Escalate Live Recap - the [b] school blog

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May. 19, 2010 - What's Happening

On Monday and Tuesday of this week, I was privileged to be a part of the first ever Escalate Live conference that took place in Newport Beach, CA. My good friend Dane Sanders and his crew put on a pretty impressive event and from the feedback I've been getting... it seems like everyone had a great time and got a lot out of it. I worked really hard on a brand new presentation and I am grateful for all of the feedback I've already received.

Here's my take on each of the speakers in order of which they presented:

Dane Sanders kicked the whole thing off and talked about collaboration. Dane is a true leader in every sense of the world and has been known for his writing and teaching about the benefits of photographers coming together in community. He passionately shared the vision behind the Escalate project which is similar to his philosophy about photographers "being for each other".

I went next and talked about the ABC's of Success. Attitude, Branding and Connecting. I did my best to motivate people to have a better attitude and shared a bit on the power of a positive attitude. I also tried to explain the value of branding and explained how branding is really all about feelings. Good, bad or indifferent. Of course I've been preaching about connecting with other photographers for almost 15 years and I also talked about the value of connecting with your clients and other vendors.

Jasmine Star talked about the power of social media and how she uses it to her advantage. She also shared examples of how other companies are levering their online presence through social media. I think one of the most important points she makes is to be yourself online. The great thing about J* is that when you meet her in person she's exactly what she seems like online.

Julieanne Kost closed out day one talking about Photoshop CS 5. It was great to reconnect with Julieanne. I met her back in 2003 and she is thee Photoshop guru of the world. Not only did she show us some cool new tricks and feature of CS5, she was absolutely hilarious and got more laughs than the rest of us combined. Granted they were geeky nerd jokes, but being a nerd, I sure appreciated them as did the rest of the crowd.

Jerry Ghionis kicked off day 2 and is my new hero. I've actually seen him speak before in the past, and I've obviously seen his work and I've always been a fan. But he just knocked it out of the park. I think it was amazing that he flew all the way from Australia just to come speak for an hour and a half because he believed in what we were doing at Escalate. It was also great to just hang with Jerry for a bit. He is crazy talented and also an incredible speaker. So inspiring. I am looking forward to attending his workshop next January which 100% of the tuition will be benefitting his charity, The Soul Society.

Jessica Claire had a tough act to follow, but as per usual... she just lays it all out on the line and did a wonderful job. I love how direct and honest Jessica's presentations are. She just tells you what is going on her head and why she does what she does. She shared some wonderful images, and even some not so great images to demonstrate her points. Good stuff!

David Jay is another hero of mine. He has a gift for story telling and inspiring others. I've seen DJ speak several times in the past and I am always impressed with what he shares. Unfortunately I had a long lunch and only caught the tail end of his presentation, but I'm looking forward to watching it on demand.

Jeremy Cowart anchored the entire event and brought the crowd to their feet. Admittedly, he hasn't had a lot of experience speaking in front of large crowds, but he was just so honest and authentic. He's a commercial photographer from Nashville and his work is amazing. You have to check out his Voice of Haiti project and I am looking forward to getting involved with his Help Portrait project this coming December.

Once again I want to thank all of you who tuned in online, and especially those who made the effort and paid the $ to be their in person. We all really appreciate it. I hope you will put my advice into practice and actually do something about it. Please keep in touch and let me know what you've implemented and if I can help out in any other way.

If you missed the conference and would like to watch it, it will be available through a video on demand service in just a couple of weeks. The low rez rough cut will be available June 7th and the HD fully edited version will be available June 7th. Sign up here:

I also want to thank my friend Regis Chen for capturing a few shots for me. Regis is awesome!:

Dane was no doubt hanging on my every word:

... then of course he was laughing at my funny funny jokes.

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