jetBlue AYCJ 2010 – Social Media and Photography Tour

Last year around this time, I was building a website and a facebook page for a little project you may have heard about called Twelve Hours in a City.  It was a great trip, I flew around the country for 31 Days on the All-You-Can-Jet Pass from jetBlue.  It was hard work, 20 hour days – shooting, editing, handling media requests, publishing content to our fans and followers; I was proud of what we accomplished and excited to experience so much in such a short time.  However, I believe the trip strayed from my original intentions, my goals were to photograph different people and cities, learn about their cultures, and document a moment in American History.  So after a year of soul searching, I decided that I wasn’t going to repeat last years marathon endeavor.

So what’s on the agenda for AYCJ 2010?

This year has been about personal growth,  I’ve spent the last 12 months building a photography business.  I focus mostly on portraits and events in my business, but I also had a wonderfully informative 3-month internship with Rhea Anna a national level commercial shooter.   My experience this year has really enforced two things, 1) Photography is in the middle of a huge paradigm shift and it scares photographers to death and 2) I still have a ton to learn about the art form of photography and the science of running a successful  business.

I believe that I can use my 2010 AYCJ pass to help show my peers the light at the end of the tunnel while developing my skill sets.  I have recently been listed as a “Recommend Speaker” by the American Society of Media Photographers for my talk on Using Social Media to build your Business.  ASMP has chapters in almost every major city in the United States and those chapters all have incredibly talented photographers.

The plan is pretty simple:

1. I find chapters that want to learn more about Social Media (I can fly there for free!)
2. They agree to host me while I’m in their city (Food and Accommodations… I’ll sleep on floors and eat Ramen though – no worries!)
3. They peer me with a photographer for a shoot during my stay (so I can work on my skills and create interesting content for my readers — that’s you!)
4. I promote my talk using my network (Hopefully, bringing some new faces in to the chapter.)
5. I give a talk to their chapter (They learn how to build relationships with clients using Social Media Tools.)
6. Chapter passes the hat (This dude has fixed costs to cover, I usually charge $500-$1,000 for an hour long talk to a chapter)
7. I take the images and lessons learned from the day and post them on this blog and share them with my readers (My mentor for the day gets to show his work to my 3,000 fans!)

What will you talk about?

1. How we achieved brand recognition during Twelve Hours in a City (We also maxed out at around 3,500 fans)
2. Best Practices for Twitter and Facebook
3. The Grammar of Twitter
4. Social Networking Mores
5. Strategies for engaging fans and building your base
6. How to build from your existing mailing lists
7. Along with a few funny anecdotes from the First Project

It will be a revised version of my Social Media for Photographer’s talk, it has received great reviews from attendees.

How can I book you to speak for free in my city?

1. Live in an AYCJ city or be prepared to pick me/drop me off in one (I’m talking to you Boulder, CO!)
2. Book a space for an hour and a half, some evening between Sept 7 – Oct 6 (Projector and Project-able Surface is a must!)
3. Actively promote my talk (I’d much rather speak to 100 people than 10; You can charge people to raise money for your group — I’ll promote it using my networks too)
4. Agree to Pick me up from the Airport, Feed Me, Give me a Couch to crash on, and most importantly drop me off at the Airport on-time for my flight.
5. (Optionally) Find me a photographer and/or models to work with.
6. E-mail Me (clark@clarkdever.com) or call me (716.222.0237) to provide me with the details of what you’ve got to offer and confirm my availability.

How can I follow along on your adventures this year?

1. Compiled content will be released in blog posts – so subscribe to my RSS feed.
2. There’s always @clarkdever on twitter (this is the most unfiltered feed).
3. I’ll be announcing my talks, travel dates, and photos through my fan page on facebook.
4. I’ll be releasing images through my flickr account.
5. I’ll be releasing video through my youtube account.

We don’t have an ASMP Chapter, but we’re photographers interested in Social Media

Cool with me, you should start an ASMP Chapter; but if you have a Meetup Group, PPA Chapter, NPA Chapter, etc – I’d still be happy to talk to you if you can meet the requirements above.

I’m not a photographer, but my professional group would love to have you talk.

That’s fine, I’m more than happy to talk to other business/regional groups – the practices I teach work for any small business.  You just have to follow my conditions above, but you can substitute #5 for splitting the profits on the talk with me.  Call me to iron out the details – (716) 222-0237

I don’t care about learning social media, I just want to hear about your first trip!

Fine, I can talk to you and your friends for an hour retelling the real antics of  my first debaucherous mission around the US.  Get me a projector, buy me some beer, and plan a party.  I’ll bring a laptop full of images and enough drunken hilarity to make it worth your time.  Just name the city and the date, bonus points if you find a good photographer to come shoot with me during the day, super bonus points if you are a good photographer and we party at your studio… with models.   E-mail Me (clark@clarkdever.com) or call me (716.222.0237) to provide me with the details of what you’ve got to offer and confirm my availability.

Twelve Hours in a City Season 1 Recap from nathan m peracciny on Vimeo.

That’s it for right now… stay tuned for more details soon!

Check out my buddy Greg’s project 30 Days on jetBlue – I will be donating some of my proceeds to his parents school in Zambia. Check out his family’s not-for-profit Zambia Tomorrow and donate now.