More From The Road

Fourth Trip: Denver, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Appleton and Madison, WI

This was one trip that I had been especially looking forward to taking, as I’d never been to either city. One thing that has always made business travel interesting was the opportunity to spend time with friends in different cities, seeing and doing things I may not otherwise. The first leg of the trip, to Denver, was perhaps the best mix of business and pleasure during this outreach time.

My visit to Denver just happened to coincide with a Broncos home game against my favorite team, the Philadelphia Eagles. Literally thousands of Eagles fans made the trip to Denver, so everywhere we went, we shared the town with lots and lots of Philadelphians. The picture on the bottom is me outside of the stadium, prior to the game.

Henry Mares, president of the local association in Denver, and Jay Wren, took turns showing me around Denver. Our first stop was lunch in the town of Black Hawk, which is at an elevation of about 8000 feet. Never having been at that kind of altitude before, I did find myself huffing and puffing as we hustled through town.

After lunch, a tour of the Coors brewery in Golden was on the agenda. As expected, there were a lot of Eagles fans sampling the variety beers on tap in the lounge. Since Henry had some business obligations, Jay and I spent the late afternoon and evening together, including dinner among dozens of other Eagles fans.

Although I did attend the football game, the less written about that the better, since, as I said, I’m an Eagles fan.

The Denver association is one of the few that have a daytime meeting. The meeting time schedule is designed to appeal to those videographers who prioritize their business in a way that allows them to attend such a meeting. That does present some obvious challenges, but it also makes for an enthusiastic group of attendees. And with a fairly limited amount of available time, it means that the attendees still can get in a pretty full day back in the studio. The meeting ends at about noon, which also gives attendees the opportunity to network over lunch afterward.

This offers the opportunity to go off on a tangent about local association meeting schedules. What is the best method for planning meetings in a way that will lead to association success?

If we consider the models of other business organizations, then daytime meetings can be effective. Chambers of Commerce and business referral networks often have breakfast meetings. On the other hand, groups that are involved in the social event industry, such as the National Association of Catering Executives (NACE), usually meet during the evening.

Obviously, each local association sets its own agenda and schedule. But our observations over these many years reveal the following;
-Successful associations tend to meet regularly (most often monthly).
-Successful associations tend to meet in the same location every time.
-Successful associations draw contributions from their members, and are able to attract outside presenters.

As we’ve stressed throughout this outreach effort, local associations truly are the backbone of our industry; everything positive starts there. Members trade job leads, share equipment and ideas, and formulate strategies for dealing with the public image of videographers. The 4EVER Group stands ready to continue assisting in the development of local videographers associations.

Following lunch with Henry Mares and Jay Wren, I spent my remaining few hours in Denver at the Mares’ home, trying to avoid the Halloween candy rush. Finally, it was off to the airport for the short flight to Salt Lake City.

Throughout this outreach, I’ve found it fairly easy to get a hotel room that included a Wi-Fi connection. That was a pleasant and important change from other extended road trips, where we considered ourselves lucky to find dial-up service. For both Tim and I, being out of the office for such an extended period of time would have meant missing vital communications, had it not been for the up-to-date internet connections now widely available.

Although I’ve seen many videos involving the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS), I knew practically nothing about LDS practices. After working on the computer for a few hours, in advance of a diner meeting, I went to the Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City. In a compact area, the Salt Lake Temple anchors the history and future of the LDS faith. After taking a brief tour, I finally understood why I was not going to be able to enter a Temple (first, I would have to be baptized in the faith). The architecture is incredible, and the weather cooperated as well. In the ninety-or-so minutes I spent at Temple Square, I also saw two newly-married couples being photographed (no video) outside the Salt Lake Temple.

The meeting was in the rural town of Tooele (if you’re going there, it’s pronounced ‘Twill-ah’), where I got to share a barbecue dinner with Douglas Spotted Eagle, his wife Linda, and business partner Mannie Frances. We finalized the details of Spot’s participation in The 4EVER Group’s January 2006 convention. That we could meet was a happy scheduling coincidence, as Spot and Mannie were off on another leg of their VASST training tour the following morning.

I didn’t need to arrive at the Utah Professional Videographers meeting until late in the afternoon on that Wednesday, so I had plenty of time to work in my hotel room during the day. But I took another brief side-trip before the meeting, so I could get down to the Great Salt Lake.

Right off of a freeway, just past the airport, was a lake-front marina. Although the marina was closed for the season, it still offered access to the lake. The beach was an interesting combination of hard-packed sand and salt, and it was probably 100 yards wide. Set among beautiful, snow-capped mountains, the lake truly was impressive. Videographers from the Salt Lake City area have described the lake as having a rather unique scent. While I can’t explain their reactions, from my perspective, the lake smelled like the ocean, but just a little stronger.

With Salt Lake City being the major metropolitan area, the UPVA routinely draws attendees who drive two or more hours to each meeting. As a supporter of local associations, it’s gratifying to see that happen. The UPVA meets in a lecture hall at a local community college, which was the only such location I’d encountered. Interestingly, the college’s mission was to support entrepreneurial activities. Of course, most videographers qualify as entrepreneurs, making for a sense of belonging.

