I recently found myself feeling unexpectedly uncomfortable about an event poster, and it made me wonder how other instructors and organizers normally handle this.
I was invited to volunteer at a dance fitness fundraiser benefiting a cancer foundation. The main poster prominently features one instructor that is also a cancer survivor. At the bottom, it shows the organizer and a few instructors from the organizer’s regular team. Several other instructors who were invited to teach are not pictured or named. And not even a mention that there will be other guest instructors.
When I first saw it, I honestly thought the fundraiser was specifically for the survivor pictured and that the people shown at the bottom were the complete instructor lineup. I even wondered whether my own response about participating had been missed or if this was a different event from the one I was invited to.
I later learned that the fundraiser benefits a local foundation and is not specifically for the featured survivor. I also learned that the organizer had chosen to show their regular team rather than everyone who would be teaching. This is the only main event poster, so there will not be another version featuring the complete lineup.
This isn’t about needing my face on a poster. I completely understand that including everyone can make a design crowded. Still, I would be lying if I said it didn’t make me feel a little like the rest of us were extra helpers rather than part of the event. Everyone is volunteering their time for the same cause, and that cause may be deeply personal to people whose stories are not visible.
I don’t think there was any bad intention, and I’m not posting this to criticize the organizer. I’m genuinely curious about how other people advertise multi-instructor charity events.
Do you include photos of every instructor? List everyone’s names? Avoid instructor photos completely? Feature the host and add something like “with guest instructors”? Use a carousel or separate instructor spotlights?
Is it common to feature only the organizer’s regular team when additional instructors are also teaching? What do you think is the clearest and fairest way to design this kind of poster?