ABCey Presents: Best Photo Tips for Event Photography

Capturing the raw, spontaneous moments of events is something all photographers aim to do. There are a lot of little things that can make diving into special event photography much easier or much harder on yourself. Below are a few event photography ideas of how to prepare and execute your photo skills at your next event!

Take Pre-Event Shots

The event planner is responsible for all the little details at each event. Therefore, they will love that you captured shots of the room prior to the guests arrival. Not only will it be something they can use to sell their services in the future, it will also allow them to catalog the set-up in case they have a very similar type of event in the space again. Photo from ABCey’s Loreal & Skinceuticals PR & Media event in February 2010.

Capture The Event’s Story

Every event has it’s own story. Try to capture the entire story of the event & show the full scale. Take pictures prior and snap shots as people arrive. During the main event, set your camera to burst mode and shoot as many shots as you can. Bring a large amount of memory cards, as space should not dictate how many shots you should take. Candid audience or crowd shots are nice here and there, but a good rule of thumb is that once plates go down and people are eating, keep the camera pointed away from the tables and onto the stage. Photo from ABCey’s BlackJet SF event in Union Square in February 2013.

Edit Hard & Deliver Quickly

Once you edit your photos down to the best images, bring your files into your editing software and crank out the images. Make sure your images looks crispy and clean. Get your photos to your client as soon as possible after the event. They will appreciate the efficiency and attention to their event! Photo from ABCey’s Brit + Co Remake Event Day 1.

Snap Guests Looking Engaged & Enjoying Themselves

It can take some patience, but make sure you get images that indicate everyone was having a good time. Make sure guests, especially high-level executives aren’t caught in goofy or unflattering expressions! Photo from ABCey’s Blumberg Capital event.

Capture a Full Room

You want to make sure that the event looks well-attended with lots of people. Focus in on larger clumps of people to provide shots that indicate the event was crowded! Photo from ABCey’s UpStart 10x event in May 2017.

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What photo tips to you use for events? Let us know in the comments below, or on our Facebook & Twitter pages!

Sources: Digital Photography School, MostlyLisa, ABCey’s Event Photos

ABCey’s #TechTuesday Fly Another Day

#TechTuesday highlights the best and brightest ideas in the tech world. Today’s #TechTuesday, features Fly Another Day, a software that will ensure the highest event participation all within seconds!

Fly Another Day

Events profs ever wonder why attendance numbers are low? Fly Another day makes date selection easier by choosing ideal dates and locations that encourage participation. The software does this by analyzing potential issues that may affect the availability of your audience!

Fly Another day can be used for various events like business functions, product launches, marketing releases, or even private events!

We are always looking for innovative ways to make event planning more efficient for us and our clients. This software saves us a lot of stress as well as increasing participation for our clients!

Do you use Fly Another Day? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook and Twitter!

#TechTuesday: Affectiva – Emotion AI

#TechTuesday highlights the best and brightest ideas in the tech world. ABCey would like to recognize these up and coming technologies for their innovative ideas and impact on the event world! This Tuesday, we are introducing Affectiva, a leading emotion recognition technology company!

Artificial intelligence is quickly becoming the next big thing in the tech industry, and we are seeing startups making impactful changes. Co-founded by Rana el Kaliouby and Rosalind W. Picard, Affectiva is a leading startup that brings you emotion-aware AI! This is great for events because this technology lets you track your guests’s engagement level!

You can also integrate secure, emotion data to your apps with Affdex Software Development Kit (SDK) and APIs. allowing you to get more data about your customers and guests! However, Emotion as a Service gives you an alternative to simply send in videos to get emotion data, at low cost! Also, its Offline Lab Solutions allows you to further analyze and study emotional behavior by using biosensors!

Add Emotional Intelligence into your Digital Experiences with Affectiva!

How it works:

Affectiva uses a combination of computer vision and deep learning technology to analyze online facial expressions. Here are 3 solutions that are being offered!

