July 22, 2010
6:00 – 7:00 p.m.: social hour with pizza and drinks
7:00 – 9:30 p.m.: event

Join us on July 22nd at Blue Sky Rental Studios as PhotoShelter co-founder Grover Sanschagrin demonstrates how web sites must evolve in order to support photographers’ online business goals.

Grover’s talk draws on 26 years of photo industry and web technology experience as well as the research and findings of five PhotoShelter e-books he has helped to author on online marketing for photographers. (These exhaustive reports are free downloadable guides offering useful tips, expert advice and useful strategies for photographers looking to continue their education and build thriving photo businesses online.)

Grover will discuss the essential tools, features and designs that photographers must consider as they update their own web sites to attract more visitors and convert them into clients. He will also share insights from PhotoShelter’s comprehensive Image Buyer Survey about photography websites, and offer strategies to help drive more traffic through search engine optimization and social media strategy.

In addition, Grover will discuss the importance of measurement tools like Google Analytics to inform online marketing and web site design decisions. Throughout his presentation, Grover will also share dozens of examples of successful photography web sites and will expose the key traits of the masters of marketing photography online.

Expect to leave well-armed with new tools to improve your web site performance and reach your business goals – whether you intend to book more event clients, assignments and commission work, generate online image sales, or simply build a following for your art.

So join us on the evening of July 22nd at Blue Sky Rental Studios. And be sure to come early and enjoy the best photographic social hour in San Francisco

About Gover Sanschagrin

Grover Sanschagrin is Vice President of Business Development and co-founder of PhotoShelter. An industry veteran, Sanschagrin, who started his career as a photojournalist, has vast experience with online productions including major roles with SportsShooter.com, ChicagoTribune.com and the Quokka Sports Network (including NBCOlympics.com and FinalFour.net).

Sanschagrin studied photography and photojournalism at the Rochester Institute of Technology and Ohio University. He has spoken at numerous industry conferences and universities with one goal: To educate photographers about the importance of building a successful online marketing strategy that will result in more assignments, more image sales, and less time in front of a computer.

Thursday, July 22, 7pm – 9pm
Social hour begins at 6pm

Free

Blue Sky Rental Studios
2325 Third St.
San Francisco, CA 94107
415-626-7232

The Larkspur Public Library’s Armchair Travel Series presents “Secrets of European Rail Travel: Tips and Tricks for Successful Vacations by Rail” on May 10, 2010.

Jim Prchlik, regional sales director of Rail Europe, will give a detailed presentation on the ins and outs of European rail travel. He will cover the extensive European rail system, exploring the variety of options available in routes and destinations, ticketing choices such as passes or point-to-point ticketing, first class versus second class, sleepers, stations and more.

The talk is at 7:30 p.m. at the library at 400 Magnolia Ave. in Larkspur in Marin County.

For information, call the library at (415) 927-5006.

photo for "Running Fence" at the Smithsonian

photo for "Running Fence" at the Smithsonian (photos © Morton Beebe)

Congratulations are certainly in order for Morton Beebe whose photographs will be included in the Smithsonian exhibit Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Remembering the Running Fence, Sonoma and Marin Counties, California, 1972-76. The exhibit will run in the special exhibition galleries of the 3rd floor north of the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., April 2 – Sept. 26, 2010. This is really quite an honor.

March 20 at 10 a.m.

Books Inc. at Opera Plaza in San Francisco

Marketing is essential for any writer in this day and age; but even more so for travel writers. Even if you don’t have a book or product to sell, you can still use branding to promote your expertise to editors so they will come to you with assignments. Candy Harrington will talk about how to establish yourself as an expert and then promote yourself in print, on the web and even on radio. Learn the essential steps of finding your niche, building your platform and establishing your brand, and how this can help you beef up your bottom line. Candy says she did it and so can we.

Known as the guru of accessible travel, Candy Harrington has covered this niche exclusively for the past 15 years. She’s the founding editor of Emerging Horizons and the author of several accessible travel titles, including the classic, Barrier Free Travel: A Nuts and Bolts Guide for Wheelers and Slow Walkers. Candy’s work can also be found in disability-related magazines, mainstream publications and websites. Tape measure in hand, Candy hits the road often, in search of new accessible travel options. She also blogs regularly about accessible travel news, resources and industry updates on her Barrier Free Travels blog.

Location: Books Inc. Opera Plaza in San Francisco

For more information:
Contact: Sandy Sims
(408) 269-8440
sansims@aol.com

It’s almost Valentine’s Day! Come and celebrate with me on Monday, February 8. I’ll be reading from my wildly popular (in my dreams) book of rhymes: An Erotic Alphabet. Friends will read from the book I co-edited, Hot Flashes: Sexy Little Stories and Poems.

We’ll be at Book Passage in San Francisco at the Ferry Plaza, starting at 5:30 p.m. The readings will be steamy (and funny in places), and both books make great Valentine’s Day gifts—for yourself or for a special friend.

Hope to see you there!

Please bring friends, co-workers, relatives, and neighbors.

[Editor's note: Bring your fan and smelling salts.]

