This entry was posted on 4/17/2007 2:31 AM and is filed under GPVA, Seminars.
David Robin Seminar - Philadelphia, Pa. April 17, 2007
A Seat at the Feet of A Master by Kathy Ritondo
The Day with
David Robin hosted by The Greater Philadelphia Videographers Association begins its incarnation with a trip back in time to a Christmas card for his vendor connections in the Los Angeles area which was received with thunderous applause.
People from all over the country have come from Texas, Virginia, New York, New Jersey as well as Philadelphia to hear one of the best our industry has, as he welcomes us to his world of weddings. He introduces us to the new David Robin Films by showing us his first paid wedding from June of 1985 complete with titles! David shares his early inspirations from starting his own local video association to joining WEVA and APV (now defunct), the earliest national associations, and the people who have inspired him.
Style changes over time. David Robins' current demo has so many new and interesting techniques that in the 5 minutes it takes to show it you feel as though you've been to weddings around the world. You are knee deep in the world of 3D, film techniques, black and white, color isolation, 8mm film, high angles, low angles, moving images flying over balconies, through doors and mirror reflections, children playing, lots of them! too cute by far, far too many techniques many to remember and I'm typing fast! I want to see it again and again, especially the kids, their crawling up windows, spinning around, stealing kisses, hugging and spinning some more. It definitely leaves you wanting more. It leaves you wanting, no needing your event to be covered by David Robin. Breathe.
He's speaking about getting the business in the door: marketing your demo shouldn't be only to clients but to other wedding professionals as well through building relationships. Begin by attending other organizations meetings such as ABC, NACE, ISES, etc... (He's preaching to choir here! We just did a
podcast with Richard Markel of AFWPI; Association for Wedding Professionals International, their convention is next week in Ventura, California!) When meeting with them you talk with each person about the things that are important to them. The most successful source of business for him has been Event Planners.
You need to know where you want to go and start with a business plan. He recently added
David Robin Films to his letterhead in an effort to develop still higher end clients. Boulevard Productions will still exist but now will be for the corporate end of his business. He notes that it's important to build your brand with email using Constant Contact (or some such) email program to send your newsletter. Develop and maintain your own client database. Learn how to write a press release and send them out. David walks us through The Anatomy of his Website and blog and why he has made each decision on his site.
David firmly believes your prices should reflect your level of expertise and education. When you raise your prices, which David does every six months, he suggests you will see an initial drop off of bookings but within a month or so it will go back to normal. In the meantime, he suggests offering another product to fill in, in this gap. In his case, it was Photo Montages. He tripled his montage business in a year when he introduced the 3D photo montage. He also mentions he went from doing 150 events per year to 50 events per year but he is making more money. When asked what the appropriate length of a wedding video should be he replies that a wedding video should be as long as it needs to be based on your conversation with your client and their desires.
We break for lunch and attendees discuss the concepts thus far presented and how to make them work in their market. The afternoon presents us with more video samples of David's award winning Concept Video's, his Time Shift strategies , amazing 3D Photo Montages the likes of which I'll never see unless we hire him to do them, which I am delighted to add, is mentioned as an option! I am most impressed with the Family biographies and films he produces because it is near and dear to my heart. Apparently, I am not alone in this because it is the number one thing my colleagues return to discussing at the break. Some numbers have been mentioned and peoples' jaws are still agog.
I am most impressed with a line that he uses when discussing the biographies in giving clients a quote for how much it will cost them. "Based on the assets you have given me, it will be "X" amount." This allows them to add additional assets to the project and you can increase your quote as the assets increase. You are not stuck with an underestimated project on your hands and they are not stuck with a surprise bill at the end.
It has been a dizzying array of ideas all day. I have attended David Robins' seminars since the early 90's at WEVA Conventions and Town Meetings (too numerous too mention). My traveling companion for the day and fellow
NYPVmember Lou Kulynych has just seen him for the first time and we both are blown away. David ends his seminar with a Question and Answer period and a trip through his video kit, describing what he travels with and why he has made the choices he has made.
At the end of the seminar, I am still very impressed with David Robin, the storyteller and David Robin the man, that I have seen grow and change over the years, into a delightfully funny, simply irresistible person I am happy to also call a friend.
It was great to catch up with my association mentor and WEVA Hall of Famer Dan Kreiger of AVP in LI, NY who was also in attendance. My thanks to David Robin for great inspiration and also to Lou Kulynych for the ride to Philly and back and to both for the great conversation in between, to WEVA MPV's
Adam Mancini, Eric Model, former NYPV secretary Robert Knowles, and WEVA Hall of Famer Jenny Lehman who were great dinner companions and inspirations as well (now I don't feel so bad about how much television I watch!) and to my husband and hunny Al for encouraging me to go to the seminar even though he couldn't go with me.
4/19/2007 9:04 PM
Lou Kulynych wrote:
Wow Kathy, You did a great summary write up on David Robin's Workshop. You were a great traveling companion. Reply to this
