Nine Years and Counting: Covering the UBS GCC Conference in Shanghai

Every January, some of the sharpest minds in global wealth management converge on Shanghai for the UBS Greater China Conference. For the ninth consecutive year, Pixel Bureau & SpektrumAsia were there to document it.

What started as a single assignment has become one of our longest-running client relationships — and a project that captures everything we do as conference photographers in Asia Pacific. Two intense days. Around 3,000 attendees from across the globe. Multiple concurrent sessions. And a client who expects every frame to meet the standard they’ve come to trust over nearly a decade.

The Scale

The UBS GCC is not a small gathering. With approximately 3,000 delegates filling a major Shanghai hotel ballroom, this is conference photography at scale. Keynote presentations, panel discussions, breakout sessions, and networking events run simultaneously across multiple rooms — meaning our team needs to be coordinated, fast, and everywhere at once.

The schedule leaves almost no breathing room. Sessions overlap, VIP speakers transition between stages, and the energy doesn’t let up from the opening address to the final evening reception. There’s no second take at an event like this — you either capture the moment or you don’t.

Working in the Shadows

Banking conferences come with a particular set of expectations. C-suite executives, senior wealth managers, and high-net-worth clients expect discretion. Our job is to be present enough to capture authentic, unguarded moments — keynote gestures, handshakes between old colleagues, the concentration on a delegate’s face during a critical panel — while remaining invisible enough that nobody feels observed.

This is where experience matters. After nine years covering this conference, we understand the rhythm of the event, the key moments the client values, and the specific people who need to be photographed. We know which angles work in the ballroom’s challenging mixed lighting, where the branded backdrops are positioned, and how to navigate packed corridors between sessions without disrupting the flow.

The Lighting Challenge

Hotel ballrooms are notoriously difficult environments for photography. The combination of stage spotlights, ambient downlighting, LED screens, and shifting colour temperatures means constant adjustment. A speaker on stage might be lit by a cool-toned spotlight while the audience sits in warm tungsten light — and the branded screen behind the stage adds a third colour temperature entirely.

We shoot in RAW format and make real-time exposure and white balance decisions throughout the day. The goal is consistent, professional imagery that works across UBS’s internal communications, social media, and annual reporting — regardless of which room or lighting condition each frame was captured in.

Why Nine Years Matters

Repeat engagements aren’t just a nice line on a portfolio. They represent something more fundamental: trust that’s been earned through consistent delivery under pressure. UBS doesn’t need to brief us on what they expect anymore. We don’t need to scout the venue or guess which moments matter. Nine years of institutional knowledge means we can focus entirely on the craft — and that shows in the results.

For us, this kind of long-term partnership is the most rewarding work we do. It’s also the standard we bring to every new client engagement, whether it’s their first conference in Singapore or a multi-day summit in Tokyo.

Conference Photography Across Asia Pacific

The UBS GCC Conference in Shanghai is one of many large-scale events Pixel Bureau covers each year across the Asia Pacific region. Based in Singapore, we regularly travel to Shanghai, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, Mumbai, Sydney, and beyond to provide conference, corporate, and luxury event photography for leading global brands.

If you’re planning a conference or corporate event anywhere in Asia Pacific and need a photography team you can trust, we’d love to hear from you.

Get in touch: hello@pixelbureau.net | www.pixelbureau.net/contact