When: Monday, February 1, 2010, 12:00 p.m.
Where: North Gate Hall Library at the University of California, Berkeley

Interactive Radio for Justice (IRFJ) uses media to improve awareness of the International Criminal Court and hold human rights violators to account. IRFJ is currently developing programs focused on the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic. The UCB Human Rights Center co-hosts a presentation by Wanda Hall, IRFJ Director, with the School of Journalism and the Center for African Studies to explore how to improve the efficacy of the International Criminal Court around the world.

More information: (510) 642-0965

ReBooting Your Business Brain: 21st-Century Marketing Tips – for Photographers Who Weren’t Born Yesterday

February 9, 2010

Wondering how to survive in today’s always-on, short-attention-span, radically-changed, and economically-challenging business environment?

Come to this Event and Learn:

• Why you should reposition and differentiate yourself

• What you do to stand apart from part-time photographers in ways that magnify your superiority

• What communications skills you MUST have today’s business environment

• What the signs are of a “killer website” that builds your professional reputation ( vs. one that might even be killing it)

Have You Been Wondering?

• Is print dead, dying, or reviving?

• How can you can avoid your client’s e-mail SPAM folder?

• What –if anything– should you say to your client about those part-time photographers armed with high-res point-and-shoot cameras?

• Should you pack it in and go do something else?

Photography marketing consultant and former international photo rep, Carolyn Potts, presents her recently-updated and very well-received marketing talk.

Feb. 9, 2010

Blue Sky Studios
2325 3rd Street
San Francisco CA 94107

Social Hour:
6:00 p.m.

Cost:
$25.00 ASMP Member
$50.00 Non-member
$40.00 Professional Association member
$15.00 Student

When: Thursday, February 11, 8:00 p.m.

Where: Sibley Auditorium at the University of California, Berkeley

Dave Eggers and his rogue group of writers and editors come to campus to discuss the San Francisco Panorama, a massive print newspaper that sold out across newsstands when it came out last month. The project showed the Bay Area an exciting example of the kind of newspaper it deserves.

To be discussed: The McSweeney’s publishing empire, including The Believer, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern and The Best American Non-required Reading (collected journalism) and Egger’s latest book, Zeitoun, set in New Orleans.

All questions will be answered, and products will be peddled preceded by a multimedia presentation on the Panorama and panel discussion by Eggers and company.

Symposium for Professional Wine Writers at Meadowood Napa Valley: Trade valuable information on how to succeed in today’s writing market with prominent editors, writers and bloggers. In addition to a dynamic lineup of participants, speakers include:

* Richard Bradley, Editor-In-Chief, Worth Magazine
* Bruce Schoenfeld, Wine & Spirits Editor, Travel + Leisure
* Stephen Wallis, Deputy Editor, Departures
* Eric Asimov, Wine Editor, The New York Times
* Heather John, Contributing Editor, Bon Appetit
* Michael Bauer, Food & Wine Editor, San Francisco Chronicle
* Jim Gordon, Editor, Wines & Vines
* Karen MacNeil, Author & Chair of Wine Studies, CIA Greystone
* Stephanie Wilson, Editorial Director, Haute Living Magazine
* Louise Keirnan, Chicago Tribune
* Molly Wizenberg, Blogger, Orangette.com
* Steve Heimoff, West Coast Editor, Wine Enthusiast
* Alder Yarrow, Founder, Vinography.com
* Antonia Allegra, Career Development & Food Writing Coach
* John Ash, Chef, Author and Instructor, CIA Greystone
* Jeff Morgan, Winemaker, Author and Educator
* Gary Walther, most recently Editor-in-Chief, Forbes Life
and
* Keynote Speaker: Frances Mayes, Author of Under the Tuscan Sun

We encourage you to join us for the Symposium for Professional Wine Writers at Meadowood Napa Valley. Open to published editorial wine writers, wine/food writers, wine/travel writers and editors, the program will take place February 16-19, 2010. Registration is $475 per person for the four-day program.

For event schedule information, please visit http://www.winewriterssymposium.org/index.php?mode=schedule

To register for the 2010 Symposium for Professional Wine Writers, please visit: www.winewriterssymposium.org. Please note space is limited and registrations will be accepted on a first come, first reserved basis.

It’s that time of year to submit your best tourism-oriented stories and photos published on Canada in 2009. The 13th annual Northern Lights Awards for Excellence in Travel Journalism and Photography is open to magazines, newspapers, independent writers, photographers and Internet reporters in North America, published in either French or English outlets.

Entries for the competition must be post marked by Feb. 16, 2010. The complete rules and entry form are available online at:
http://www.canadamediamarket.org/exhibitors/northern_rules.asp

All winners in the newspaper, magazine, internet and photography categories will be presented with original indigenous artwork sponsored by Aboriginal Tourism British Columbia Association. Prizes for first, second and third place winners in both an independent writers (newspapers) category and independent writers (magazines) category will be USD $600, $400 and $200 respectively.

Awards will be judged by the Missouri School of Journalism and presented by the Canadian Tourism Commission on April 13, 2010 during Canada Media Marketplace ’10 in San Francisco. The annual awards program is a Canadian Tourism Commission initiative.

Questions? Please contact:
Susan Baumgartner
Northern Lights Media Awards
PMB 171, 208 East 51st Street
New York, NY 10022
(212) 355-6025
northernlights@canadamediamarket.org