I spent the weekend of October 16-17, 2010, at a really worthwhile conference. The group is PACA (Picture Archive Council of America), the attendees were all in the image production and acquisition business, and the sessions were primarily on subjects related to multimedia.
The photography business is being transformed by multimedia so conferences like this are critical in hearing where the industry is going and learning the new tools. I left the sessions with valuable updates on video technique, SEO, digital tools for creative collaboration on multimedia projects, and multimedia business model and production techniques from the best multimedia producer in the business: Brian Storm of Media Storm. If you haven’t seen any Mediastorm productions, you’re missing out on some of the most creative new photojournalism being produced today so please check it out.
Multimedia videos at the Mediastorm website
One of the people who spoke about SEO was Allen Murabayashi, co-founder of Photoshelter. That man knows his business – both SEO and photo websites. I just signed on to Photoshelter and am on two sites there, my individual site plus my new collaborative venture: Education Imagery. My Photoshelter setup was astonishingly smooth – I would highly recommend Photoshelter to any photographers looking for a good online venue for their work.
home page for Ellen Senisi Education Photographs
Plenty of marketing went on at this conference and I was happy to find new outlets for my images as well as some people for whom I may end up doing assignment work. In addition to the information-valuable sessions and excellent marketing opportunities, the party at the end of the weekend was, hands down, the best I’ve been to at a professional conference.
I also attended a conference in April for ASPP that was superb, as well. I’ve found that my attendance at these two professional image assocatiation conferences has been a valuable way for me to jumpstart my knowledge of new techniques and trends and to increase my network of colleagues and potential clients.