Calling all DC/Baltimore Photographers — GigBooks will be in town for the DC Pictage User Group tomorrow. The details are below and you shouldn’t miss this event as we will be hosting a discussion on photography sales techniques + showing off parts of the new GigBooks platform including the greatly anticipated calendar that allows for sharing, iCal sync and much more!
Date: Monday, September 14, 2009
Time: 7:30pm
Location:
Michael Bennett Kress & Associates
7906 Woodmont Avenue
Bethesda, MD 20814
We hope to see you all there!
NYC was a blast as usual! Thanks to Shari of Silk Studio for pulling together another amazing PUG in the great city of New York. I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation on the business of photography and the opportunity to share my insights into sales, workflows, business management and even the future of the photography industry.
The evening kicked off at about 5:00 PM with a very organic conversation about the best ways to generate new leads for a photography business. We talked about the ups and downs of many lead generation and advertising services available to photographers. Shari then officially started the meeting with the Pictage agenda and a quick “around the room introduction” of everyone present.
We then picked up our discussion where we left off and continued to explore sales techniques that I have found effective in converting wedding and portrait prospects into paying clients. Other topics included best practices for ensuring a quick delivery of albums to brides and grooms and a presentation of GigBooks. There were plenty of questions and lots of laughs!
If you were with us for the NYC PUG last night please leave a comment and let us know how you liked the overall format of the evening.
Following the PUG, Julia Newman took Shari and I to an amazing Ethiopian restaurant in the East Village. It was an experience I won’t soon forget! Thanks to everyone for making last night a great evening in New York.
As a Pennsylvania native who is used to 140+ inches of snow during the winter — I could get used to So Cal! Beverly Hills is a lot of fun and somehow I managed to hang out with all of our Pictage friends in LA again on the anniversary of my first visit to the LA PUG. Jules confirmed this when she checked back through her PUG history.
As usual everyone in LA was awesome and it was nice to see some familiar faces along with plenty of new ones. Simon Anderson, Pictage’s new Chief Marketing Officer, even joined us and was busy taking notes on everyone’s suggestions throughout the evening.
We were in our second night of a new PUG presentation format and according to the feedback we’ve heard so far — it was well received. For any of you in attendance, please feel free to let us know what you thought.
Here are some pictures courtesy of Jules Bianchi that will have to hold us over until we catch up again soon!
The Whole Group
Justin @ the LA PUG (Smile)
Kicking off the Summer 2009 PUG tour was San Diego and as usual SD was warm and sunny! Getting to San Diego wasn’t without its challenges though. First, I was supposed to get up bright and early at 2:45AM EST in order to drive to Pittsburgh for my 6:17AM flight; however, I woke up to the wonderful chirp of birds and light beginning to flood my bedroom @ 5:45AM. The airline was unusually willing to help out and allowed me to standby for another flight and got me out on the next one, but that wasn’t before I managed to take out a turkey with my Expedition on my drive to Pittsburgh!!
When I did arrive, Jared Bauman of Bauman Photographers and ShootDotEdit was kind enough to pick me up at the airport and take me to dinner. I honestly don’t remember the name of the restaurant, but the food was good.
We then met up with San Diego PUG leaders Jeff & Erin Youngren of The Youngrens at their beautiful home and the location of the PUG meeting. It’s always great to catch up with Jared, Jeff & Erin when I’m in town and if the cost of living weren’t so darn high — I think their friendships would be enough to have me packing the bags and moving out to San Diego.
Kevin Mudd of Cool Cake Photography kicked off the meeting with a great studio spotlight and did a great job of unknowingly building a lead in to my presentation for the evening. For our second PUG tour we decided to introduce a new presentation format that consists of an open discussion on sales techniques and how improving and streamlining the entire sales process can lead to revenue and profit growth. Feedback was positive and I took the new format with me to LA the next evening!
Kevin's Studio Spotlight
The New GigBooks Presentation
Thanks for another great PUG in San Diego!
After 30+ PUG stops since last June you would think we would have visited Pittsburgh (the closest PUG to GigBooks HQ) a little sooner, but alas we tried and tried without any success until last night! Boy was it a success too.
Thanks to all of you for coming out and sharing a fun evening and an extra special thanks to the 4 (of 7) that signed up for GigBooks on the spot! We’d like to welcome our four newest members to the GigBooks community.
Joanne Bartone (http://www.joannebartone.com) is the PUG leader in Pittsburgh and puts on a great event! She was kind enough to share a few pictures she shot last night. Enjoy!
The Whole Group (Pittsburgh PUG - March 17, 2009)
A Very Attentive Pittsburgh Group
Where is Joanne? Oh Yeah, She's Behind the Camera!
