The introduction of the iPad has completely revolutionized the photo booth industry, leading to the design of new types of booths and lighter, sleeker hardware. But the changes don’t stop here. In 2019, we saw a big trend emerging: the roaming photo booth. You see them often at events and more and more photo booth owners are investing in this new hardware. Here is why roaming photo booths are trending.

What is a Roaming Booth?

First things first, you may wonder what a roaming photo booth is. In basic terms, it is a lightweight, highly mobile iPad photo booth. With a handle at the back of the unit, easily hold it with one hand. The unit is composed of an iPad holder as well as a ring light, that offers white, yellow, or rainbow colors. It’s very convenient for attracting attention during an event, and it is easy to engage people and get them to take pictures. The best part, the booth travels around the event and comes to attendees, rather than the other way around.

The benefits of Roaming Photo Booths

Now you might wonder, why are those booths so popular this year? Here is a list of the 3 biggest benefits:

Follow the Party Crowd

Traditional photo booths are fine and take great pictures, but when the party starts going, so does the party crowd. You can’t move a traditional booth around a, so you end up having fewer guests that engage when the party moves on. However, with a roaming photo booth, you’re not “stuck in the corner.” Instead, you can take your booth with you as you follow the action. The ring light of your booth will grab everyone’s attention and you will increase your reach.

Set the booth up in a snap

Gone is the time of heavy booths that take time to set up and a lot of floor space. Your roaming photo booths only need a few minutes to be ready. No need to reserve expensive space for your booth anymore. Just press the On-button, and start walking around the crowd. It is exactly that easy. Now you can really focus on guest interaction.

Create authentic content

One of the advantages of having a roaming booth is that it helps you capture the event mood and ambiance on a whole new level. By walking through the crowd, you take pictures with a lot of different people, with a variety of backgrounds. And you can even capture shy groups of people that would normally never come up to your booth. It creates extremely authentic content and shows the event from disparate angles.

Made for every kind of event

What events work best for roaming photo booths? Well, a lot of them! Here is a short list of ideas:

• Outdoor Events: sports events or music festivals…
• Corporate Events: trade shows, corporate Christmas parties, annual meetings…
• Marketing Events: promotion in a mall, large-scale brand activations, new product releases…
• Private Parties: weddings, birthday parties, private events in a club…

And, as a bonus, if you have a booth at a trade show, expo, or festival, you can use the roaming photo booth to drive traffic to you! As you walk around, tell the guests that they can pick up their printed pictures at your booth.

Hardware and app to consider

As hardware, we definitely recommend you the MobileMax!  It’s effortless to use and highly adaptable for your event or campaign. Portrait or landscape, the handle rotates to fit your needs.

Alternatively, there is also the RingRoamer hardware.

The only other piece you need is a great iPad photo booth app, like Onebooth. Create the designs of your campaign yourself or hire someone to do it for you, and you’re good to go!

Helpful Tips

• Always pack at least one extra Powerbank, maybe more. You don’t want your iPad to die in the middle of your event because it doesn’t have enough battery left. The light of the mobile booth is also battery-powered, so having extra Powerbanks is a must!
• You need to be careful about holding your roaming booth very still, especially for Boomerang or Gif. If you move, the final result will look shaky and unprofessional.
• Be cautious with lighting at outdoor events. It changes all the time, so try to avoid taking backlit pictures of your guests!
• Think about using a mobile printer like the Canon Selphy to print your guests’ pictures on the go!