Aug 224 min read

BCCJ: Big Event - High Requirements

A comprehensive photo and video coverage of the annual black-tie gala event that commemorates the strong ties between the United Kingdom and Japan.

Client

Industry: Government organization

Location: Tokyo, Japan

The British Chamber of Commerce in Japan (BCCJ, 在日英国商業会議所) is a not-for-profit private membership organization that aims the goal of strengthen business ties between the UK and Japan, promoting and supporting the business interests of its members.

Challenge

Event: The 16th annual British Business Awards (BBA)

“Challenge the ordinary, achieve the extraordinary”

Event format: On-site

When: November 2nd, 2023

Venue: Hilton Tokyo’s ballroom

Scale: over 330 guests on-site from business, art, tech, and government fields

LIFE.14 Services:

Event Photography
event coverage
photobooth (instantly available pictures for a slide show during the event).

Event Videography
Live feed for the event screen
Full video record

Challenge of the large event

The British Business Awards (BBA) is an annual black-tie gala event that celebrates UK – Japan relations. During the event award winners are being chosen by a panel of independent judges from the spheres of business, art, tech, and government.

BBA is the biggest event that is being organized by the British Chamber of Commerce in Japan and it is considered a unique yearly showcase for British and Japanese creativity, culture, and commerce.

The year 2023 marked the 75th anniversary of the British Chamber of Commerce in Japan (BCCJ) which made the event even more significant. An expectation of a high level of organization has always been expanded to the visual materials as well. Besides usage in the press releases and official publications, those visual materials are required right during the event itself. The compact team of BCCJ was challenged by the workload of the required preparation. And even though the event is held on an annual base, this time there were no BCCJ team members in charge who would hold a solid experience from the previous years.

Solution

During the event preparation, the BCCJ team reached out to their long-term partner LIFE.14 who have been supporting The British Business Awards and other projects of BCCJ for over 10 years.

Needed no long explanation, LIFE.14 team already knew the whole flow of the event, its requirements, and the ways to achieve them. Moreover, having proven themselves in the previous successful photo and video projects for BCCJ, after a brief instruction LIFE.14 could already proceed with the work independently.

Pre-Event

During the preparation, LIFE.14 team got in touch with the technical staff of the venue and arranged all necessary cable connections. Besides that, the needed amount of space for the equipment installation was clarified, such as camera platform dimension and position, and camera location. Further schedule of the technical preparation on the day of the event was also coordinated by LIFE.14 with the venue. If the client would arrange an audiovisual part of the event itself, all the communication would need to be done by their side. Working with LIFE.14, BCCJ simply connected LIFE.14 with the venue redirecting the freed-up time to the event content preparation.

Event Day

Besides the execution of the shooting and equipment management, event day required swift visual materials delivery.

The photo booth photographs had to be available within 30 minutes to be projected on the screen.
The photographs of the British Business Award winners had to be ready on the same night.
Highlight photos for social media upload were expected the next day.
The video recording for timely event follow-up with the winners and sponsors - within a week.

Besides the quick execution, the photo and video quality had to be equivalent to the level of the event.

Event Photography

Photography service for the BBA event included:

event coverage (including stage and event floor)
photobooth that provided professional instantly available pictures for the event slide show.

As LIFE.14 already had a solid experience with the event over the years, it didn’t take time to figure out what photo work had to be done.

Group picture of all the winners. LIFE.14 coordinated guests' positions in a way that everyone could be visible:

Exhaustive pictures of all the nominates.
Complete coverage of all stage activities (speeches, nominations, winners’ comments).
Documented presence of all sponsors (banners, logos, prizes, in-kind sponsorships).
Images reflecting the event vibe (the event theme, guests' interaction, various atmospheric situations).

LIFE.14 made sure that all elements of the shooting list were captured, including the additional opportunities for great photographs.

Event Videography

Besides a full record of the event, the videography service also included a live feed to the screen inside the venue.

As the venue was large and packed with guests, most of whom were situated at a distance from the stage, having a close-up on the screen was a solution to keep everyone’s attention at the ceremony.

BCCJ was also provided with the raw footage for various purposes (archives, thank you video record for each winner, trailer for the next year).

Conclusion

The project was executed by a team of 3 experienced members of LIFE.14 where the director coordinated work according to the dynamic nature of the event. The work covered all the critical steps and it was conducted smoothly without breaking the event flow.