LA SMUGs Meeting - Tuesday April 7th, 2009

Andy · April 5, 2009

SMUGs - Where you connect, share and extend your passion for photography.

LA SMUGs Meeting - Tuesday April 7th, 2009

6pm Tuesday, at Robert Evans' Studio.
Details: 4101 Lankershim Boulevard,
North Hollywood, CA

Questions? Contact Jeff Jochum at 310.773.0770

Google Maps Info

David Evertsen · April 5, 2009

Andy wrote:

SMUGs - Where you connect, share and extend your passion for photography.

LA SMUGs Meeting - Tuesday April 7th, 2009

6pm Tuesday, at Robert Evans' Studio.
Details: 4101 Lankershim Boulevard,
North Hollywood, CA

Questions? Contact Jeff Jochum at 310.773.0770

Google Maps Info

Andy,

With all the talk of new features, don't reveal time lines etc and then seeing the SMUG meetings and trying to get to them from hours away. Will this be available in some sort of town hall online meeting so that those of us that cannot be at these meetings can find out. I am signed up for smugmugpro updates and have received nothing. I seriously need several of the new features especially coupons and packages for my Dance photography and would love to know what you are telling everyone.

Thanks,

Andy · April 5, 2009

David Evertsen wrote:

Will this be available in some sort of town hall online meeting

We'd love to, and Jeff's investigating. But not at the start, I'm sorry.

If you see the thread,"features under discussion" in this forum, you'll see that coupons and packages are in active development. Coming soon.

Andy · April 5, 2009

David Evertsen wrote:

With all the talk of new features, don't reveal time lines etc and then seeing the SMUG meetings and trying to get to them from hours away.

By the way, Tampa, May 12th. Details to come.

David Evertsen · April 6, 2009

Andy wrote:

By the way, Tampa, May 12th. Details to come.

I am hoping I can cruise down I-4 to that. :-)

mlee · April 6, 2009

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the LA meeting.

Mike

capitoljayhawk · April 6, 2009

mlee wrote:

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the LA meeting.

Mike

Any plans to do one of these in DC?

jeffjochum · April 6, 2009

capitoljayhawk wrote:

Any plans to do one of these in DC?

You bet... in fact, I have a vision of 20 SMUGs by the end of the 2009 (next year, the world! muwahaha). DC is on my 09 list and I'll need some help figgering out how big it could be, and who would run it. Volunteers?? Lemme know.

jeff

jeffjochum · April 6, 2009

David Evertsen wrote:

Andy,

With all the talk of new features, don't reveal time lines etc and then seeing the SMUG meetings and trying to get to them from hours away. Will this be available in some sort of town hall online meeting so that those of us that cannot be at these meetings can find out. I am signed up for smugmugpro updates and have received nothing. I seriously need several of the new features especially coupons and packages for my Dance photography and would love to know what you are telling everyone.

Thanks,

David,

One of the real power of SMUGs is that its mug to mug, so an online version wouldn't work as a SMUG replacement. However, I really like the idea of an online town hall meeting that we could do as part of a SMUG gathering, where local Smuggers could ask questions of dev and product guys, and this could be posted as a podcast. Lemme see what we can come up with. Thx for the suggestion.

jeff

capitoljayhawk · April 6, 2009

jeffjochum wrote:

You bet... in fact, I have a vision of 20 SMUGs by the end of the 2009 (next year, the world! muwahaha). DC is on my 09 list and I'll need some help figgering out how big it could be, and who would run it. Volunteers?? Lemme know.

jeff

I'd be happy to get involved. I'm not a pro, though . . . (in any sense other than that I will have signed up for a pro account by then).

jeffjochum · April 6, 2009

capitoljayhawk wrote:

I'd be happy to get involved. I'm not a pro, though . . . (in any sense other than that I will have signed up for a pro account by then).

Thanks for the offer! I'll catch up with you when we've gotten the first few SMUGs off the ground.

jeff

David Evertsen · April 7, 2009

jeffjochum wrote:

David,

One of the real power of SMUGs is that its mug to mug, so an online version wouldn't work as a SMUG replacement. However, I really like the idea of an online town hall meeting that we could do as part of a SMUG gathering, where local Smuggers could ask questions of dev and product guys, and this could be posted as a podcast. Lemme see what we can come up with. Thx for the suggestion.

jeff

Very cool that would work, be nice to see/hear the differences for photography based on regions. Could be a really neat tool.

jeffjochum · April 7, 2009

David Evertsen wrote:

Very cool that would work, be nice to see/hear the differences for photography based on regions. Could be a really neat tool.