1. APIs & SDKs

Affdex SDKs and APIs are now available for companies who want to integrate its software into their products. With SDKs, you will be able to capture your customers’ emotions in real-time when they are using your products. This software is available on iOS, Android, Mac OS X, Windows, or Linux devices. Now you can improve your platforms even more with Affectiva’s APIs, as it provides high accurate analytics, surveys, and interaction!

Try their demo here, and contact them at gaminginfo@affectiva.com if you are interested!

2. Emotion As A Service

Instead of using SDKs and APIs, you can use “Emotion as a Service”. This cost-effective service lets you send in your videos for analysis instead. You will be able to accurately measure your customer’s emotions. Also, you don’t need to set up or integrate anything! So contact them at sales@affectiva.com to get started!

3. Offline Lab Solution

Offline Lab Solution gives users more detailed reports. Because it uses biosensors such as Eye Tracking, EEGs, and more, you can now understand your customers’ emotional behavior on a deeper level. Learn more about it here!

Why we love it:

Affectiva is quickly becoming a prominent startup in the tech industry. The reason is simple! It lets us know how users feel and react in regards to our brands and products. This allows for improvement and will help create unique experiences that people enjoy.

Planning to use Affectiva? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook and Twitter!

Startup Monday: Zenefits

Startup Monday is ABCey’s weekly post that features some of the best and brightest companies in the Bay Area. They are often companies that we have our eye on or have worked with in the past & would like to share with friends and followers of ABCey Events!

In light of a lot of recent difficult press, ABCey still has high hopes that Zenefits can overcome these growing pains! Zenefits is working to bring attention to what has made their products so appealing in the first place: Shopping for health insurance is really frustrating!! As a business owner, what do you use to organize your employees health insurance, payroll, FSA, 401k, and other HR tasks? Are you spending lots of money in your HR department or doing these tedious tasks yourself? Look no further, Zenefits can help solve your problem.

How it works:

Although Zenefits mostly focuses on health insurance, this software is used by more than 20,000 businesses to streamline HR systems. Instead of using multiple different programs for tracking employees health insurance, payroll, 401k, FSA, contractors, etc., this startup helps small businesses by bundling all of these systems into one easy to use software.

With this platform, you are able to track:

Benefits/Insurance
HR Management
ACA Compliance
Payroll
Time & Attendance
PTO
and more!

Why we love it:

Zenefits has great benefits! It is an all in one platform that makes managing administrative tasks a breeze. The program is easy to set up, eliminates tedious paperwork and the costs of hiring HR employees! We also love the changes that Zenefits is making including a new CEO, who is determined to change the company in a drastic way. Like Zappos, they have recently scaled down their employees to ensure that everyone is 100% invested in the company. With the new direction their company is taking, Zenefits has a bright future!

Planning on using this amazing platform for your team? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook & Twitter!

Tech Tuesday: getplanning, Event Management Software

Tech Tuesday highlights the best and brightest ideas in the tech world. ABCey would like to recognize these up and coming technologies for their innovative ideas and impact on the event world!

getplanning is a comprehensive digital planning and collaboration tool! It stores all of your event planning documents, such as schedules, contracts, and menus, for easy access so everyone involved with the event can be up-to-speed on what is going on from beginning (contracts) to end (billing).

getplanning allows for unlimited users and events so you can seamlessly plan for a variety of events. It also provides realtime communication and action so no one will be unreachable ever again! The best part: You can customize getplanning to match your company’s colors and branding requirements!

Why We Love getplanning: Not only is getplanning super easy to use, but it’s all stored in the Cloud, so it can be accessed anywhere, anytime, and by anyone! Furthermore, all documents uploaded to getplanning are encrypted for maximum security. We’re not the only ones who love using getplanning as Hilton Worldwide just announced in January that it would be incorporating the event management software into its system.

Would you use getplanning to help organize your next event? Let us know in the comments below on Facebook and Twitter!

