This post is for the photographers who read this little ol’ blog:) I had the pleasure of going to WPPI a few weeks ago and wanted to share some stuff about it for those first timers or those thinking of going some year so, drum roll, the ABC’s of WPPI!
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Airplanes: A lot of people got some great deals with Southwest, we flew Frontier and had amazing service and warm cookies, just sayin’ 
Business cards! I made little cards out of the 3×3 luxe cards from Millers that had my contact info on one side and a “we met at WPPI” or you could do “hey, nice to meet you” or something. They were a hit…totally make personalized WPPI business cards if you go!
Challenge yourself. Step outside the box. Now isn’t the time to be shy, meet friends (you’ll be sitting in line for quite a while so might as well make the best of it:) )
Drinking. Bring a reusable water bottle to have with you during the day. It made life happy:)
Eating. Ah, so much to say. First tip, I packed food to eat for breakfast and lunch. Think cereal, granola bars, chicken salad lunch packs (I love those!), etc. Another option is to take a taxi down to Whole Foods from the MGM (about a $10 taxi ride each way) and stock up some for the week. We did that too to get some stuff for my roomies and some random stuff since we don’t have a Whole Foods here in Knoxville. Secondly, some reviews on where we ate:
- Wolfgang Pucks in MGM: this was our first nights choice and we loved it so much we went back on the second night. My bill there was an average of $20 but you can easily spend $30-40 there depending on what you get. Definitely the best burger I have ever had in my life.
- Diego’s: A mexican fare in MGM that was really upscale but reasonable (for Vegas) prices. Guacamole was the best I ever had (they make it fresh at your table!) and the service was amazing! Spent about $30 there but that is with the guacamole added on:)
- MGM Grand Buffet: Honestly probably the worst mistake of the week. I was all excited about the big buffets of Vegas so we went there the last night and I guess if you are a lover of buffets and food made in bulk then you would like it but I was a lot grossed out by some of it and really disgusted by the amount of food I wasted. However, the pecan pie little tart things made up for it just a little. a little.
Flexibility in your schedule. I wrote out the things I needed/wanted to do and then didn’t feel guilty if one night I was too tired to go to a certain shindig or something. PS… Evernote is amazing to keep schedules on.
GO. If you are a photographer, make the trip at least once, your business will thank you!
Hotels. There are actually a few options for reasonable close lodging. A couple random tips: -Go directly through the hotel’s website….I got completely screwed by a third party person and we lost money and our spot at the MGM Signature. -The Signature is actually closer to the conference than MGM itself and super nice (a tad pricier though..just an fyi). -If you want to stay at another hotel, the Tropicana is in walking distance since its connected by a pedestrian bridge or the Monorail drops off near the conference so you can connect to a hotel that has the monorail in it and its not much walking at all.
If you want to do it all, give up now. You can’t possibly do it all….there is SO much stuff going on! Pick what will impact you and your business the most and be ok with missing some of the other stuff.
Jetlag, if you are from the east coast, is worst getting home than when you go. Maybe its the lack of sleep while there that helps that fact.
Kick it like you are back in elementary school, be ok to sit up front. You get more into the speaker because you see them directly, more focus, and you can win prizes that they throw out. a win win. Sit in the back if you know you have to leave early.
Las Vegas. Take advantage of the time there to take some portfolio pictures (Lots of photographers schedule shootouts or you can make your own…we did pictures of each other for our bio pictures!)
Map out the tradeshow! If you go in without a plan you will soon find yourself walking aimlessly with a glazed look while people shove lots of ads and papers in your hand. Even if the plan is lets start on the left and go row by row, you will be thankful for the plan!
Nap time! During the middle of the day there is a chunk of time where no speakers are speaking so you can go to the tradeshow. By the last day we were tradeshowed out so we sat ourselves down towards the end of the convention area right where the sun was coming in. It was awesome. So feel free to rest a little, you’ll see a lot of areas where people are hanging out and just enjoying the day.
Organize: You are going to get LOTS of papers, bags, advertisements. LOTS. Go through them and keep the ones you want and trash the rest before you go home. Seriously, you’ll need another suitcase if you don’t. Even the things with coupon codes can get trashed, I just jotted the codes down on a piece of paper before.
Platform classes: these are the classes included in the full registration. They have master classes too that are additional money but they go on at the same time as the platform ones so it wasn’t worth it to me particularly.
Questions…don’t be afraid to ask. It’s like Disney World, the people that have gone alot have some great insider tips:)
Roadtrippin’: We took the last day after the conference had ended and went out to Red Rock Canyon to do pictures of each other (I needed new bio pictures in a bad way!) SO much fun and you can stop at In-n-Out burger on the way which makes it even better! (blog post coming of all the fun pictures!)
Speakers: My favorite: Susan Stripling, Elisabeth Messina, Mike Larson
Tradeshow: Have a plan, keep it simple, do that. Ours was starting at the left and making our way to the right. A couple tips, if vendors ask to scan your badge it means junk mail in your inbox, so only scan those you want that from. (see organize for another tradeshow tip!)
Unite. PhotogUnite is a worship service they have for photographers during WPPI. Awesome worship. So if you are a Christian at WPPI that may be a fun thing for you to check out:)
Vision. Find your vision for WPPI. This one was huge for me. Some people view WPPI as a party or big get together. While I appreciate that I wanted to take advantage of learning a ton and honing my business so I opted to take classes that did that for me. I didn’t go to Jasmine Star’s class (i know…i know…) because I felt that there was another speaker during that slot that would push me more…and I came away so thankful that I spent my week focusing on my vision and pushing myself.
Wear comfortable shoes. After day 1 I realized that flip flops were the best thing ever invented and proceeded to wear those all week. My feet thanked me. X
Yellow…its a fun color ( I honestly had no clue what to put for y…blame it on me being tired and this post getting long!)
Zzzz’s. Get sleep! I know its hard, I know you’ll want to party. That is ok…pick a party or two to do but if your vision is to learn and grow, I totally recommend at least a few hours of sleep. and starbucks:)