Yeah, seeing regional differences is definitely one of the cool side-effects of local SMUG meetings - and on that note: I'm also planning a SMUG-a-Thon later this year (if I can pull it off) where we can all get together in one place, at one time and do some serious mug rubbing for a coupla daze. Whaddya think? Would you take two days away from your biz (maybe in SanFran?) just to do a cross-training and social deep dive with other smugmuggers? lemme know and stay tuned.

jeff

JCC · April 13, 2009

LA Smugs Meeting
Thanks for coming to LA guys. SmugMugPro meet-ups are a great idea. For more on my take on the LA meeting - go to my blog at http://Fotobento.com

jeffjochum · April 13, 2009

LA SMUG feedback?

JCC wrote:

Thanks for coming to LA guys. SmugMugPro meet-ups are a great idea. For more on my take on the LA meeting - go to my blog at http://Fotobento.com

First, thanks for taking the time to give such in-depth feedback on the LA SMUG. While I've had a few years experience of building photographer communities (I originate and helped create the Pictage User Group network), SMUGs are still a new thingee here and LA was the first one where we used an agenda that included other speakers, including a rusty version of me.

What was apparent was that your primary expectations in coming were to hear about changes and updates to our Pro offering - and we didn't deliver on that, in this meeting. In thinking back through the meeting, I think you're dead-on... had I known that we were going to run out of time (as it was the meeting ran well over 2 hours) I would've considered dropping by biz-cenric presentation in favor of giving Baldy more time to talk about new stuff. Hind-sight is 20/20. The upside is that these are just the first of monthly meetings and this gives us a lot of increased opprtunities to share our plans, projects and promises with y'all mug-to-mug in future meetings.

So, I hope this SMUG whetted your appetite to get involved in future meetings (I know where you live, so don't try to hide) and I will ensure we get more of this kind of SmugMug specialized information and value in future agendas.

BTW, your comments about why Wedding photographers are spending increasing amounts of time doing seminars, DVDs and hosting SMUGs speaks more to their desire to give back to an increasingly important community now that thy have some time and opportunity, than it does just to the downside economics. And, my sense is that there are already plenty of places to learn how to shoot more gooder, and I heard from many attendees at the LA SMUG that they would welcome increased education on how to sell and increase their bizness success, especially in this down market.

Whaddy'all think? More bidness stuff? More "Why SmugMug" stuff? More??? Lemme hear it!

jeff

Andy · April 13, 2009

JCC wrote:

Thanks for coming to LA guys. SmugMugPro meet-ups are a great idea. For more on my take on the LA meeting - go to my blog at http://Fotobento.com

Thanks for the write up, and the great feedback!

http://fotobento.com/FotoBento/FotoBento/Entries/2009/4/7_SmugMug_Pro_Comes_to_L.A..html

mlee · April 13, 2009

jeffjochum wrote:

Whaddy'all think? More bidness stuff? More "Why SmugMug" stuff? More??? Lemme hear it!

jeff

I was there - and think it was a great start for an initial meeting of its kind. I'm more of a stand-in-the-corner-and-listen kind of guy, but it was nice to meet a few people and "network" amongst peers.

I raise my hand for more of the business type stuff, rather than how to shoot.

I too was expecting a little bit more preview of the SmugMugPro stuff from Baldy, but I know in due time all that stuff will be out of the bag.

You did do a great job with your presentation, Jeff!

I personally didn't get anything out of the hype/marketing of the third party products that were presented.

Mike

jeffjochum · April 13, 2009

mlee wrote:

I was there - and think it was a great start for an initial meeting of its kind. I'm more of a stand-in-the-corner-and-listen kind of guy, but it was nice to meet a few people and "network" amongst peers.

I raise my hand for more of the business type stuff, rather than how to shoot.

I too was expecting a little bit more preview of the SmugMugPro stuff from Baldy, but I know in due time all that stuff will be out of the bag.

You did do a great job with your presentation, Jeff!

I personally didn't get anything out of the hype/marketing of the third party products that were presented.

Mike

Thanks Mike - you made my day!

And, double-thanks for your feedback on what worked for you, and what didn't. As we roll out the other SMUGs across the USA, I'll be interested to see if opinions vary by region - stay tuned.

jeff

Angelo · April 14, 2009

I can't believe I missed this

jeffjochum · April 14, 2009

Angelo wrote:

I can't believe I missed this

Yeah - we were looking for you!

jes kiddin.

Not to worry, tho - SMUGs are a monthly event and right now I'm working to get the LA SMUG in a more permanent space. stay tuned.

jeff

LA SMUGs Meeting - Tuesday April 7th, 2009

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