Hey all,

I am getting ready to do my first bridal show . . . as it seems a lot of us are. I am wanting to put together a "best of 2006" slideshow to draw in clients (inspired by Matt's awesome shows), but had a question for you all.

Do you all feel that people stop and look at the shows? How many images would be best - will people not stay for long, so it won't matter if there are not a ton? I was going to run it on my laptop, but it only has a 15 inch screen -- should I try to get a large flatscreen from a friend?

Anyway, thanks guys. I had checked out another show this last weekend, and there were only a handfull of photogs that used a slideshow presentation.

I was wondering this myself, with my own first show coming up soon, so I went to the biggest show in my area last weekend to check out what the other photographers were doing. I didn't personally see anybody stopping to look at the slideshows (although I certainly did!) but it was painfully obvious that the photographers with the slideshows were busy talking to prospects and had many people at their booths looking through their albums while the photographers without the shows had a lot less traffic.

I think maybe the slideshow (presented well - on a flat screen, not on a laptop) gave a higher perceived value. No slideshow and they looked more "budget," even when the photography was excellent.

We always bring a slideshow on our laptop to the wedding shows we do. You have people look at it, but not for a long time. We actually hand out CD slideshow to all the people that stop buy. We get alot of positive feedback from that. We usually take about 150 Cd's to hand out. Most of the people that stop by look at the albums the most. Good luck on the first show.

Thanks for the input Libbie!!!




Ross, thanks for the ideas! I actually have a promotional DVD to hand out to serious brides. It's in a professionally designed case and even was silk printed and such. My designer put lots of info on it, like about me, pricing, philosophy, contact and then a slideshow.

On my first bridalshow i did three things that turned out to be really cool to make customers stop and stay at least for 4 - 5 minutes.

Nr. 1:
The only "printed" images i showed was one 30x40 on canvas and a 11 page 14x14 album.

NR. 2:
I have had a beamer with me an projected the slideshow from the printed album onto the background of my booth. Then i told everyone who passed by to take a look at the beautifully printed and bind version of the show.

Nr. 3:
I took my D200, a yellow backdrop and my Sony UP-DR150 Printer + Notebook with me.
I definitly ASKED everyone passing by my booth to come in and have a memoryphoto taken. Only 1 out of 50 said no to that offer. By this time, they did not even knew it was free.

Then i made a nice portraitpicture with a fixed light setup, gave the CF-Card to a friend who assisted me. He was going to print the images 6x8 and put it into a nice leporello frame.

I told the photographed couple to come back in about 5 minutes to get the picture OR if they are interested to take a look at the album.
I am not sure, but i think no one walked away to come back later:-)

So at least they all knew me.
In germany it is not very common that people sign a contract on a bridal show.
So i have to wait to see what will happen.

yours
Juergen