This year was my third year making the trek out to Las Vegas for the WPPI (Wedding Portrait Photography) conference at the MGM Grand. Its always a great time to get out of the Northeast and go from 20 degrees to 70.
My focus at this years conference was on business, marketing, workflow and posing sessions (similar list to last year). I spent a little time at the Expo to check out the vendors and also managed to get a couple shoots in.
From the sessions I attended I realized more so how important it is to know the demographics of my clients. It allows you to provide a better service since you're able to anticipate needs and build a stronger bond. An area of interest for my business this year is SEO and getting the most out of client relationships.
Blogging is still an important way to get the word out about your business. I like to use it as a way to chronicle my activity and give people a sense of who I am. A repeated theme from last year was to always look for ways to both attract and repel. You want strong reactions about your work. That's what creates future champions for your business.
By attending the sessions, each year I find new contacts and inspiration. I hope to write a little about each session in future posts but one I wanted to call out now was the key note by Joe McNally. Wow. I thought I knew most of his work but there was so much I wasn't aware of. He has been everywhere it seems and shot so many iconic images. So impressive.
Last, I'm a bit of a tech geek and love to use tools and automation where possible to get the business portion of my job done. Currently, I'm using tools like Buffer to schedule posts to social media (G+, Facebook, and Twitter). I also use Dropbox for a variety of client facing and organizational reasons and IFTTT to help with some automation with content.
I'll have more information coming on the shoots I did while in Vegas. Stay tuned...
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Facebook -> https://www.facebook.com/DarrinEstepPhotography
Twitter -> https://twitter.com/destep001