Silver Conference (2007) Recap/Experience?

Hey Bob! Don't know if you remember - I'm the guy from London...! I was drooling on your prints... (figuratively, of course!)

I'd like to respond from Calumet's side of the Silver conference:

This year we did have lower registration, why is a mystery to a lot of people. In the end we had over 250 attend, which is more than last year, this is because we decided as a group to allow students in at no charge on Saturday and they responded in droves. We also made the Silver Circle so that people that paid would get special attention on Friday night and Sunday morning.

Instead of canceling, we went with a smaller line up of speakers and panels. The choice for Art Center in Pasadena is logical, the school is the best, we have great facilities and it's pretty easy to administrate without too much before hand travel and expense.

The number of entires in the print competition was the same as last year, with great work submitted and chosen by our judges. How often does anybody get the chance to show their work to this level of judge?

I would like to say thank you publicly to our speakers who were tireless in their support of this conference and traditional photography.
Last year any profits from the conference were given back to ACD for a student scholarship, it really helped a kid in their career.

Our focus on marketing this year was so that we could help photographers get their work out into the world to be seen, work in drawers and boxes is wasted work, there is personal satisfaction, but photography is for sharing.

There is a lot of love and sweat between Ilford/Harmon, Art Center College of Design and Calumet Photographic that goes into this, almost 7 months of my time goes into the creation of this event as do my partners. We do it to give traditional photography a voice, I feel Silver was a smashing success this year. Looks for it again.

Richard Newman
Calumet Photogrpahic
Director of Education

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Richard Newman

I'd like to respond from Calumet's side of the Silver conference:

This year we did have lower registration, why is a mystery to a lot of people. In the end we had over 250 attend, which is more than last year, this is because we decided as a group to allow students in at no charge on Saturday and they responded in droves. We also made the Silver Circle so that people that paid would get special attention on Friday night and Sunday morning.

Richard Newman
Calumet Photogrpahic
Director of Education

---

That was a very good thing! Last year, I was a sad that not many young folks didn't come. By opening up this year to students. You're seeding the art for the future. My hat is off to you for that.
Lets see what next year brings.:)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Richard Newman

This year we did have lower registration, why is a mystery to a lot of people. In the end we had over 250 attend, which is more than last year, this is because we decided as a group to allow students in at no charge on Saturday and they responded in droves. We also made the Silver Circle so that people that paid would get special attention on Friday night and Sunday morning.

Instead of canceling, we went with a smaller line up of speakers and panels. The choice for Art Center in Pasadena is logical, the school is the best, we have great facilities and it's pretty easy to administrate without too much before hand travel and expense.

---

Our hats are all off to you, everyone at Calumet and Harman Ilford, and your sponsors - for caring to make it happen! My thoughts (if you care) are as follows;

It appeared to me that there was just a single (and very steep) fee of $175 or so to attend any portion of the conference. I would imagine that you could get greater attendance by having some sort of à la carte offerings - most conferences of ANY kind usually allow a 'pay-as-you-go' scheme of some sort. If, as with THIS conference, attendance will be unpredictable, it might be a great thing, in order to secure more heads, to offer a more varied lineup - this doesn't have to be at great expense - as long as the themes are compelling (and that's your job, I guess) - in which case, you'd be able to secure many lesser-knowns to talk at little to no expense. In this case, you might have varied themes, such as the 'state of the art' in alternative silver processes, or toning, say - and have a bunch of practitioners doing interesting work talking about their work. The number of compelling concepts you could come up with are as unlimited as your imagination. Certainly, the community here would be more than willing to help out - and, I'd imagine, the more involved you get such communities with the planning and execution of it - the more seats you'd be able to fill as well... it seems to me it can be as big as you want to commit to. If you ever want to engage this idea, please let us know.

sincerely,
Jonathan

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Richard Newman

I'd like to respond from Calumet's side of the Silver conference:

This year we did have lower registration, why is a mystery to a lot of people. In the end we had over 250 attend, which is more than last year, this is because we decided as a group to allow students in at no charge on Saturday and they responded in droves. We also made the Silver Circle so that people that paid would get special attention on Friday night and Sunday morning.

