On January 26, 2012, Lauranne and I were presenters at Le Book Connections in Los Angeles. It was Le Books’ second year hosting in Los Angeles and we presented both times. Once again, they did not disappoint. It was a success indeed. Here were our observations:
NEW WORK IS STILL KING
For those of you who have never seen the event, think trade show. There are booths of vendors lined up next to each other showcasing the work of their talent. There are a large variety of books, iPads, leave behinds and treats – all designed to draw in the reviewers. As you can imagine, there is a lot to see and many people to meet.
Time and time again when an art buyer or art director that knew our group well entered our booth, to help cut through the clutter , the first thing they often said was, “Show me what is new.” For those photographers that provided new prints, we directed them to the portfolios. For those that did not update their books, we directed them to the iPad.
Just as with previous Le Book events, it was those photographers that had the most amount of new work for us to share that received the most amount of attention from clients that were already familiar with our group.
SPECIALTIES ARE IMPORTANT
Just as was the case with the other events, renewers who came by that were not familiar with our group often asked to see specific types of photography rather than just review random portfolios. Since they didn’t know the photographers in our group, they did not ask for them by name. Instead, they would ask for Still Life or Food or Lifestyle or Portrait etc photography to review. This made it easy to get to know what they were looking for and share with them work that would be relevant.
IPAD VS PORTFOLIO
The main attractions at our booth were the portfolios. We had 2 iPads present but neither were reviewed very much. Having them on hand just in case there was a need to show additional imagery was important. Even though the need did not arise often, we will continue to bring them in the event that one does.
NETWORKING
As always, this event proved invaluable to making new connections and reconnecting with old ones. Hands down, Le Book has been the strongest place to network with the client direct reviewers. They are the hardest to find on our own and often are not accurately listed on any database. We came home with so many business cards of new people requesting to be put on our mailing list. In addition, we received an invitation from a startup agency in LA to come back down and present our work to their team. It was nice to be asked since we are always the ones doing the asking!
Thank you Alex Orlowski for all of your hard work in directing and promoting the event. It was the perfect atmosphere to catch up with old clients and make new connections. We are looking forward to the event in NY in June and already have some great ideas on how to show off our work.
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