The growth of workshops for photographers we’ve seen lately was the subject of conversation over coffee this morning. There are so many great courses out there, one wonders…is it too much for people to digest? Are we, as an industry, experiencing information overload?

My mind wandered back to 2002 and to a workshop Dave and I planned in Costa Rica. It was going to be a fabulous workshop with great guest speakers, hands-on training, and a gorgeous setting to shoot. We planned very structured days of field work, then back to the lab, more shooting, and back to the lab again. The hours began before dawn and ended at 10 PM. It was going to be a very intense 5-day workshop, but by the time they left, they would be stars! Or, so we thought.

What we discovered, after experiencing weak (putting it mildly) results from our marketing initiative was that we had crafted a workshop that involved way too much ‘training’ and not enough ‘fun.’ Our marketing materials were centered on outcomes and how intense this program would be. We forgot one of the basic tenants of any learning experience and that was to ‘inspire’ the person first to want to learn! Read More→