After the show, photos, clips and videos sit in a download link, and a year later nobody can find them. This guide sets out a simple archive with structure, rights notes and search terms that your team abroad understands too. Practical guidance, not legal advice.
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Show photos arrive fast these days; at Pixer within 24 hours of the show closing, the first images usually the same day. Then comes the underestimated part. The pictures end up as email attachments, on a colleague's desktop or behind a transfer link that expires after a while. A year later someone looks for the team photo on your stand (booth) for the careers page and cannot find it.
A good archive answers three questions in seconds:
The last point has a legal side: images of people are personal data, and not every image is cleared for every purpose. This guide is practical guidance, not legal advice.
A structure by year and show works well, with subfolders that have the same names for every show:
| Folder | Contents |
|---|---|
| 2026_ShowName_City | Main folder per show and year |
| 01_Selects | Edited photos in full resolution |
| 02_Web | Smaller versions for website and social media |
| 03_Video | Master files, 30-second and 90-second versions, vertical clips, subtitle files |
| 04_Press | Approved press photos with captions |
| 05_Rights | Usage agreement, consent forms, music licences, logo approvals |
File names follow a pattern that makes sense without a preview: date, show, motif, number, for example 2026-10-14_ShowName_TeamPhoto_01.jpg. A date written year-month-day sorts itself correctly. Avoid accents, special characters and spaces, and the names will work on servers and in the systems of head office and partners in other countries. Keep file names and folder names in English if your company works across several languages.
Also put a short note in each show folder: who was on the stand, which products were shown, who took the pictures and which restrictions apply. A year later, when the show team may have changed, that note saves a lot of questions.
Folders get lost when files are forwarded; metadata travels with the file. Common photo software and digital asset management tools read the so-called IPTC fields. For show photos these are the most useful:
Ask your photographer which fields are already filled on delivery. Description and keywords are best added by someone on your team who knows the products and the people, ideally in the week after the show while memories are fresh. Tag people with name and company, so you can find their images quickly after an objection or when they leave.
A typical archive mistake is not the lost image but the image used for the wrong purpose. Store the following in the 05_Rights folder:
Mark restricted images visibly, for example with the keyword blocked or in a separate subfolder. When an employee leaves, search by name to find every image that needs checking. Details in our guide to staff in trade fair photos.
Where the archive lives depends on your IT: a shared drive, cloud storage or a digital asset management system. Three rules matter more than the tool:
For videos, keep the master file and subtitle files alongside the finished versions. That way a new language version or a shorter edit can be made later without reshooting.
An archive grows with every show. Plan a short review once a year, ideally before you plan the next show season:
A clean archive pays off when you want to spread show content across the year. How that works is shown in our guide to reusing trade fair content all year. For questions on retention and consent, your data protection officer is the right contact; this text does not replace legal advice.
Year and show, then the same subfolders every time. Everyone knows where things are.
Date, show, motif, number. No accents or spaces, so partners abroad can use them too.
Creator, description, keywords and usage note travel with the file.
Usage agreement, consent forms, music licences and approvals in their own folder.
Mark images with an objection or restriction visibly.
Delete rejects, check images of people, keep the best-of current.
The edited selection belongs in the archive. Keep rejects and raw material only if there is a reason, such as a later re-edit. Everything else just makes the archive harder to use.
One person in marketing who maintains the structure and documents approvals. Other departments and partners read but do not change anything.
As long as there is a purpose and no objection. There is no single fixed period for every case. Agree a rule with your data protection officer and review once a year.
Not necessarily. For a few shows a year, a clean folder structure with metadata is enough. A dedicated system pays off when many people and partners access the material.
Through separate access to the approved selection, with usage notes in English. That prevents partners from using restricted images.
The finished versions, the master file, subtitle files, the music licence and the interviewees' consent. With these, new versions can be made later without clearing rights again.
Want show photos that arrive fast and are easy to archive? Tell us the fair and the dates; delivery is within 24 hours of the show closing.
We reply within 24 hours. During a show week, WhatsApp is fastest.
