Our first big real-world test: 21,688 photos at a global pharma symposium

Hi Product Hunt 👋

Last week PikFind ran its biggest event so far — a global symposium hosted by a Korean pharmaceutical company, with speakers and guests from abroad. The client asked us not to name them, so here are just the numbers, straight from our operating records:

• 21,688 event photos uploaded over three days

• 439 attendees searched with one selfie

• 96% of selfie searches returned photos of the person (54 per search on average)

• 26,373 photos downloaded by attendees

• 98% of attendee visits used the English interface

• Half of all searches answered within 1.6 seconds

What broke, and what we fixed

Being honest about it: two file issues showed up mid-event.

1. Some cameras write a hidden null character into the EXIF copyright field — it blocked photo registration for 15 minutes. Fixed and deployed within 28 minutes.

2. 88 originals at 44 megapixels exceeded our analysis size limit. Fixed the next day and reprocessed.

In the end, no uploaded photo was missing from search. Since then we've shipped:

• 🔁 Uploads that recover on their own — automatic retries on network drops and server hiccups, automatic re-send of failed photos, and a fix for iPhone HEIC selfies.

• 💾 Bulk original download for organizers — pick a folder on your PC and pull every original straight from storage; if it stops, it resumes with only what's left.

• 🎤 A page for conferences & symposiums — how secretariats run it in three steps, privacy and portrait rights, and pricing: https://pikfind.com/en/for-conferences?utm_source=producthunt&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=conf_case&utm_content=PH_UPDATE_03

Full case: https://pikfind.com/en/case/pharma-symposium?utm_source=producthunt&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=conf_case&utm_content=PH_UPDATE_03

The core promise is unchanged: upload once, share one link, and each guest takes one selfie to get only the photos they're in — no app, no account. Search selfies are deleted right after processing.

Question for event organizers here: after your last conference, how did attendees actually get their photos — a shared folder, email requests, or not at all?