, helping sponsors quantify the value they received from their investment. As such, I often recommend that in addition to busy hosted and scheduled events, you prioritize 15 minutes of photography at the onset of the festival to make sure the details and feel of the room are captured with branding.

Austin corporate Event photography by Lauren Lindley of SXSW
Austin corporate Event photography

Start with your budget and think outside the box time wise

Budget is a critical factor to consider when determining your photography needs and I often find that companies overestimate the time they need a photographer, or the way they need to hire a photographer at SXSW.  For example, in 2022 I was hired for 4 hours of photography by emerging food tech company Trendi. When I arrived on site, I was able to convince them that they could maximize the time they hired me by breaking up my time into 15-30 minute chunks over the 4 days their activation was up.  That way, everytime I swung by (which, in the world of SXSW happens often because of the sheer scope and size of the festival) I could pop in if it was busy and capture new attendees interacting with the activation.  This allowed Trendi to get a wide variety of photos of different people throughout the course of the event, along with images of their CEO participating in a panel that they didn’t originally think that they had the budget to have photography of.  This was a win-win situation because rather than just having me stand around at the same activation for 4 hours straight, I was able to be efficient with my time at the festival by continuously looking for client opportunities for multiple clients, and they were provided with a much larger variety of images than they expected.

The nitty-gritty of it is that if what you’re looking for is simply tangible evidence of the turnout, engagement, and overall atmosphere of the event, including images of attendees, speakers, and demonstrations, this can often be done at SXSW in a much shorter time frame by a quality event photographer than most people anticipate.  For 10+ years now, I’ve been providing a comprehensive view of the event for brands and for the sales department and frequently these objectives can be achieved in 15-30 minute blocks that are spread out over the course of the day with a prioritized schedule that highlights the main objectives.

Austin corporate Event photography by Lauren Lindley of SXSW
Austin corporate Event photography by Lauren Lindley of SXSW

Understand that timing is going to affect your budget

Timing is a crucial question to consider when you’re coming up with your budget.  If you’re hosting a one time event or one day only event, you may want more comprehensive coverage (and as such, a higher budget) because there will not be multiple opportunities over the course of the festival to capture images of attendees at your event.  If the activation is spread out over several days, this allows for more flexibility in coverage, and consequently a more budget friendly event photography situation because your photographer will be able to stop in multiple times over the course of the festival and will not need to be onsite for hours at a time throughout the course of the activation.

Austin corporate Event photography by Lauren Lindley of SXSW

Long story short is that I believe that every company can have exceptional images at SXSW by an event photographer on any budget.  If you’re wondering how to determine your SXSW event photography needs, start with the basics: considering the purpose and objectives of your event, the target audience, image end use, and the timing of the schedule.  I assure you that you can capture the essence of your event and promote it effectively with a veteran event photographer at the helm.  If you’re new to SXSW and looking for more tips, tricks, and blogs on it, you can find those on my website here.  If you are planning on attending SXSW 2023 and would like to try to meet up while you’re there, contact me here.