![\"Guests](\"https:\/\/lupu.agency\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/best-ceo-awards-madrid-gala-dinner-300x200.jpg\" "\\"-")
The event: Best CEO Awards 2026<\/h2>\n
The Best CEO Awards<\/a> is an international programme that recognises business leaders across ten categories, from Corporate Strategy and Sustainability & Energy to Hospitality & Travel and Real Estate & Investment.<\/p>\n According to the organisers, this edition had 93 finalists, selected from 3,821 applications received from 89 countries. The programme was black tie and followed three parts: a red carpet cocktail reception, a gala dinner and the awards ceremony.<\/p>\n More than 200 people attended, and the event ran through the whole afternoon. For a photography and video team, that means several hours in which very little can be repeated.<\/p>\n A team of eleven may sound large for a single venue. In practice, an awards gala is several events happening at once.<\/p>\n While guests are still arriving at the hotel entrance, others are already at the photocall. Interviews are being recorded in one room while the cocktail reception continues in another. During the ceremony, one camera has to stay on the stage while another follows the reaction at the tables.<\/p>\n Our coverage included:<\/p>\n With fewer people, something on that list is lost. A winner walks on stage only once, and the guest who is being interviewed at that moment cannot be photographed at the photocall five minutes later because the queue has already moved on.<\/p>\n The Mandarin Oriental Ritz is one of the most recognisable hotels in Madrid, and its rooms are part of the reason an organiser chooses it. The chandeliers, the marble, the tall arched windows and the mirrors all belong in the pictures.<\/p>\n They also make the work harder. Mirrors show the camera operator if the angle is wrong. Daylight from the windows changes during the afternoon and mixes with warm interior lighting. A round table set with glassware for ten leaves very little space to move without disturbing someone.<\/p>\n This is common in awards gala photography in Madrid, where many ceremonies are held in historic hotels and palaces. That is why we photograph the rooms empty first. Once guests are seated, the priority is the people, and the space has to be already recorded.<\/p>\n Guests at an event like this are used to cameras, but they have not come to be photographed. They have come to meet each other.<\/p>\n The team therefore has to be present without being noticed. In practical terms this means formal dress to match the black-tie code, no flash in someone’s face during a conversation, and no interrupting a table to ask for a posed picture when a natural one is available.<\/p>\n The photocall is the exception. There, each guest expects a clean, well-lit portrait, and it has to be right in a few seconds because the next person is waiting.<\/p>\n Many of these images end up on LinkedIn, in company press releases and in the trade press of each guest’s country. For the organiser, every one of those publications is visibility for the awards. For the guest, it is often the best professional portrait they will have that year.<\/p>\n Six of the eleven team members were videographers. Video at a gala usually serves three purposes: a recap film of the event, interviews with guests and winners, and short clips for social media.<\/p>\n Interviews need the most preparation. They require a quiet corner, controlled sound and a background that still shows where the guest is. At a hotel full of people, that corner has to be agreed with the venue in advance, not found on the day.<\/p>\n For organisers and event agencies preparing a similar event, these are the points we would settle with the photography and video team before the day:<\/p>\n The size of the team should follow from this list. A smaller dinner with one stage can be covered by two or three people. A full gala with arrivals, photocall, interviews and ceremony cannot.<\/p>\n Lupu Agency is based in Madrid and works with international companies and event agencies across Spain and the rest of Europe. You can read more about our event photography in Madrid<\/a> and our video production for events<\/a>.<\/p>\n To see recent work, view our photography portfolio<\/a> and our video portfolio<\/a>.<\/p>\n If you are planning an awards ceremony, a gala dinner or a corporate event and need awards gala photography in Madrid<\/strong>, write to us at contacto@lupu.agency<\/a> or contact our team on WhatsApp: +34 633 902 333<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n NICOLETA LUPU<\/p>\n Executive Director<\/p>\n contacto@lupu.agency<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On 3 October 2026, the eleventh edition of the Best CEO Awards took place at the Mandarin Oriental Ritz, Madrid. Lupu Agency was responsible for the photography and video coverage, with a team of eleven people on site: five photographers and six videographers. This article explains how we approached awards gala photography in Madrid at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6228,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eventos","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lupu.agency\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lupu.agency\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lupu.agency\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lupu.agency\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lupu.agency\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6227"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lupu.agency\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6233,"href":"https:\/\/lupu.agency\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6227\/revisions\/6233"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lupu.agency\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lupu.agency\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lupu.agency\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lupu.agency\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Guests](\"https:\/\/lupu.agency\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/best-ceo-awards-madrid-guest-arrivals-200x300.jpg\" "\\"-")
Why a gala of this kind needs eleven people<\/h2>\n
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![\"Awards](\"https:\/\/lupu.agency\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/best-ceo-awards-madrid-mandarin-oriental-ritz-venue-300x200.jpg\" "\\"-")
Working inside the Mandarin Oriental Ritz<\/h2>\n
![\"Guest](\"https:\/\/lupu.agency\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/best-ceo-awards-madrid-photocall-portrait-200x300.jpg\" "\\"-")
Photographing senior executives<\/h2>\n
Interviews and video<\/h2>\n
8 things to plan for awards gala photography in Madrid<\/h2>\n
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Lupu Agency: photography and video for galas and corporate events<\/h2>\n