What a great meeting we had for April. Not only did we have a great round-table discussion on WPPI and any accompanying elements, but we also had an out of town guest, Victor Sizemore. I met Victor while at WPPI and I knew he was going to be in town for the April TCPPA meeting. While talking with him, I said that we should get together while he was in town. When I got home I thought he may enjoy meeting some additional people and invited him to our meeting. Not only is he a great photographer who is building a really successful business, but is simply a really likable guy. He had a lot of good points that he shared with the group as a whole and some that he gave out on a more one-on-one basis. I thought it was a lot of fun having a guest and would like to say thanks to Victor for coming, and those of you who gave him a warm welcome (Picture compliments of Sue Austin).
As for WPPI, all the attendees tried to share some of their experiences. I talked a bit about the importance of WPPI from a networking standpoint and the sheer number of people you can meet. Not only is it my contention that you should network with new photographers but also your vendors. It is always good to strengthen any relationship (business or otherwise). David Drufke shared his thoughts on some common themes: branding, business savvy, "finishing" vs. outsourcing, etc. The number one thing he came away with is that you have to be true to yourself. Do what you want to do. If you are setting your own trends and walking that path, your only "real" competition is yourself. Bjorn Meisner talked about how he always gets a lot out of WPPI plus and the business institute. He also mentioned that after attending the David Williams presentation on architectural album design, he has started to look at the entire wedding process differently. All in all, I think everyone who went got a lot out of it and came back with new thoughts, ideas, and friends.
As an aside, we found out that our PUG had the second highest attendance increase for the March contest, plus we won $250 towards a meeting for having the most creative idea. Stacey and I along with Pictage would like to thank all of you who attended and getting the word out. I would also like to once again thank Janet from Minnesota Bride and Mike from Mike Colon Photographers for helping make the contest such a success.
Items of Interest:
1) Be sure to participate in the April Gift Card contest! The region with the highest percent of events released in April with preregistered gift credits win Joe Buissink! How cool would that be?!
2) Don't forget to wish Tanya Villano a happy birthday on Friday the 18th. Hope you have a GREAT day Dear:)
3) Wendy Blomseth would like to encourage everyone to attend the St. Paul Art Crawl (see image below)
4.) Shared studio space available:
Wendy is also looking for someone to share space with her in St. Paul. Here are the
details...
Lastly, Katrina Hannemann mentioned that there is shared consulting space available atthe CW Lofts on Stinson Blvd. Contact Heather@adagioinc.com if interested.
Thank you to all who attended. It was great seeing all the usual suspects and a few new faces too.
Stacey and Jason Thon
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