Town Meeting Tour Opens to Crowds in NY
January 23, 2002
New York, NY - The 4th Annual WEVA Town Meeting Tour 2002 opened to a huge audience in New York City on Monday, January 21st. Despite the wintry weather outside, the attendees inside were warmly welcomed with a full-day of information-packed workshops, new technology exhibits from Sony, Moore Digital, Panasonic Broadcast and Canopus, award-winning wedding and event video presentations, and unlimited peer networking. Over 650 videographers registered in advance for the tour kick-off, and over 100 more registered on-site, marking another year of record growth for WEVA’s Town Meeting for professional wedding & event videographers in New York City.
Optional morning and afternoon WEVA Workshops were delivered by longtime videographers and WEVA EXPO presenters: Luisa Winters, Lance Gray, and Donna & Robin Greenwood. The sessions were filled with professional videographers enthused by the opportunity to sharpen their skills in both shooting and editing. Canopus provided two back-to-back workshops on nonlinear editing. The Canopus workshop, as well as additional WEVA Workshops, will be presented at each WEVA Town Meeting city-stop on this year’s 10-city Tour (click here for details).
“We were thrilled to see another year of record-breaking attendance for our one-day meeting of professional wedding and event videographers in New York City,” said WEVA International chairman, Roy Chapman. “It shows the enormous depth of interest in the tremendous changes that are taking place in our sector of professional video. Our city-wide meetings, sponsor exhibits, and special Tour 2002 workshops are part of WEVA’s mission of enabling serious videographers to keep up on new industry developments through continuing education. We’re very pleased by the positive feedback the Tour is receiving.”
Always a strong draw, the WEVA Town Meeting Sponsors’ Reception in New York was viewed as an outstanding success at this year's event. Canopus, Sony, Moore Digital, and Panasonic Broadcast all reported heavy traffic and intense interest in their hands-on exhibits targeted to professional wedding and event videographers. Attendees enjoyed the opportunity to talk one-on-one with the major manufacturers and get their industry-specific questions answered through hands-on demonstrations of new equipment features and techniques.
Following the Sponsors’ Reception, WEVA Town Meeting Tour Director Tim Ryan began the evening presentations shortly after 7:00 pm, with a special pre-produced New York City opening produced in a "Saturday Night Live" style that was created by WEVA International members John and Tom Weppler of Premiere Video Productions. The fast-paced "SNL" spoof introduced the evening presenters, including Chapman who pointed to the entertaining opening as evidence of the new world of video creativity and technological innovation now available to professional wedding and event videographers.
“Virtually any form of creativity you see today on television can now be produced by skilled wedding and event videographers, and clients are responding enthusiastically. While business dropped significantly last fall, weddings have rebounded and the bridal industry is now reporting that sales are as high as 15% or more above this same time period last year. For most people, family memories are now more important and more precious than ever and they want them preserved in the best way possible. And that means hiring videographers who are skilled professionals,” said Chapman.
An increasing number of brides and other event video clientele are also enjoying the entertaining elements that professional videographers are now able to incorporate into their productions. From Love Story biographies to energetic MTV style music videos with the bride and bridal party as the “stars,” short segment productions (or “concept videos”) are becoming more popular.
As evidence, Chapman screened the 2001 WEVA Creative Excellence Competition Gold Award for “Concept Video” produced by videographer Graham Fenton of Manchester, England. Fenton was in attendance on Monday night as the Town Meeting audience gave a thunderous round of applause to the production, which featured the bride and the entire bridal party--even the clergy--in a parody of “Tragedy,” a popular music video.
New York attendees were also able to pick up new ideas and techniques and inside industry information from the variety of speakers featured throughout the evening, including Dave Steward, Lance Gray, Luisa Winters, Donna & Robin Greenwood and surprise guest, Carley Roney, editor of TheKnot.com. Roney, who confirmed the uptick in bridal registries on TheKnot called the WEVA Town Meeting an "impressive event," adding, "it was VERY interesting to see the work that (WEVA) members are doing."
Although technical difficulties interrupted the transmission of the live webcast of the New York meeting, the evening was recorded as a 3-camera live mix, and will be available as an on-demand streaming program on www.weva.com shortly.
The 10-city WEVA Town Meeting Tour 2002 will touch down next in San Juan, Puerto Rico, for the special “Wedding Day Hot Shots” workshop beginning Monday, January 28. Visit www.weva.com for complete WEVA Town Meeting 2002 program & registration details and more information on the new DV, DVD and NLE technology exhibits currently on-tour (click here for details).
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