Interactive photo booth in Irvine

Destination Irvine, the city's visitor bureau, markets Irvine as a meeting destination in central Orange County, close to John Wayne Airport. It lists hotel meeting space from small boardrooms to ballrooms for 500 or more, and it offers business incentives and group discounts for groups of 10 or more. Planners with a group that size can send a request for proposal through the bureau.

That mix shapes where a booth goes. A conference has registration halls, pre-function space and breakout corridors where people wait and mingle. A company party at [AV] Irvine or Great Park Live has a stage, a sound system and a crowd on its feet. The booth is built for both: guests step up in small groups, talk to the host and leave with a strip.

The booth has a host with its own voice. It greets each group out loud, asks their names and uses them, reacts to each photo once it has seen it, and announces that the strips are printing. The lines change every time. The photos themselves are never altered. The AI is the host's conversation.

The client chooses one of 13 hosts for the event and can switch partway through. For a daytime conference, Charlie (easygoing, suits any party) or Lola (warm, uses everyone's name) keep the line friendly. For an evening company party, DJ Pulse, Velvet Ray (70s soul) or Johnny Neon (80s FM radio DJ) match a dance floor. The full lineup is on the hosts page at hosts.

Each visit is a short conversation and three photos, and every guest gets a printed 2x6 strip. iPhone users can AirDrop their photos from the booth. Strips can carry a company logo, an event name or a date, which gives a conference a branded take-home. Strip designs are at gallery.

The booth can stand alone, sit inside a 5x5 enclosed booth with red velvet curtains, or stand in front of a pipe-and-drape backdrop. The enclosed version helps where the room is loud: the Marriott Irvine Spectrum ballroom holds up to 500 for a reception, and [AV] Irvine has a concert-quality sound system, so a curtained booth lets guests hear the host. A backdrop suits an open pre-function hall or a lawn.

An attendant sets up, stays for the whole event and packs down, so venue staff do not run the booth. The host needs an internet connection to ask for and use names. If the connection drops, it keeps talking with prerecorded lines and the booth keeps printing.

Start with indoor or outdoor. At the Marriott, the Event Lawn is open to the ballroom, so you can place the booth in the pre-function hall, which is indoors and next to the ballroom, or on the lawn. Great Park Live lists outdoor spaces. For any outdoor spot, ask the venue what it can offer for a level surface, shade and a power source.

Ask about power and wifi at the exact spot. Destination Irvine says wifi and amenities vary by venue and tells planners to confirm directly. Marriott lists wireless internet and [AV] Irvine lists in-house production staff, but neither page states how many outlets or what signal strength reaches a given corner. None of these pages give power or booth-placement rules, so ask each venue's events team before the date. For the Great Park, the City of Irvine is the contact.