LF Conference Thoughts

[J.L. Kennedy]

The overlapping sessions were frustrating when I wanted to go to both concurrently but I don't know any solution to that. Just the day before I had gone to a trade show in my regular profession (property management) and had the exact same problem, so its a universal problem. One approach that might work would be to have only one large lecture room and have all the speakers talk in succession throughout the day. I noticed that the really good speakers tended to talk about their philosophy as much as the topic they were slated to talk about, and that most of them boiled their talk down to about 20 minutes although some went a little more and some struggled to fill their time. Under my scenario, here’s how Saturday would have looked (I don't know how to make this appear in a column using html, sorry!):

8:25 Richard Maack on history of Arizona Highways 8:30 Ron Wisner on selecting equipment 9:00 Steve Johnson on landscape photography and digital capture 9:30 Kerry Thalman on landscape photography 10:00 Gordon Hutchings on landscape photography 10:30 Steve Inglima on equipment 11:00 Kerry Thalman on backpacking 11:30 QT Luong on backpacking 12:00 Lunch 1:00 Clyde Butcher on mammoth cameras 1:20 Michael Smith on mammoth cameras 1:40 Tracy Storer on mammoth cameras 2:00 Michael Collette on digital scanning technology 2:15 Kerry Thalman on Color film choices 2:45 John Reuter on polaroid materials 3:00 Jack Boucher on Architectural photography 3:20 Kirk Gittings on architectural photography 3:40 Sharmon Goff on color film choices 4:00 Ron Wisner on polaroid materials 4:20 Mark Citret on Architectural photography 4:40 Dick Arentz on mammoth cameras 5:00 George DeWolfe on digital darkroom 5:30 Brad Hinkel on digital darkroom 6:00 Charles Cramer on digital darkroom

The order used above is not necessarily logical, I am just trying to show that everyone would fit this way. This would also solve the space problem because there would only have to be one big lecture room. I don't think it would be a problem to have people constantly coming and going, or presenters following closely one after another. If a particular attendee wanted to hear every single presenter it would be possible, but more than likely, this would allow ample breaks and trade show time for the average attendee.

Saturday night was kind of dead time, and I would like to see it used as a time in which attendees who wanted to could bring in prints, set them out, and everyone could circulate around for a few hours looking at each other's work, trading, questioning, or whatever.

Anyway, I hope none of these suggestions detracts from how great the conference was. I really enjoyed it and appreciate Steve's work in putting it together.

[robby parkman]

just to echo the chorus to thank steve for oranizing a GREAT meeting. as a beginner it was inspiring at both the philosphical as well as the practical level. there are always problems with room size at any simulanious seession meeting. i especially wad impressed by Bruce's developer/paper shootout. i ordered new paper and developer monday morning. at present i would vote for every year. just being able to see and handle the gear is worth it.

[Kirk Gittings]

Minor criticisms noted, I'd have to say in retrospect that it was an honor to present at the conference and as before I am really energized by the contacts, new tech. ideas etc. For those who missed it, you should really get to the next one wherever it is, because it is really worth the expense.

[Paul Metcalf]

A great weekend, indeed. I was at another conference in Monterey the following week (Part of my job that actually pays me something. I know, tough duty) and all I could think about was the LF conference!

My favorite quote: "It's not about the subject, it's about the space." (thanks Michael)

Anyway, looks to me like the most significant news from this conference is that "more than $200,000 of merchandise found its way into the hands of new users during the two days of the trade show." (from the View Camera website). That's amazing!