Lovegrove News update
December 12th, 2009
With details of new workshops ~ Focus on imaging ~ SWPP talks ~ Blog updates ~ And a call for ideas.
Blog
Martin has installed an email subscription system that will let you track the comments threads automatically. You can now see when I or someone else has replied to one of your comments without having to keep popping back to check. Changes we make to this blog are often as a direct result of your requests so please feel free to continue to suggest functionality improvements that we can implement on ProPhotoNut.
Blu-Ray – DVD
After a few disc reproduction issues we look to be back on track for pre Christmas deliveries as expected. I must admit it has been a bit of a roller-coaster ride here in the past few weeks. The Pre -Order £10 discount offer ends at midnight on Monday. Luke has even put a countdown on the offer page to remind us.
We shot 35 items for the new video and could only squeeze 23 into the 2.5 hour limit that the DVD format will allow. So we will go on and edit the 12 remaining items to make them available as paid for downloads. We will then be able to reward our customers with complimentary download vouchers on a sort of points system basis.
Workshops
The first three months of 2010 are probably going to be the busiest start to a season that we have ever had. As well as SWPP, and Focus On Imaging there are going to be a string of product launches to handle. Laura will be back with us in March but the workshops start well before then. Here is our first quarter schedule of workshops.
Marko Masterclass Lovegrove Studio – Monday 25th January 2010
Marko Advanced Lovegrove Studio – Wednesday 27th January 2010
Get Effective with Lightroom Lovegrove Studio – Thursday 28th January 2010
Get Effective with Photoshop Lovegrove Studio – Friday 29th January 2010
Studio Lighting Workshop Lovegrove Studio – Tuesday 9th February 2010
Studio Lighting Workshop Lovegrove Studio – Wednesday 10th February 2010
Creative TTL Workshop CREATE Centre, Bristol CANON USERS – Thursday 18th March 2010
Speedlight Mastery Workshop Bristol NIKON USERS – Tuesday 23rd March 2010
Shooting Weddings Workshop Stonehouse, Gloucestershire – Wednesday 24th March 2010
Speedlight Mastery Workshop Bristol CANON USERS – Monday 29th March 2010
Speedlight Mastery Workshop Bristol CANON USERS – Tuesday 30th March 2010
Camera Skills The Matara – Monday 5th April 2010
SWPP convention
I will be giving three seminars at the SWPP convention on the 15th, 16th, and 17th of January. They are all start at 8am and are entitled ‘Make the world your studio’ The good news is you only need to get up early once as the talks are all the same. The bad news is I’ll have to get up early three times. Those of you who know me well will realise this time of day is quite a challenge for me.
We will again be exhibiting at the SWPP trade show in our usual position upstairs in the Champagne suite. You never know, we might just have a large supply of Pocket Wizards for Nikon with us.
Focus on Imaging exhibition
We’ve gone a bit mad for the 2010 Focus exhibition and have enlisted the services of Henley & Henley design consultants to build us a top stand. The project is scary and exciting at the same time. What advice do you have for us for the Focus exhibition? Be creative with your answers.
Best wishes and seasons greetings, Damien.
More details.
12 Comments Add your own
1. martin | December 12th, 2009 at 9:31 am
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2. Martin Hill | December 12th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
Can’t wait to see you get up for 8am good buddy, I may even make the effort myself.
3. damien | December 17th, 2009 at 12:07 am
Hi Martin, Don’t you go leading me astray, I might miss the ship. Cheers, D.
4. Chris | December 17th, 2009 at 12:42 am
Probably just as good to watch as the seminar
Good luck buddy.
5. Will Pateman Photography | December 17th, 2009 at 11:06 am
Hi Damien,
are you doing a seminar at Focus or are you just promoting your courses…and will you be doing another creative TTL apart from March.
6. damien | December 18th, 2009 at 1:16 am
Hi Will,
I’m not planning on doing any seminars at Focus but our trade stand will be bigger to reflect our diversification and the needs of our customers.
