Tech-Info:- As a photographer I made an error to start with. I left my flash on auto. With the bright reflective outfit, the camera thought the scene was too bright, therefore didn't emit the amount of flash required to light the scene properly. Luckily shooting in RAW and using Aperture 3 I can recover quite a lot. However, with the large number of press photographers attending, I caught someone elses flash with provided enough light for me and a better lit picture. I soon changed my flash to the settings I needed once the podium was moved. We were quite a distance from her. With full length shots being taken on a 70-200mm lens. This also used up quite a bit of flash power.
As usual, All pictures are taken by myself including the pictures the first link (clicking on the picture) takes you too. They are all available for commercial and probably individual blog use via Famous pictures.