My presentation was “Do the Math”, and it was as informative for the UPVA as it was for every other association. Salt Lake City, perhaps the smallest market on this tour, had lots of questions about how the numbers might relate to their experiences. The point of “Do the Math” is to offer tools that videographers can use to establish their own true costs of doing business. Those costs do vary from studio to studio.

After the meeting, about half of the attendees went out to dinner, and continued the intense business discussions. Meetings are a great place to build a network of personal contacts within your own market, but the after-meeting meals are often where friendships are cemented.

Early Thursday morning, it was time to head off to the airport for a trip to Los Angeles. This was originally a trip being made in support of the LAPVA, but their meeting was rescheduled as part of a reorganizing effort. Instead, I used the time to continue developing other important business relationships.

Interestingly, I have a personal connection to with the publisher of an industry magazine called “Trade Show Week”. Through their weekly publication and web site, “Trade Show Week” is arguably the bible of the industry. I think that The 4EVER Group has a compelling story, in that we’re a start-up company taking on the 15-year old established entity in our industry. There are other obvious side issues that could be considered “inside baseball”, but that’s what “Trade Show Week” is all about.

In addition to working on the “Trade Show Week” relationship, I met with the owner and the editor of a major entity in the bridal industry. While this entity will remain nameless as this is written, the story may be very well-known by the time this is published. And the root of my meeting was the lack of growth and acceptance of video within the bridal community.

To date, little more than a token effort has been made to get high-quality video in front of large numbers of brides. Many brides remain convinced that what they saw years ago of both the process and the finished product still applies today. We know better. The 4EVER Group, in cooperation with some of the leading videographers on the continent, and in conjunction with this nameless bridal industry entity, are working together to get quality video in front of huge numbers of brides. In theory, as more and more brides see the outstanding productions that today’s videographers routinely turn out, demand will be created for quality wedding videos in every market. This will obviously lead to more work for many videographers, and provide an incentive for other videographers to improve their productions.

This creates a winning scenario for everyone. The brides get video more often, and learn about quality video. This will also create a buzz in the space where this entity does business, generating more interest in their products and services. If more brides are seeking video, that certainly means more work for videographers. And by being the catalyst, The 4EVER Group cements its role as the leader in this industry.

After three quick nights in Los Angeles, it was time to move on to Chicago, for our Video Summit. Because the Video Summit was not a local association event, we’ll leave that report out of this article. We’ll move on to the association meeting in Appleton, WI.

Appleton is not that far from Chicago, so I rented a car for what turned out to be a pretty routine drive. Passing through Milwaukee, I did take a little side trip to the Harley-Davidson engine plant, catching the last tour of the day (2:00pm). The time spent there meant that I got to Appleton around dinner time.

I arrived in Appleton on Tuesday, and since the meeting was Wednesday, there was not great sense of urgency. I was able to have a relaxed dinner at a local restaurant before heading back to the hotel to catch up on the day’s email pile.

My hotel did not have a restaurant, so I had to go find a place for breakfast on Wednesday morning. Fortunately, I noticed a locally-owned restaurant, called the Machine Shed, just across the highway from my hotel. The décor was sort of a tribute to farming. There were old milk jugs all around, along with lots of farm equipment and hand tools, and the waitresses wore bib overalls and trucker caps. Water and juice got served in Ball jars. But the place was very busy, and there were plenty of business-people there.

In talking with Lance Lewis, the association president, he decided to pick me up for that evening’s meeting. They meet at a restaurant near my hotel, I was assured. And as it turned out, the meeting was also at the Machine Shed restaurant. My presentation that night was the Video Critique, and it had the usual range of attendee reactions. Basically, videographers everywhere have been impressed with the well-done videos, and they’ve also been able to learn from videos that weren’t award-winners. Although the presentation is built around five videos (four excellent, and one that wasn’t), few videographers have been able to participate in a thorough analysis before this program was created.

Unfortunately, since the meeting was held in a restaurant, there was no extended after-meeting session. Of course, some people had a significant drive home, so it just wasn’t going to be a late night.

I was out at a relaxed hour the following morning for the drive back to Chicago. There was, however, another side trip along the way, this time in Madison, WI. The 4EVER Group had been invited to help assist videographers there who were interested in establishing a local association there. In addition, I met with Steve Nathans, the editor of Event DV magazine, to discuss critical industry issues. Because of the magazine’s interest in local associations, having devoted a cover story to the topic, Nathans sat in on that meeting.

Before getting back on the road to Chicago, I had to indulge in one of my quirky interests. Over the years, I’ve walked into many stadiums, and even out onto the field on occasion. Over the years, I’ve sat in the dugout at Veteran’s Stadium in Philadelphia, walked onto the field at Penn State’s Beaver Stadium, into Wrigley Field, and onto the field at the University of Michigan stadium, among others. When I was in Salt Lake City, I walked out onto the field there. In Madison, I took Steve Nathans with me to Camp Randall Stadium, and we both took a walk out onto the turf there. Steve took the picture that's on the top of the page. Like I said, it’s a quirky thing.

The rest of the ride back to Chicago was uneventful, except for the traffic. My flight from Midway was in the early evening, which meant that I had to drive across the city in rush hour traffic. You know, those of us that work from home are not missing a thing by not commuting.

After the trip home, I had just over a day to recover enough for the next part of the outreach: a journey that would take me to Seattle, Los Angeles, and Phoenix.