You could hire a bunch of wireless lapel mics .....

geoff

Is anyone using a house mic when they talk to the audience at the conference? Usually at conferences this is the norm (and I do a lot) there is always a sound techo there... If there is then connect your camera audio in to his mixer output and set the levels and get excellent clean audio from all the speakers. You may have to purchase a (long) lead but again the tech may also have leads that you can connect to depending how far away you are. Recording a conference though just the on board camera or shotgun mic will sound very very hollow and will pick up many unwanted noise, coughing, sneezing, scratching, fa**ting and plenty other, and that is just from you... lol. You could place a mic connected to your camera right next to the sound systems speaker if it is possible of course.
Good luck

You're just asking for trouble by not having the proper audio equipment for the shoot. For conference recordings, in many ways, the audio is more important than the video. There is no plug-in available that is going to make the microphone sound any closer to the source. Izotpe RX has a reverb reduction function in their Advanced ($1,000+) version, while somewhat effective, it can't work miracles. If nothing else, get a microphone as close to the stage as possible.

The mic's will definitely be going into some type of mixing board. I'd just get an inexpensive zoom, grab a feed and call it a day

You must also have the proper adapters/cables, attenuators and iso transformers. The 'house' A/V dept. will likely not supply them.. chances are also good that the house A/V 'tech' will have minimal training and experience (other than plugging in a pod mic) and know little to nothing about operating levels and gain staging..

You can cover a conference with two wireless mics if necessary: a hand-held for the person doing the introductions and a lavalier for the presenter. The lav can be handed from person to person.

Ideally, have a helper who can take the lav from a presenter when they've finished and can put it onto the next person.

Have the hand-held on one camera input, the lav on another.

As others have cautioned, I'm very reluctant to ever rely on the house A/V "tech." If you do choose that route, however, be sure to have the house feed on only one channel, with your on-camera mic on the other. At least you'll have a backup, however hollow, in case the board-op fails you.

Jack

Jack

Any attempt to do a postproduction repair will produce some level of artifacting (ala deverb or denoise type filtering). This will be most unsatisfactory.

Asking speakers to wear two sets of mics (one for PA and one for camera) is intrusive and redundant. I wouldn't do it if I was in charge (I run sound for fairly large speaking events on a regular basis).

I'd tell the folks that hired you that you'll be recording video only and need a copy of their recording to provide audio on video. (I always record my events). If they are not recording get a feed off the board into a recorder and interconnects that you provide. You will want to know if the feed is +4db or -10db, balanced or unbalanced. You can take this recording to post and sync (there will be delay on your camera mic) to your camera's recording. Most mixing boards have at least dual outputs both XLR and 1/4" Jacks. One will be used for the PA amp/speakers and the other you can get an adapter for at most Best Buy or Radio Shack to do inputs to whatever recorder you'll use. I'd personally leave it up to the audio guys but make sure the system is checked out prior to the event. If the audio guy has the brain power to setup for the event he certainly can set up a recorder on his board.

My $0.02

For this I usually just place a zoom recorder close to the speakers position with a Lav from it clipped as close as possible to the top of the dais or whatever. I never interfere with the venue equipment - you'll get blamed if anything goes wrong. Your fault or not. I learned that one the hard way.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm a hobbyist not a professional.