Startup Monday: Songhop, the World’s First Active Music Discovery Software

This week, we want to introduce you to Songhop, a startup located in Palo Alto. Songhop was recently launched and offers “the world’s first active music discovery software.” Users can browse through dozens of songs and decide whether they like them or not. Songhop also helps new artists gain recognition in the midst of the mainstream.

How it works: The interface is very simple. Sign up and start listening to songs right away! If you sign up with a social network account like Facebook or Twitter, you can see what songs your friends like. Start exploring songs that are categorized by genre, or check out your friends’ favorites. As soon as you play a song, Songhop provides you with three options. Click the “X” if you don’t like the song or the heart symbol if you like it. You can also share the song via message or social network.

Why we love it: Songhop enables you to broaden your musical horizon! Discover new music you would have never heard otherwise, or help new artists to find success. Are you planning on throwing a country themed event, but your knowledge of country music barely exceeds Taylor Swift or Brad Paisley? Use Songhop to discover more! Best of all, Songhop is free, and free is good!

Would you use Songhop? Tell us what you think about the world’s first active music discovery software in the comments below or on Facebook and Twitter.

Startup Monday: PlagScan, The Unique Content Verification Tool

This week, we want to draw your attention to PlagScan, a startup located in Palo Alto. PlagScan offers an unique content verification tool and is the leading service for the detection of plagiarism in Germany, including many parts of Europe. PlagScan is now establishing its service in the US market, cooperating mostly with academic institutions. While most other plagiarism detection services are only available for the academic market, PlagScan can be used for business as well.

You might wonder how a plagiarism detection software could be relevant to your job or your business and why ABCey would recommend to check PlagScan out. Let’s say you are an event planner, marketing director, or work in any job that requires creativity and unique content. You spend a lot of time writing marketing texts, blogs, or press releases. Wouldn’t it be great to check if your work is actually unique and hasn’t been written before?

Plagscan is useful even if you are not the one writing the content for your business. Let’s say you have hired writers or interns. Imagine they use published or copyrighted content in your business blogs, without giving proper credit. This is called plagiarism and would shed negative light on your business. With PlagScan you can easily check for plagiarism and make sure that your content is unique.

How it works: PlagScan uses advanced technology in its software that compares billions of online sources with the document you want to check. You can easily upload a document or copy and paste text. After submitting your text, you get a detailed report with the results.

Why we love it: PlagScan is cost-effective and fast. The company offers a competent service that is definitely worth investing in. Best of all: PlagScan also helps to improve your search engine optimization.

Would you use PlagScan? What do you think about this software? Tell us about your opinion in the comments below or on Facebook and Twitter!

Tech Tuesday: Palantir

Tech Tuesday highlights the best and brightest ideas in the tech world. ABCey would like to recognize these up and coming companies for their innovative ideas and ability to think outside the box!

When you have a problem that you need to solve, who you gonna call? That’s right- Palantir! This software company grew from startup to International corporation with their data analysis software, and they say they can solve your hardest problems.

Palantir, the 2012 Crunchie Award runner-up for “Best Overall Startup,” is a Palo Alto-based company founded by Stanford and PayPal alums well-versed in anti-fraud systems. In fact, PayPal technology to detect fraudulent activity was the basis for their software concept. The Palantir team believes the most effective way to defeat an adversary like a fraudulent hacker isn’t just with Artificial Intelligence but with human analysts. We applaud this company for recognizing that human data analysts are the best way to combat human frauds!

The U.S. Intelligence Community, the Department of Defense, and the Armed Forces are amongst Palantir’s clientele. So far, their technologies and data solutions have been used to combat terrorism, prosecute crimes, eliminate waste, and more! It’s easy to see that this company thinks of themselves as modern superheroes with their bold and altruistic uses for technology and product names like “Palantir Gotham.” Palantir aims to use its technology for good around the world alongside the likes of Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne.

What do you think of Palantir? Are they the superheroes you’d trust to fix your tech problems? Tell us your opinions in a comment or on Facebook and Twitter!