The past 2 years I’ve been asked to talk in the Canon theater at Focus. I’d love to be asked again, so we’ll need to wait and see what happens.
Luke, has started to put together an online calender for the workshops and events that we run. The Creative TTL days were intended for early adopters of the PW system. We added another event in March for the last few voucher holders who wanted to join me on a creative day.
I’ve developed a Speedlight Mastery day to take over from the old Urban Portraits workshop and the transitional Creative TTL event. It is designed for 4 delegates using the same brand of camera.
I have no plans to add more creative TTL days at the moment. I may add a couple of Nikon events but it will be on a demand led basis.
Cheers, Damien.
7. matt | December 18th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
damien — regarding the 2010 Focus exhibition stand… just run demos, some more demos and then end the day with a few more. The crowds love ‘em!!!
How do you stop the pushy togs, which treat the event like a training session for the front row of scrum being at the front? Perhaps you could allow selected togs (who’ve registered on your site, hence been here and know what you are about) to take part!!! Or maybe run a comp on here to find your lucky togs!
Do I get one of the allocated slots pls??? I promise not to use my elbows …
8. Will Pateman Photography | December 18th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
Great idea, but you cant avoid the crowds at Focus, there seems to be more and more trainspotters and anaraks there every year..no offense we all start somewhere
9. damien | December 18th, 2009 at 5:56 pm
Hi Matt,
The trouble with demos is that no personal contact is made and the crowds and congestion on the stand stop any trade.
Customers wishing to buy a portfolio, Pocket Wizards, DVDs or to talk about a workshop for instance can’t because of the noise and lack of access.
So to combat this, next year we will have a custom made stand with four zones staffed by a dedicated and knowledgeable team.
I will be there on hand with the aim of spending time with you all and being able to answer any questions you may have on a 1:1 basis.
Damien.
10. DaveT | December 26th, 2009 at 9:20 am
Hi Damien,
In respect of advertising your workshops at Focus. An idea I have is that you could have one or more past participants on the stand to give a personal perspective of their experience on a workshop.
As the show is on for a number of days you could spread this out so that particpants could maybe spend just half a day each, thereby allowing them time to do other things at Focus.
Apart from relating their experiences to prospective attendees, particpants could go on to say how they have used the learning in their photography – the buisness benefit / personal development or both.
Perhaps you could ‘reward’ the participant by giving them a voucher towards a course or DVD.
Just a thought
Dave
11. damien | December 29th, 2009 at 11:01 am
Hi Dave,
Thanks for your ideas re Focus. We have a need to promote our workshops at Focus and we will be doing that at one of our five zones. I find that potential workshop delegates often want specific information about the Studio Lighting event at our studio or the Speedlight Mastery event in Amsterdam etc and that only one of our team can deliver the information required. We have Personal endorsement is a vital part of converting a prospect into becoming a paying customer and to some extent that is what this blog achieves through feedback from delegates.
Focus is unlike SWPP and will interesting for us as we are retailing four major brands: Pocket Wizard, Lovegrove leather portfolios, Broncolor Mobil and our DVDs. We will also have a series of sub product lines, The Love Cube (info to follow), the Lovegrove Flash Bracket, and the Lovegrove lighting gel collections to name a few.
We are in the fortunate position at the moment where the demand for our workshops tends to be greater than our diary availability and they sell out as fast as we can put them on. So our effort at Focus is going to be principally on product awareness and retail sales.
Marko and I will be on hand to personally advise on workshops and post production as required. I expect you will be seeing a few Lovegrove delegates from our Evolve programme and probably a few of my consultancy customers too on our stand from time to time.
Kindest regards, Damien.
12. Darren Athersmith | January 12th, 2010 at 4:06 pm
Hi Damian,
Will you be retailing the Arri 300W Junior Fresnel as one of your sub product lines as I’m quite interested in one. Not sure how big your stand is going to be this year but maybe you could do some demo’s of it and maybe the Broncolor’s too?
Regards
Darren.
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