WPPI Conference

That’s the Wedding and Portrait Photographers Conference, held in Las Vegas, and I attended to represent The 4EVER Group and our membership. We shared booth space with the conference organizers during the trade show, and we presented a video program during the educational time. In addition, I shot some footage for the highlights video, which was being assembled by a friend.

Our original program presenter asked to be excused, and we had an even better seminar as a replacement. Unfortunately, bad weather prevented LaDonna Moore from leaving Dallas, so I had to step up and replace her. I had a two-hour time slot to fill, which I did with a combination of the Video Critique and an instantly-developed program highlighting the cross-marketing opportunities between photo and video. Our official VIDEO 08 photographer was in attendance, and Sara Frances (http://www.photomirage.com/) graciously provided the images here.

We used four DVD’s in the presentation. Two were ours, and two associates each provided one. An AV technician handled the DVD’s during the program. Immediately after my presentation, while I was talking to several attendees, the tech left the DVD’s on his table and came up to retrieve the microphone. In that 30-or so second time, someone stole those DVD’s. That was a ridiculous blemish on an otherwise excellent experience.

WPPI draws about 10,000 attendees, and more than 350 trade show vendors, so it’s pretty impressive. There are as many as 16 programs going on at once, so that’s really quite an effort to pull together.

Four City Trip Starts

These crazy few days kicked off with a trip to Boston, for an industry show on March 7 and 8. We (The 4EVER Group) were one of the exhibitors at the Camera Company Pro Video show, which was held on the campus of Stonehill College. In addition to the show, I was a panelist for the Vista Awards, presented by the local video producers group, the National Professional Videographers Association of New England (NPVA-NE).

The show itself was fairly uneventful, and it was run well. They’ve had some practice: this was the 18th year of the show, and the second time that we’ve participated. Unlike the last time we participated, the show has been geared almost totally toward industry professionals. That meant that the foot traffic was lighter than we figured.

Day two of the show, Saturday, figured to be busier. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t really cooperate, as there was quite the downpour. The show was held in the school’s gym, which was next to the main athletic field (W. B. Mason Field), and there was a lacrosse match that morning. That had to be an unpleasant experience, out in the cold rain.

At the show’s conclusion (5pm), I packed up and grabbed a quick dinner with a couple of associates. Then I hit the road, bound for State College. Seven entertaining hours later, I arrived in my old home town for the PA ABC meeting. But you should have already read that story.

The four cities? Boston, State College, Davenport IA, and Las Vegas.

PA ABC Meeting

PA ABC Meeting

So there will be a couple of posts that are out of order. It happens.

This past Saturday, at the conclusion of the Camera Company event, I drove from the Boston area to State College, PA, for the meeting of the PA chapter of the Association of Bridal Consultants (ABC). This would be my second presentation for the PA ABC, and the last one had been about five or six years ago.

The drive featured some lousy weather, with serious rain from Boston to Hartford, CT, and a mix of light snow and ice for the last 100 miles of the trip. It didn’t help that I left Boston about 7pm, but the program didn’t end until after 5pm, and then I stopped for dinner with a couple of associates. I made it to State College almost exactly at 2am, and that’s when Daylight Savings Time took effect. I figure that simply meant that I lost an hour of awake time, rather than sleep.

Consultants did come in from all over Pennsylvania, from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia. Of course, there were a few from the State College area, as I noted in an earlier post. As a Penn State graduate, I’d be really happy to cover a wedding there, but I haven’t really pushed it before now.

My goal was to give the consultants something of a status update on the state of the video production business. Although two of the attendees had seen my presentation at the 2007 national ABC conference, this was new information to everyone else. We discussed Same Day Edits, Memorial Videos, and HD video, among other topics.

Since I had anticipated arriving so late, I was able to get scheduled to speak after lunch. The ABC did have two other speakers in the agenda, so that worked in my favor. I did get to sleep in a little, and then grab breakfast at the Waffle Shop, a favorite spot in State College. It was spring break, so town was unusually quiet.

On the ride home, I took a little detour through Altoona, to visit with friends there. So after another long drive, I finally got home about midnight.

Penn State Weddings?

Yesterday, I did a presentation for the PA chapter of the Association of Bridal Consultants. I’ll blog more about that later. First, though, I wanted to mention a useful and fun site for any fellow Penn Staters getting married in the Centre region.

One of the meeting attendees was Kerri Smith, the “quarterback” (their term) for Nittany Weddings. Her business card resembled a sports card, and the photo was of a bride in her gown, with a blue sash, about to throw a football. And she has lamp black under her eyes.

That football theme was consistent in their material, and I liked the branding. I have to figure that it plays well up in Happy Valley. Check them out at www.nittanyweddings.com.