Had three very nice opportunities to meet and greet this week. Acrobash, a large creatives networking event occurred Wednesday night; the Social Media Breakfast and a meeting with Peggy Morsch happened on Thursday morning. All three events were very good, but for different reasons. Acrobash was a large scale event–encouraging to see so many creative people in one place at one time. The SMB was exciting to be with a smaller group of people, all interested in a particular developing topic in the business world. Coffee with Peggy–who doesn’t like catch-up coffee with a friend? 🙂
Acrobash, a 400+ attendee event, was as much a party, as a networking opportunity. I made a few new connections, meeting Bob Stocki of MATC, Kerri Nowick of Kolb+Co., Christie Frost of the Brewer Company and Terrell Morgan of Morgandezine. I managed to put a “real” person to an internet presence, by meeting Sara Meaney of Comet Branding and Jessica Frank of Murphy Marketing Research. Very importantly though, I got to reaffirm friendships with Bill Finn of Finn Digital, Laura Monagle of Staples Marketing, graphic designer Joan Stroika, Thomas Callaway of the Neighborhood Democracy Network and Matthew Olson of Signalfire Productions. The Eisner Museum was a great venue for an event of this nature. I only wish I’d had more time to chat with people.
The following morning I attended a very interesting Social Media Breakfast at MOCT. It was a very nice morning, in a very nice location. The focus of this meeting was how social media can be utilized by businesses. I had another good time, meeting photographer Matt Mason, and social media panelists Jeff Larche, Tracy Anello, Kim Nielsen and Tom Snyder. Again, I got to reaffirm some friendships in the forms of Erica Conway and Matthew Olson (these two people are everywhere it seems; Matthew was also one of the panelists!).
Later that morning, I had a meeting with Peggy Morsch. Peggy is a wonderful person and a very talented photographer. If you’ve got a high schooler and need a senior portrait shot, she’s the go-to gal! Peggy and I met to “check-in” with each other as it’s been a long time since we’ve gotten together.
Many people think that being self-employed means that you are your own boss. This is a significant misconception. Though I make my own business decisions, I am responsible to all other independent photographers in the way I conduct my business. For that reason, I meet with other photographers regularly to discuss business, to share ideas and brainstorm how to make each other more successful.
This is a very important point–all self-employed people are responsible for the overall health of the industry they are in and they need to participate in ensuring that industry’s health. No sitting by the sidelines, thinking “other people’s problems don’t concern me”. If those problems don’t concern you now, they may well do so soon.
Now to get back on point…Peggy and I met at the Alterra Humboldt and it was as busy as ever. Alterra, I’d like to point out, is one of the founding members of Our Milwaukee, a trade group I belong to!
At all these events, I made some snapshots with Leica‘s D-Lux 4, a really nice, compact digital P+S camera. 🙂 Here’s a selection of what I saw at Acrobash 2010 and SMBmke!
