Up at 7am. Really? Normally, I’ve had just 3 hours of sleep at 7am, but on THIS day I’m expected to be chipper, entertaining, wise, and informative at that hour.
Yes, I’m reprising my role as a self-styled Social Media know-it-all along with my equally-afflicted VO colleague, Terry Daniel. ‘Difference is, this year, we’re joined by the talented VO and Twitter maven, Trish Basanyi.
None of us slept well. The three of us talk for a living, but not with people staring back at us. We all know this stuff like the pledge of allegiance, but will the words come out right when we try to tell others?
After some funny schtick to get people laughing, we expose our FaceBook/Twitter/LinkedIn T-shirts, and Terry Daniel dives right into his presentation on FaceBook. 15-or 20 minutes later, Trish begins her talk on Twitter, and I bring up the rear with info on LinkedIn, YouTube, Google+, and Pinterest. The time flies, and we take good questions for a half-hour. Then we’re done. Gone in a flash! What was all that angst about anyway?
Terry’s top tip: The FaceBook app Fan Rx lets you upload your demos to display on your FaceBook page.
Trish’s top tip: Use Twellow.com to do meaningful Twitter searches for worthwhile VO people to follow.
Dave’s top tip: Google+. It’s here to stay, and Google is putting huge resources into making it an eventual success.
I’ll admit, the rest of the day seemed like a welcome relief once the big Social Media presentation was over, but honestly, there were some top-notch presentations on all sorts of useful topics today.
Erik Sheppard on the top myths in the Voice-Over world today. Example: You must live in NYC or LA to make the big voice over bucks.
William Williams on ways to be the top auditioner on Pay-2-Play services like V123 and Voices.com.
George Whittam and Dan Lenard on audio production techniques demystified.
Andy Boyns moderating a panel of International Voice talents, the challenges and the advantages.
Vanessa Hart moderating a panel of AudioBook superstars: narrators, publishers, ACX, agents, and even SAG-AFTRA were represented, along with Scott Brick, Hillary Huber, and Pat Fraley.
Tim Keenan on how to succeed in corporate narrations (seen here in the red shirt tweeting). Tim later hosted an after-hours party at his Creative Media Recording studios not far from Disneyland.
John Florian and Elizabeth Holmes on how to run a better VO business.
Gabrielle Nistico moderating a panel on how to get a top agent.
And there were even a couple I didn’t have the chance to visit…. TONS of great information on many chief aspects of the voice over business.
My apologies for not fleshing-out more tips from each of these presenters, but with my duties as host…flitting back and forth to get pictures and facilitate the seminars, I wasn’t always able to hear much of the information being offered. As a staffer, I will get a complete DVD copy of each session, though, and that will be available to you as well, once the event is over (there is a cost for the DVD, but well worth the price, believe me!).
Everyone agrees on several points:
1) The Voice Over business is still in the throes of big change (mostly due to home studios and the internet)
2) There are more voice over jobs than ever (globally)
3) There are more people vying for those jobs than ever (grrrr)
4) This is a healthy industry with good prospects all around.
Six more seminars Friday from great information providers like Edge Studio’s David Goldberg, Randye Kaye, Tom Dheere and others.
CourVO
