Business of Events

[Will_Mass]

Wow, does this strike a chord!

2 weeks ago we did an event that we had also done last year. We knew there would be one, possibly 2 other photographers there. One of the guys is a friendly competitor, the other was unknown to me. This is not an unusal situation for Horse Trials. Most shooters prefer to shoot X/C and we're quite happy to stay in the Show Jumping Ring. There's plenty of work to go around. Usually.

When we arrived on Saturday morning I ran into the "unknown guy" and he was majorly PO'd! He had a team of 3 shooters (counting himself). They had traveled across four states and had the associated costs. He apparently also thought he had an exclusive. He also said he was doing his best to get us thrown off the property. I explained, I understood his anger. But I wasn't the bad guy here and if I were in his position I would be doing the same thing. However, we had permission to be there and until I was told to leave by the organizers, I was going to do my job. Long story short: We were never told to leave. We stayed both days and did our job. But from what I could tell, we both had crappy weekends.

On a side note, That Sunday on the way home, I stuffed our trailer into a guardrail on a narrow road avoiding some fool in a little hybird who was across the center line. They never stopped and the witnesses were not in a position to run them down.

But at least they're saving gas!

Bad Karma?

BTW, What happened to the dang spell checkerer?

[EricC]

Shoot now b*tch later, you’re already there, you’ll have to pay your help whether you pack up and leave or stay and work through the screw up.

Our contract has a monetary penalty for breech as part of the terms. It is basically 1.25x the cost incurred to get to the event. It is the sum of payroll, travel, and any special marketing material specific to the event. To date we haven’t had any issues with showing up to an event that is double booked.

We sell on site at about 70% of our events. The decision is based on the type of event and how much time there will be between heats, matches, etc. for sales to be made. At events where we don’t set up for on-site sales we do setup a pair of viewing stations with slide shows of the event running on them.

There is nothing that you can do about the weather. We were booked for a 3 day tournament that promised to be huge, it was on the other side of the state so we also booked a motel for us and the photographers for 3 nights. Long story short, the 3 days turned into ¾’s of a day as the event was canceled due to rain and flooding. We ate our hat on that one. Yesterday we had a server melt in the heat. It was over 100 degrees in the tent and printers started overheating and shutting down. In the end we ran the server sans case and put fans blowing on the printers and server. I thought that one of my photographers was going to end up in the hospital with a heat stroke. She also happens to be my wife and very determined. We got through the day but it was one of the hardest events that we’ve done this year, weather wise.


Is anyone here using any kind of wireless / cell phone based credit card terminal? At venues with wi-fi or a wired network we can run credit cards fine but would like to switch to a wireless system. Anyone have REAL experience doing this?



Eric

[Ed_J_Szalajeski]

That is simply what we did, the other photoG, complained LOUDLY that he could not compete against our marketing, presentation, onsite viewing, and a few other descriptive words.

The evnet organizer gave us the choice of venues, and I choose to move to the youngest group.

The heat was AWEFUL 90+ and Humid.

Norm, I wish we could have done your style, I felt that was what we were going to be doing, but the event director bunted, or punted. Wanted us to go to our corners, one on one venue, one on the other.

The one very positive aspect of this event, was I at least had my small concession trailer working well, and the backup to scale outside if needed.

Thanks to the Tip on here, I invested in a dark awning, it does help greatly with the glare.

Eric:

I know all about RAIN, being in the NorthEast, we had enough to relive the building of the Ark up here. Many tournaments were called off multiple times.

One national tournament went on as scheduled, but it was Rugby, and not much can stop that (injuries of course).. Know the feeling completly.

One tournament turned from a 3 day tournament into a One day tournament, and it was hard to build the realtionship you do at multi day events.


Ed

[CBFountain]

Eric,

Up until recently I used a Nurit 3010 wireless credit card terminal. I have some event downtime, so I just deactivated my account after about three years of service. Excellent wireless unit. Established my merchant account through Costco. Competitive rates, no gotchas. I'd definitely recommend. PM me if interested.

[GeneCarl]

Carl,
i have taken a look at the Costco site. is it pretty simple to use? do your deposits go to then to your bank.
Thanks,
Gene
gcarl@g2photos.net

Interesting thread, guys.

I work in a very small market and still I've had similar situations arise to what I have been reading here. I've learned to struggle through and concentrate on being the best I can possibly be when faced with 'unpleasant' surprises. I put more effort into the day. I try to be very visible and give a business card to everyone I meet. If it's raining, I get wet. If it's muddy, I get muddy. If it's dangerous, I get closer. I try to leave an impression that I 'outworked' the other guy. I use more equipment, if I can. And, I never speak an ill word to or about the other guys. If anything, I point out to some what they might do differently next time to improve their work. I even want the other photogs to think I'm the best. Someone always notices and compliments me on working so hard. It spins off eventually in a positive way with future work from someone in attendance. And, I go home with my ego intact.

Keep Smiling!

Gup.

[CBFountain]

Originally Posted by GeneCarl

Carl,
i have taken a look at the Costco site. is it pretty simple to use? do your deposits go to then to your bank.
Thanks,
Gene
gcarl@g2photos.net

Yes, they generally show up in a day. (I think they promise two days) Billing is monthly.