Instead of canceling, we went with a smaller line up of speakers and panels. The choice for Art Center in Pasadena is logical, the school is the best, we have great facilities and it's pretty easy to administrate without too much before hand travel and expense.

The number of entires in the print competition was the same as last year, with great work submitted and chosen by our judges. How often does anybody get the chance to show their work to this level of judge?

I would like to say thank you publicly to our speakers who were tireless in their support of this conference and traditional photography.
Last year any profits from the conference were given back to ACD for a student scholarship, it really helped a kid in their career.

Our focus on marketing this year was so that we could help photographers get their work out into the world to be seen, work in drawers and boxes is wasted work, there is personal satisfaction, but photography is for sharing.

There is a lot of love and sweat between Ilford/Harmon, Art Center College of Design and Calumet Photographic that goes into this, almost 7 months of my time goes into the creation of this event as do my partners. We do it to give traditional photography a voice, I feel Silver was a smashing success this year. Looks for it again.

Richard Newman
Calumet Photogrpahic
Director of Education

---

Thanks for the update Richard. Hopefully, I will be able to attend the next one.

you might have varied themes, such as the 'state of the art' in alternative silver processes, or toning, say - and have a bunch of practitioners doing interesting work talking about their work. The number of compelling concepts you could come up with are as unlimited as your imagination. Certainly, the community here would be more than willing to help out - and, I'd imagine, the more involved you get such communities with the planning and execution of it - the more seats you'd be able to fill as well... it seems to me it can be as big as you want to commit to. If you ever want to engage this idea, please let us know.

sincerely,
Jonathan[/QUOTE]

Bingo! I agree with Jonathan. Variety is the best way to get lots of people interested. In PPF, not many are interested in marketing, (I'd say about half or less) but many are interested in different ways of pursueing their photography, their craft.
The first Silver Conference had such variety. The only common demoninator was of course Black and White photography. I would wish that Color was included in someway. :) But that's my wish and I understand that Ilford is one of the major sponsors but so is Calumet.

This was billed as a "Conference and Print Competition". I see no mention of the winners, or their winning images, on either the Ilford or Calumet websites.

Does this not diminish the significance and importance of the competition, and does it not deter future submissions?

So, where are the goods?

Glad to here there will be another one Richard. I would really like to go next year. Please make an announcement as soon as you have the date so myself, and others, can make plans to attend. Personally I think $175 bucks is very reasonable. Glad to see that so many students came too. Keep up the good work.

D.

Henry,

I do appoligize for not getting the winners posted, it's a matter of finding some hosts to post so to speak. If you want to contact me at
richard.newman@calumetphoto.com
I'll be happy to send them to you. It's frustrating with the technology sometimes. I can't figure out how to post an Excel sheet on this forum, seems different for everyone. Heck, I'll just type it.
Richard

Donna Pinckley from Little Rock Ar. won First Place Masters
Jon Edwards from Me. won Second
Jenna Close from Seattle won First Place Student
Marguerite Courtney from Redondo Beach Ca was Second in Student

The work was really great, we hope to have the book out on Blurb in a month with all winners and honorable mentions published.

Henry
I can proudly add two of our clients recieved honourable mention, Timothy Booth and Mark Nowaczynski.
All the winning images were up at the show and they looked great.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Richard Newman

Henry,

I do appoligize for not getting the winners posted, it's a matter of finding some hosts to post so to speak. If you want to contact me at
richard.newman@calumetphoto.com
I'll be happy to send them to you. It's frustrating with the technology sometimes. I can't figure out how to post an Excel sheet on this forum, seems different for everyone. Heck, I'll just type it.
Richard

Donna Pinckley from Little Rock Ar. won First Place Masters
Jon Edwards from Me. won Second
Jenna Close from Seattle won First Place Student
Marguerite Courtney from Redondo Beach Ca was Second in Student

The work was really great, we hope to have the book out on Blurb in a month with all winners and honorable mentions published.

---