If you follow us on social media or read our blog, you’ll know we’ve been waxing lyrical about our work with this year’s Red Rose Awards. If you don’t, we’re Social Media Partners for Lancashire’s leading business award ceremonies. This means we’re running the Red Rose Awards Twitter account on the night, live-streaming the important bits, creating video content of the event for online use afterwards, and snapping away to grab loads of pictures, too!
It’s a fantastic, fun gig but the work we do on the night isn’t as easy (or as glamorous) as it may look – it takes proper preparation and planning. And a lot of rushing around!
First of all, we need to plan our team. Who will be where, and when? We make sure our cameras catch everything, from selfies at the tables, to award-winner interviews and clinking glasses at the bar. Once we know whose on the ground on the day, the running order and the layout of the venue, we plan the more intricate details.
On the night, it’s all go-go-go, so preparation is key – especially when it comes to social media. We do what we can beforehand; we get all the nominees’ and sponsors’ Twitter handles prepped, our nominations tweets ready to go and we prepare for any events that might crop up on the night (think, Twitter walls being hacked, Twitter going down, hashtags being taken over). There are a few things we can’t prepare for, though. For example, winners! We don’t find out the winners until you do, so whizzing out the congratulations messages needs to happen very quickly. There are also likely to be happenings on the night that make their way onto Twitter – #Chipgate anyone?
Once the content preparation groundwork is done, it’s time to do an equipment check. We need cameras, laptops, microphones, wi-fi, mobile phones and all the batteries, chargers, wire and back-up batteries that go along with it all. Everything needs to be tested and we’ll head to the venue to do sound checks, lighting checks and pick locations for interviews and pictures. We’ll also draw up shot-lists and interview questions, to make sure all our visual asset gathering runs as smoothly as possible.
By the time all of this is done, it’s time to get ourselves ready! Although we aren’t at the event to enjoy the fantastic catering or buckets of wine (unfortunately!), we don’t want to look out of place. If event comms coverage is done right, the team should blend into the party – it makes our footage more genuine, means we aren’t breaking down the fourth wall, and we don’t look out of place in the background of other people’s shots. We pride ourselves on the fact we can work at events and you might not even notice us being there. This means we’ll be working in our glad-rags! After working these awards for three years, I’m a pro at running in heels now, and pride myself on being able to apply make-up en route to any event via any mode of transport (including winged eyeliner, which ladies will know, is no easy feat)!
Once we’re there, we set up. Then, the fun begins!
If you’re coming along to the Red Rose Awards and you spot us, come and say hello! We don’t bite, but we do take photos, so expect to be papped 😉 But, most importantly, enjoy your night, get your phones out and tweet like crazy using #RRA17 to get your messages and pictures on the Twitter wall!
