Event Photography at The Old Woolstore Apartment Hotel
Wool bales once moved through this building; these days it's keynote speakers and cocktail trays. The Old Woolstore Apartment Hotel sits at the Macquarie Street end of Hobart's waterfront precinct, and its function floor wears its history in its room names — Merino, Shearers, Macarthur — which tells you something about how the place likes to present itself: working heritage, not white-box hotel. For photographers, that character is an asset worth planning around.
The Merino Room at full stretch
At 193 square metres, the Merino Room takes 120 seated or 220 standing, and it's the room most Old Woolstore events revolve around. Two in-built screens mean presenters are never side-on to half the audience, which matters for us too — we can hold a single shooting position and still get speaker, slides and crowd in one composition. The private serviced bar anchors the social end of the room, and at cocktail functions that's where the gallery gets made: clusters of conversation, glasses mid-toast, the kind of relaxed frames that corporate comms teams actually publish. When the room splits into its half configuration for smaller sessions, we adjust to a tighter, more documentary style.
Multi-room programs: Shearers, Macarthur and the Boardroom
Conference organisers use The Old Woolstore the way it was designed — plenary in the Merino, rounds in the Shearers Room, presentations in the Macarthur Room, committee sessions in the Roberts Boardroom. Covering a program spread across four rooms is a scheduling exercise as much as a photographic one, so we work from your agenda and walk the corridors between sessions collecting the in-between material: delegates comparing notes, catering coming out, signage and sponsor placements. Those connective frames are what makes a conference gallery feel like an event rather than a set of rooms.
Why the waterfront next door doubles your gallery
Step out the front of the hotel and you're two minutes from the Hunter Street heritage row and the working docks. For evening functions we routinely take speakers or award winners outside for ten minutes of portraits with masts and warehouse brick behind them — imagery that separates a Hobart conference from one held anywhere else in the country. For gala dinners in the Merino Room we schedule this at dusk, before guests sit down, when there's still colour in the sky over the harbour. It costs nothing in run-sheet time and lifts the whole delivery.
Booking questions specific to The Old Woolstore
How do you cover a conference using all four function rooms?+
We map coverage to your program: guaranteed frames of every speaker, rotating passes through breakout rooms at agreed intervals, and constant pickup of candids in circulation areas. For dense parallel agendas we add a second photographer so the Shearers and Macarthur sessions get equal treatment.
Is there room for a headshot setup during an event?+
Yes — the pre-function space outside the Merino Room fits a backdrop and light without obstructing catering flow. Delegates step out between sessions, and we deliver retouched headshots with the main gallery inside 48 hours. It's a popular sponsor-branded add-on at association conferences here.
Can you film presentations off the Merino Room's AV system?+
We record a clean camera feed and take a direct audio capture, and because the room runs dual screens we frame presenters wide and tight without fighting the projection. Edited session videos are delivered ready for your intranet or YouTube channel.
What's the photography plan for a cocktail function at the private bar?+
Available light first — the bar area has warmth worth keeping — with a small bounced flash for group requests. We stay mobile for the first hour while energy is high, then work the room for organiser-requested groupings once guests settle.
BOOKING AN EVENT AT THE OLD WOOLSTORE APARTMENT HOTEL?
Get in touch with the Turbo 360 team with your event date and room bookings at The Old Woolstore, and we'll build a coverage plan and firm quote around your actual agenda.
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Photography & video at The Old Woolstore Apartment Hotel
Turbo 360 is an independent photography and video supplier. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or the operator of The Old Woolstore Apartment Hotel; venue details are provided for event-planning context only.