As I write the most recent GigBooks blog post, I’m cruising along at approximately 500 mph and sitting at 26,000 feet in a cozy (and I do mean cozy in a tight sort of way) Canadair CL-65 regional jet. Oh what fun!
That; however, is not the reason I’m writing. I’m currently situated somewhere between Philadelphia, PA and Nashville, TN en route to the Nashville PUG meeting where I will present GigBooks to a great group of our fellow Pictage photographers this evening!
It has been a long 4 months since I last set out for a Pictage User Group meeting and a lot has happened in that time. Since ending the 28 city PUG tour in October, Thanksgiving and Christmas came and went, we crossed into a new year, Amanda and I visited Hawaii (and definitely did not want to leave), Amanda turned 24, oh and way back in November we added the third Kifer Siberian Husky to the family! That puts me one closer to my dream of a 16 Husky sled dog team!! Amanda assures me that will never happen, but I say Iditarod, “Here we come!” 
We’ve also welcomed many new photographers, disc jockeys, graphic designers and other professionals to the GigBooks family. We continue to grow in order to help all of you grow your businesses.
GigBooks has launched quite a few new features in that time, some large and some small, and we are working on a slew of additional features that will launch in the coming weeks and months. We’re also cooking up a new design and user interface for the GigBooks application per the request of several members.
WPPI is coming up and while Amanda and I will be there to hang out with everyone – we have decided our marketing dollars can be spent better in ways that don’t resemble exhibit booths and no ROI (Return on Investment for anyone not up on their business acronyms). Fun initiatives like Giggle|TV and other campaigns you’ll start to see in the coming months should keep GigBooks fans happy!
That’s all for now! Hopefully I’ll catch up with everyone on the other end of Nashville.
Miami, Chicago, Detroit, San Diego, Cincinnati, San Jose, San Francisco, Seattle, and Portland just in July! We want to thank all of the groups who made it possible for us to spread the word about GigBooks! We had so much fun and looking forward to meeting new members in August!
We’re on Tour!
Thank you to the Charleston, Raleigh, NYC, Baltimore and Philly area PUGs and all the great photographers that came out to experience GigBooks first hand. We appreciate your support and are completely humbled by the overwhelming support you’re showing for GigBooks.
While on tour, we’ve had the opportunity to meet so many fellow Pictage members. Everyone has been great and I enjoyed sharing GigBooks and answering your questions. Hopefully you found the presentation useful!
Here’s a brief and belated summary from each PUG:
Charleston:
Faith of Sandpiper Studios invited us to present GigBooks to the Charleston PUG after she heard about the GigBooks PUG tour. We met on Monday, June 2nd at an Atlanta Bread Company location. It was a small group, but everyone had a lot of fun and shared a lot with each other!
Raleigh:
Thank you to Millie of Millie Holloman Photography for having us at the Raleigh PUG. We met on Tuesday, June 3rd at Hi5 (a great club/restaurant I highly recommend visiting if you’re in Raleigh). There was a lot of energy in Raleigh and lots of great feature suggestions were offered up. We love to hear your ideas so please keep them coming.
NYC:
What can I say about NYC except that you guys ROCK! Julia — thanks for letting me crash on the couch in your studio! Dinner after the PUG until 12:30 AM was a lot of fun; though, did make my 5AM trip to La Guardia a little rough. 
The 80’s dance party after the PUG meeting was the icing on the cake! You are a super group of photographers and I can’t wait to get back to NYC to hang with all of you. Oh and did I mention — that nearly half of those in NYC are now GigBooks members!
Shari (Silk Studio Weddings) — thanks for having us!
Baltimore:
Evan & Co. — it was great breaking in my new MacBook Pro with you guys (thanks to the NYC PUG for pushing me to pick one up!). Despite the learning curve, I think everything went well and you all have some awesome questions.
With temperatures around 100 degrees in Baltimore — it was by far the warmest PUG I’ve attended and presented at. Thanks for a great, HOT night!
Evan has a great website at: http://www.bishophotography.com/
Philly:
WOW! That is all I can say about Mike Kehr’s studio! He has the most awesome space I’ve seen in a long time and if you ever have the opportunity to visit — make sure you do.
Everyone in Philly was great. It was nice chatting with some of you that are technically inclined too! Once again, lots of great suggestions and questions.
Sofia of Sofia Negron Photography did a great job organizing the meeting and the pizza was great! Thanks so much to everyone.
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Everyone has been great and we are looking forward to visiting Dallas, DC, Orange County and LA in the next week or so! Look for us at your local PUG presenting GigBooks in the coming months!
PUG Tour | Justin Kifer | 
September 13, 2009 9:19 AM | 
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