Randstad AI Photo Booth at Web Summit Vancouver

On May 27, 2025, Web Summit opened at the Vancouver Convention Centre West, Level 1, 1055 Canada Place, in Vancouver, BC. Randstad Canada needed an activation that would pull Web Summit attendees to their exhibit and give them something worth talking about, and Booth Empire delivered a three-day AI photo booth that produced 1050 AI portraits across nine custom transformation concepts.

The activation was designed to do two things at once. First, attract Web Summit attendees to Randstad’s exhibit - which is the core function of any conference activation. Second, capture leads through email delivery with CASL opt-in, so the 1050 portraits produced across the three days became a structured list of engaged contacts Booth Empire delivered back to Randstad via CSV.

The Brief: AI Portraits for a Tech-Talent Audience

Randstad is a global staffing and HR services brand with a technology and future-of-work positioning. Web Summit audiences are exactly the audience Randstad needs to reach: technology professionals, founders, hiring managers, and talent leaders. The brief called for an activation that would land with that audience and produce content that matched Randstad’s positioning.

An AI photo booth is the right tool for that brief because the output - professional, imaginative AI portraits - is itself aligned with technology and future-of-work themes. A standard photo booth at a tech conference is invisible. An AI photo booth, where each guest is transformed into an AI-generated portrait, is the kind of activation Web Summit attendees actually queue for.

Nine AI Transformation Concepts

The activation ran nine AI transformation options, which gave the booth range without diluting the experience. Every guest chose the scene they wanted, and each output preserved the guest’s recognizability - which is the non-negotiable requirement for any AI portrait meant to be shared. The nine concepts were:

• Abstract
• Anime
• Color explosion
• Fighter game character
• Monochrome
• Minimal
• Cyberpunk
• Animated 3D character
• Western

That range covered the aesthetic preferences of a diverse Web Summit audience. A guest who wanted an editorial, restrained portrait could choose minimal or monochrome; a guest who wanted something dramatic could choose cyberpunk or fighter game character; a guest who wanted playful could choose anime or animated 3D character. No attendee was forced into a single style, and every output was a professional AI portrait aligned with Randstad’s positioning.

Three Days at Web Summit Vancouver

This was a three-day rental, which is the right scope for a conference like Web Summit. A single-day activation at a multi-day conference misses the bulk of the audience - attendees come on different days, browse at their own pace, and need multiple opportunities to engage. The three-day window let the booth capture traffic across the full run of the conference.

The Vancouver Convention Centre West is a purpose-built conference venue with the infrastructure to handle large-format activations, and the build was scoped to use that infrastructure rather than fight it. Power, traffic flow, audience behavior, and the realities of a multi-day run all factored into how the booth was structured. Conference activations need to hold up under sustained heavy use, and the three-day Web Summit run was a meaningful test of that.

Email Delivery and CASL Opt-In for Lead Capture

The activation was structured for lead capture as well as content production. Every guest who received an AI portrait provided an email for delivery, with CASL opt-in, so each of the 1050 portraits represented a contact who had actively agreed to hear from Randstad.

That setup turns an AI photo booth from a brand-awareness activation into a lead-generation activation. The portrait itself is the hook that gets a Web Summit attendee into the booth; the email opt-in is the conversion that lets Randstad follow up after the conference ends. Booth Empire delivered the resulting contact list back to Randstad via CSV, ready to be loaded into their CRM.

1050 AI Portraits Across the Three Days

The volume is the headline number. 1050 AI portraits across three days at Web Summit means roughly 350 portraits per day - sustained, high-throughput operation at one of the world’s largest technology conferences. Each of those portraits is a piece of branded Randstad content a Web Summit attendee walked away with, and each one is an opt-in contact for Randstad’s post-conference follow-up.

For a brand whose value proposition is connecting talent to opportunity, that dual output is exactly right. The portrait connects Randstad to the attendee through content. The email opt-in connects the attendee to Randstad through permission. Both came out of the same activation.

Activation by the Numbers

• 1050 AI portraits delivered across the three-day activation
• 9 AI transformation concepts available to every guest
• 3-day rental at Web Summit Vancouver
• Vancouver Convention Centre West, Level 1, 1055 Canada Place as the venue
• Email delivery with CASL opt-in for lead capture
• CSV contact list delivered to Randstad for follow-up

Why AI for a Tech Conference

Conference activations live or die on whether they earn attention, and the bar at a conference like Web Summit is high. Attendees have seen every standard photo booth configuration and walk past most of them. An AI photo booth changes that math. The output is genuinely novel - the attendee has never seen themselves as a cyberpunk character, a fighter game character, or an animated 3D character before - and that novelty is what earns engagement.

For Randstad specifically, the alignment is tighter than for most brands. The company’s positioning is built on technology and the future of work, and an activation that produces AI-generated content is on-brand in a way a standard photo booth could never be. The AI photo booth did not just attract attendees to Randstad’s exhibit - it reinforced the brand’s positioning while doing so.

Book a Similar Activation

Booth Empire provides AI photo booth rentals in Vancouver and across Canada and the United States for conferences, tech events, corporate exhibits, and brand activations. Builds can include custom AI transformation concepts, multi-day operations, branded digital delivery, and email opt-in for lead capture. Contact Booth Empire to scope an AI photo booth for your next conference presence, or browse the full case study library.