ShootFest 001 & more

Before I announce the official press release below, the quick update is that there has already been 65 participants who have already signed up for ShootFest, hence there are only 15 spaces left people!

Anyway, I have been a little busy this entire week and I started packing last night for my trip to the US which begins tomorrow! Woohoo! Yes, I will be flying off to sunny Chicago on Saturday and then over to New York the week after. After trying to remember what I need to bring, I definitely have a huge packing list including some of my camera gear and 20Gb of memory cards. In the event that 20Gb is not enough, my contingency plan is that if I do use all 20Gb of memory, I would probably buy a 8Gb CF card there.

If you are wondering what I am doing in the US, its part business and part holiday (I've never been to the eastern seaboard). Definitely looking forward to photographing New York and checking out some of the fantastic landmarks there. Tweeting will still continue and hopefully, I can find some free wifi spots about NYC.

Official Press Release

ShootFest: The Wedding Unconference

Date: 6th & 7th June 2009 (Saturday & Sunday). Registration starts at 9am.
Venue: Integricity office, Centrepoint Bandar Utama, PJ
Fees: RM50

So what is ShootFest: The Wedding all about? And what is an unconference?

An unconference is an informal gathering of likeminded people with a common interest. It’s a participant-driven conference, meaning everyone must participate in some way or another. Everyone is encouraged to present a topic or engage in a discussion during the 2-day sessions.

Each ShootFest is a media unconference primarily for photographers and videographers. This first one that is organised is themed The Wedding and is meant for professionals, freelancers and anyone interested in wedding photography and videography.

The benefits of ShootFests are knowledge-sharing, networking and raising the bar for the industry. The idea is to breed improvement for everyone in a friendly environment.

Our sharing slots are open to everyone who is interested to speak. Participants can choose to speak about anything… from technical know-how, to marketing your photography business, to sharing your experience about how you left your full time job to be a wedding photographer. Other interesting things that will be happening are like Pecha Kucha sessions, where you share 20 slides, each for 20 seconds, or a buy-sell session where everyone brings their second hand gear to sell.

How it All Started

Inspired by a techies gathering called Barcamp, Alex Lam (www.integricity.com) and Grace Tan (www.weddingstory.com.my) gathered a group of wedding professionals and shared the idea of an unconference with them. The first ShootFest meeting was held at a coffee outlet and 5 people met up to discuss ideas. Those who were present were Zach Chin (www.zachchin.com), Jon Low (www.idealwedding.net), Mark Leo (www.markleo.net/blog) and of course, Alex and Grace.

Everyone was really excited about the idea of sharing knowledge and networking with others. It was at this first meeting that the name ShootFest was determined, and that night itself the domain was purchased, and a Wordpress site set up. Others who couldn’t make it for the meeting due to geographical constraints were Ian Chong (www.eeyern.com/blog) and Lim Kee Sitt (www.weddingstory.com.my).

Latest Updates

From that first meeting, we have gathered a group of volunteers who have willingly availed themselves to help in any way. Word about ShootFest went out informally through forums, blogs, Facebook and Twitter. Over a short period of 2 weeks, we had 65 registrations. The cap on the total number of people would be around 80 due to venue restrictions.

Visit the ShootFest website: www.shootfest.org to get the latest updates, view the schedule, register and sign up for a speaking session. If you’d like to help out in any way, do email admin@shootfest.org. We gladly welcome volunteers