This is as much for me, to make sure I remember and implement the main learnings I took away from the show this year but of course if you didn’t manage to go, please do enjoy my findings.
As always, learnings are worth nothing if we don’t implement anything from them 😉
I went with a lovely photography friend and we did various (good and not so good talks), here are my highlights!

Maja Moan – best talk

Maja Moan was by far my favourite speaker, such an incredible energy, a true inspiration and her stories were just jaw dropping!!! Loved her honesty that we all make (sometimes big!) mistakes! Powerful stories around networking wider, not just with the “main person” but with their people – which was super interesting.
Sometimes we step up to last minute “opportunities” and make impossible things happen – we can do more than we think.
Remember to think about how to stand out from the other people “competing” for this particular job.

Thinking for our clients

I’m always telling people in my world that we need to think for our clients and bring them ideas for video, but Kym Moseley hit this home at a new level! He told this great story about someone new to video who went around a bunch of restaurants offering them free video, just to get some experience but they all said no. Turns out they were all crazy busy and in no need of more content to get more customers, but would in fact desperately like recruitment videos to attract more staff, because that’s their current problem! How clever is that! When did you last think of that as a video idea to sell to clients?

I hate this, but I know it’s true! Kym also reminded us how mostly the better paid jobs are in the boring businesses. The big cool brands re not short of people willing to create for them. Meanwhile the “boring” business still need content! I actually stopped working for an agency because I had no interest in their clients, products like hospital catheters were just not my bag (I feel so spoilt saying that), but there is not much competition for those jobs!
It did make me think though, there are probably “boring” jobs within genres we DO like. I love working with baby brands, I should perhaps research some less glam baby brands ;o) What would be a less glam brand within the gernes you shoot that could use your video services?

On the note of better/less paying jobs, Kym also pointed out how a persona brand client might only have 1k in their bank account, then we come along wanting to charge them £500 (or much more) and it’s just too much for them to spend “half of everything”. Meanwhile the boring law firm turning over hundreds of thousands of pounds won’t bat an eye lid at our prices. Again, I stopped shopping for a really well paying law firm because I found it boring… lol, yikes, maybe I need to re-evaluate things. I do ultimately believe in doing stuff that lights us up!!!! But, I think I’m possibly missing a layer of opportunities…

There’s still beauty without make-up and filled lips out there!

Khandie Rees did a talk on the BIPP stand about head shots and her model was totally gorgeous and not wearing make-up, which we just loved and adored.
Beyond that Khandie was quite funny in her delivery and a great reminder to own our personality!

Owning our personality!

It’s wonderful that photography is such an inclusive industry! There are ALL types of photographers, eclectic personalities, different styles, tastes, energies…. It’s quite the people watching space! Which make me think just how important it is that we show who we are in our marketing, so people get to know us long before booking. People will choose us for our personality and energy, and video is just perfect for showcasing YOU ;o)

Did I implement anything?

Well, I sat in on Carys’ horses in motion talk and she had a few location ideas for photographing “wild” horses so I picked one of her locations for my mother’s day out walk yesterday – multi tasking, scouting and family walk! Does that count?

Did I buy anything?

Not yet! But I did look at lots of different smaller video lights and I will be buying one.
One thing that struck us as we spoke to staff on the stands – we would tell them exactly what we need and didn’t want yet it was like they couldn’t hear or compute our words at all, they would still be selling us exactly what we just said we didn’t want/need….repeatedly… it was very odd… don’t do that to your clients ….!

Super keen to hear if you had any great learnings this year?

I just had the loveliest day out, chatting to Petrina all day! A lot more chilled than the previous 5 years of speaking at the show lol…


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