I just spent four head-spinning days at my first WEVA Expo in 13 years, delivering what turned out to be a very well-received presentation on marketing and learning about new tools and techniques that I cannot wait to put to use.
I was invited a couple of months ago to give this seminar to videographers from around the world at WEVA (Wedding & Event Videographers Association) Expo 2009 at the new Orlando Hilton. Having never spoken in public before, I was fairly nervous heading into my Tuesday time slot. The room was packed, and despite a few glitches early, I could sense that the content was resonating with the audience, which gave me the energy to keep going. It was such a relief to see them laughing, participating, taking notes throughout – as far as I could tell, no one was checking e-mails or zoning out.
A nice-sized crowd came up to me afterwards (20 or so compared to the usual 5-10 at the other seminars), some of whom stayed around to chat for another half-hour, and a lot of people stopped me throughout the day to ask questions or give wonderful feedback. (One frequent Expo attendee even wrote “best WEVA seminar ever” on her Facebook wall – blush!) It was clear that they were hungry for information that they could use right away to help their businesses in these tricky times, and I’m so glad that my objective of packing the presentation with as much of it as possible paid off for them.
In addition, I attended many other presentations that reinvigorated me creatively, and I played with a lot of “toys” in the trade show that I will be making room for in my budget. So I overcame a lifelong fear, gained some cool ideas, hopefully helped a lot of people, and made many new friends in the process. What a rush! Needless to say, I’ll be back for WEVA Expo 2010…
