Program topics ran the gamut from business, marketing, Photoshop and digital workflow, lighting/posing, and Social Media. In addition to the programs run by WPPI, a number of the exhibitors held hour-long programs at their booths. These included Miller’s Lab, Kodak, Nikon, Canon, Sony, and many others—large and small. No matter where you turned, you were likely to learn something new.  Here are some the highlight notes:

- Attending Doug Gordon’s (www.patkenphotographer.com) program ‘Posing is Back and it is the New Black,’ the reason brides don’t want posed photographs is that they think it takes too long. Not true when you have a system. In the course of the two-hour talk, Doug was able to show attendees two hundred different poses for the bride and groom.
- During the Canon sponsored Keynote, speaker Gregory Heisler (www.gregoryheisler.com) explained his philosophy behind taking pictures.  Even though he has finally migrated to 35mm DSLRs, Gregory still uses a cable release, because it gives him the ability to have a face to face conversation with his subject while taking pictures—which stems from when his experience shooting with large format view cameras that required this type of shooting.
- Vicki Taufer’s (www.vgallery.net and www.vgalleryhaven.com) program, ‘Unleashed,’ was all about her studio’s pet photography. One of the most important things she said was, “People are paying not only for photographs but for the experience.”
- JB and DeEtte Sallee (www.salleephotography.com), speaking at the Kodak booth, talked about the importance of adding a “whopper” package to your line. While you may never sell this one, the next highest one won’t seem as high in comparison. In their presentation, ‘Creating Loyalty Beyond Reason’ first time WPPI speakers Justin and Mary Marantz (www.justinmarantz.com) mentioned some great business books: The E Myth Revisited, Why most small businesses don’t work and what to do about it by Michael E. Gerber (www.michaelegerber.com), Lovemarks, The future beyond brands by Kevin Roberts (www.saatchikevin.com). Purple Cow by Seth Godin (www.sethgodin.com/sg)
- Kay Eskridge’s (www.imagesbykay.com and www.celebratesexy.com) program on boudoir photography was one of the more popular topics, with WPPI attendees lining up early to make sure they would get a seat.
- Lori Nordstrom (www.nordstromphoto.com) presented a business program that was filled with inspiration—for the photographer to understand that their studio is a business and needs to be run that way to be profitable. Some of what Lori discussed: Ask for referrals, and for each one, give your current clients a small gift. Be charitable, its good for you and your business.

- The session called “I need a workflow that works for me” showcased www.dpbestflow.org, THE benchmark from ingestion to archiving.
- Bruce Dorn recommended www.lynda.com for the best resource to learn anything, including video.
- Art Suwansang did a class on Lightroom.  He said that www.Ro3rds.com tutorials for LR2.
- Art Divitale gave this link to all the notes of his advanced class on Photoshop (http://www.divitalephotography.com/download.zip) and said to use www.validator.w3.org to check your site for errors.
- Julieanne Kost on Lightroom gave out a great links page on her site http://jkost.com/photoshop.html
- Social media guru Scott Bourne highlighted his favorites sites: www.search.twitter.com to see what is going on by subject, www.photography.alltop.com to see what subjects are hot in photography, and www.twittercounter.com to see his ranking. See his presentation HERE