Citi Client Leaders Forum, New York

In June 2024, Citi welcomed about 150 guests to New York for its Client Leaders Forum: three days of keynotes, conversations with Citi leaders and guest speakers, panels and time to connect. The event's own signage set the tone, "We're not a performing arts center, but we put our clients center stage." Haystack Needle brought us in to photograph all of it, from the first reception to the closing keynote, as the event's sole photographer.

A welcome at PAC NYC

The forum opened on the evening of June 24 at the Perelman Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center. Guests arrived to Client Leaders Forum signage and passed hors d'oeuvres served with Citi-branded napkins, and the reception filled the room before everyone sat down to dinner. The evening's program took place in front of a large monochrome mural, with remarks from the stage followed by an onstage conversation in armchairs, close enough to the tables that it felt like a conversation among guests.

A full day of programming

For the next two days, the forum moved to Citi's headquarters in Tribeca. June 25 began in the auditorium, built around a three-dimensional Citi logo, with keynotes, onstage interviews and presentations in front of a full house. Between sessions, a live illustrator filled a long wall with the day's themes under the line "We are made for this," and clients met over lunch in a bright, glass-walled atrium. The afternoon moved to a larger event space for more keynotes, panels and presentations, with every table facing the stage.

The closing day

On June 26, clients met over coffee before a morning of keynotes, an onstage interview and a five-person panel. Audience members stood with microphones to ask questions from the floor, and the forum closed with a keynote in front of a "One Citi" word cloud that summed up the three days.

How we photographed it

• A discreet presence: close enough to capture real expressions from speakers and clients, without ever getting between a speaker and the room.
• Every format covered: podium keynotes, fireside interviews, multi-person panels and questions from the audience, each photographed both wide and close.
• The brand in every frame: the signage, stage design, menus, live illustration and details that make the images unmistakably Citi's.
• Three very different rooms: warm, low light at dinner, deep blue stage lighting in the auditorium and bright daylight in the atrium and ballroom.
• One photographer, start to finish: every session, speaker and reception covered by the same photographer, so the look stays consistent across all three days.
• Organized delivery: 2,366 edited images in three galleries, one for each day.