Case Study: Diced In Dayton 2026 - WeDoVids

Putting the audience over the chef’s shoulder

At a glance

The client

Miami Valley Meals is a chef-led Dayton nonprofit that recovers donated food and turns it into complete, nourishing meals, which it gives free of charge to a network of partner nonprofits serving people facing food insecurity. Its annual goal is to donate at least 200,000 meals, and Dayton Magazine named it Nonprofit of the Year for Community Meals in 2024.

Diced in Dayton is the fundraiser that tells that story on a stage. Local chefs each receive a mystery box of ingredients and have to turn it into something delicious, the same challenge MVM’s own chefs face every day with unpredictable donations. Guests taste and vote, judges weigh in, and the top two chefs face off in a live cook-off for the title of Diced in Dayton Champion. The first event in 2022 raised more than $20,000; the 2026 field drew 14 chefs, including 2025 champion James Blythe of Otterbein SeniorLife, 2025 People’s Choice winner Jacob Rodibaugh of Bistecca, and 2024 winner Zack Weiner of Koji Burger & Fei.

The challenge

A cooking competition has a built-in visibility problem. All the drama happens at counter height, on a cutting board and in a pan, and most of the room is looking at the chefs’ backs. The final cook-off is the most exciting moment of the night, yet only the front row can actually see the knife work, the improvising and the plating.

The 2026 setting raised the stakes further. Hosting the event at the Schuster Center, one of Dayton’s most respected performing arts venues, meant guests arrived expecting a polished show, and the production had to match the room.

There was a second, quieter problem: photos. Guests want to see themselves and the dishes, sponsors want proof of their presence, and the nonprofit needs images for next year’s promotion. The usual route of collecting emails, waiting weeks, and sending a file-sharing link loses most of that momentum.

The solution

1. A live overhead “chef cam” on the jumbotron

WeDoVids ran a two-camera setup built for a cooking competition. The first camera was mounted overhead with a 20x optical zoom, letting the operator push in from above to frame a single cutting board or pan in tight detail. The second camera faced the stage straight on, capturing the chefs themselves: their reactions, their pace and the pressure of the clock. Switching between the two, the live feed ran to the jumbotron behind the chefs, so guests could watch a chef in person and, in the same glance, see a close-up of exactly what that chef was doing.

Pulling this off in a working performing arts venue took teamwork. WeDoVids partnered closely with the staff at Dayton Live, which operates the Schuster Center, to plan camera placement, bring the live feed into the venue’s screen system and keep everything running smoothly through the night. Their expertise in the space was key to making the overhead coverage feel like a natural part of the show.

The effect was to turn a cooking competition into a spectator event. Every table had a front-row seat, and the audience could follow the strategy behind each dish as it happened, not just taste the result. To our knowledge, no other production company in the Dayton area offers this kind of live overhead cooking coverage for events.

2. Event photography

Sarah Bennett, an award-winning business photographer who began her career as a news photographer at the Springfield News-Sun and Dayton Daily News, covered the evening: chefs under pressure, finished plates, judges, guests, and sponsors.

3. A QR code that goes straight to the photos

Before the event, WeDoVids gave Miami Valley Meals a QR code to print on its event materials. Guests scanned it and landed on the event gallery, with no app, no account and no email sign-up. The gallery is hosted on FrameCourier, the delivery platform WeDoVids built in-house over eight years for its own clients; the QR feature itself came from a client asking for a faster way to share a gallery on site.

The same gallery now lives on MVM’s Diced in Dayton page as the official 2026 photo gallery, so the coverage keeps working for the organization as it promotes next year’s event. View the full photo gallery.

4. A bonus: the finished event video

The video wasn’t part of the request. But because both camera feeds were already running for the jumbotron, WeDoVids recorded the night and edited it into a finished video for Miami Valley Meals. The organization now has a ready-made piece it can share with donors, sponsors and the chefs, and use to promote next year’s event.

The results

• A new fundraising record. Over $84,000 raised for Miami Valley Meals, the most in the event’s history and roughly four times what the inaugural 2022 event brought in.
• 350+ guests packed a sold-out room for what one attendee called the “Olympics for foodies,” a line MVM highlighted in its own recap.
• An audience that could actually see the competition, from the first round through the final cook-off.
• Immediate, frictionless photo access for guests through a single printed QR code, and a permanent gallery linked from MVM’s website.
• Lasting value for sponsors. A sponsor roster including AES Ohio, Dayton Children’s Hospital, Montgomery County, IGS Energy and Miller Valentine is now documented in the event’s photo record.
• 500+ gallery views and counting. The event gallery has been viewed more than 500 times, and the number keeps climbing as guests, chefs and sponsors share it.

Why it worked

People give to what they connect with. The overhead feed put guests eye to eye with the exact skill MVM depends on every day: taking ingredients nobody planned for and turning them into a good meal. Seeing that happen live made the mission tangible in a way a speech or a slideshow can’t. And because the photos were one scan away, the night didn’t end when guests left the room.

This is what WeDoVids sets out to do for nonprofits: not just document the event, but use production to help the event do its job.

Learn more about the event and the chefs who competed on Miami Valley Meals’ Diced in Dayton page.

About WeDoVids

WeDoVids is a Dayton video production and photography studio founded in 2018 by Brian Shaffer and Sarah Bennett, who bring more than 60 years of combined experience in video, photography and technology. Services include multi-camera event coverage, livestream production, commercial photography, post-production and aerial work, with client delivery through FrameCourier.

Giving back is part of how the studio operates. WeDoVids is committed to supporting its community and the nonprofits working to make it better, and it brings that same commitment to every nonprofit client it works with.