(editor’s note: Partner Conference New Orleans recap post coming soon.  In the meantime…)

Open Forum- What is it? Are you on it? Why? Why not?

“OPEN Forum, is an online resource and networking site for small business owners. The site is designed to forge meaningful business connections and provide practical, actionable information and insights from influential bloggers, industry leaders, and savvy entrepreneurs. In addition, the site will aggregate relevant online small business conversations from Twitter.”

-American Express Press Release 2009

When I was introduced to the Open Forum I immediately questioned whether or not it had the potential to be a resource for Pictage users as small business owners. The Open Forum is much like the Pictage forums in that it is a community of small business owners just like yourself, learning from each other. It hopes to give small business owners the tools to connect and collaborate and grow. But here’s the catch, you have to be an American Express card holder to receive “all” the perks…

But what is it exactly? It’s a collection of resources for small businesses, in the form of blogs and other articles from experts such as Alltop’s Guy Kawasaki and Mashable’s Pete Cashmore in addition to conversations in the actual forum. Major topics in the idea hub are managing, marketing, and innovation. Open Forum is a new way to look at business, an attitude of sharing with your business community rather than keeping strategic secrets. It might serve as an opportunity for you as photographers and small business owners to get a different perspective by joining a community of other small business owners that are in different industries. But as I mentioned before, if you are not an American Express card holder you can only use Open Forum as a resource for advice through blogs and other articles. Is that alone worth checking it out?

So, I’m curious. If you have American Express, are you interested in joining the Open Forum? If you do not, do the blogs and articles and expert advise benefit you enough to visit? If you haven’t heard of it, take a second to get familiar with it. The following is a video I found introducing Open Forum and explaining all of it’s features, most specifically as it benefits American Express card holders. Below is an article posted on Open Forum earlier this year, and can serve as an indication of what is available for non card holders.

This article was written by one of my favorite bloggers, marketing guru and successful entrepreneur Guy Kawasaki. He frequently posts his articles on the Open Forum relating to small businesses, marketing, and more specifically social media.

For the complete article visit Open Forum here.

I guess you could say that I accidently became a wedding photographer.  In 1977 a couple of my friends were getting married and since I was a decent amateur photographer I volunteered to shoot heir weddings.  Word spread and before long I was doing about 5-6 per year fro friends and relatives.  Fast forward to 1993, I came to a crossroads in my career.  I was getting rather tired of working the weddings instead of attending them and told my wife I was going to quit doing them.  She told me to purse it more seriously instead of just passively.  I mulled that thought over for a while and thought, “why not?”.  I started investing in seminars, equipment and advertising and within a few years was filling up my calendar rather nicely.  In 2001-2002 everything was going great, we had just completed building a custom home complete with a presentation room, studio and production area then everything changed.  The company I was working for shut it’s doors and I was forced into a full time photographer situation, now it was sink or swim.  It’s amazing what you can do when faced with adversity.Today I’m extremely thrilled with what I get to do, the passion has not abated one bit.  I want to get even more involved in the industry and maybe in a small way help shape the direction it’s going.

Also, from 2003-2005 I conducted a series of workshops called the Digital Pow Wow to help photographers make the transition to digital capture and now my newest workshop is a 2-1/2 destination wedding photography program that is a real wedding!  The next one is May 17-19, 2010 in Cancun.

It’s a well know fact we wedding photographers can get into a rut and spend an extreme amount of time in what we do, just get by and then burn out.  I have sought a route that will allow me to work let and actually enjoy my family.  My wife of 21 years and I have the privilege of raising 2 of our grandchildren and we owe it them to provide the time, love and nurturing they deserve.  I want to share some very valuable information with those that come to my program that they can apply to their business model that will make an immediate impact on their revenue.

It’s not about the work, it’s not about the art, it’s not about post production.  It’s only for those that are already good photographers that want to make more money but can’t seem to get it no matter how good they are.

This is my first Partner Con and trip to New Orleans.  I’m look forward to meeting some of the other Pictagers that I’m met on the forums and to experience the whole Partner Con thing.  Jim Collins is also a big draw for me.  It’s not often you get a CEO that has passion for the craft, enthusiasm about the industry and a sense of humor to boot.

See some images courtesy of Grant Oakes below.

As you know, I have been traveling, teaching the Lightroom Workflow Workshops over the last few weeks and I just finished one in Houston, Texas today (Thursday, October 29th).  I planned my workshop tour to coincide with Pictage Partner Conference, in New Orleans.  But, with a few days to myself, I thought I would swing up to visit my family in Shreveport, Louisiana.  Have you seen the weather lately?  An absolute nightmare of a storm has spread itself directly up my path with tornados touching down all over Shreveport.  So, while my family hunkers down in a closet amidst storm sirens, and with road closures everywhere, I am left half way between Houston and Shreveport in a Best Wester Hotel watching an HBO encore of George Clooney’s “The Perfect Storm.”

Will I make it to Shreveport?  Not tonight?  Maybe tomorrow…  maybe not…

Will I make it to New Orleans?  Without a doubt.  I wouldn’t miss it, but I may be hitching a ride in a tornado.

I am looking forward to speaking at the Partner Conference.  My lecture is entitled “The Photographer’s Eye,” in which I will discuss five unique attributes of the art and craft of photography which set us apart from the rest of art world.  It will be a great opportunity to take a break from the business discussions and immerse ourselves in the medium and renew our excitement and love for the act of photography and elevate our thinking.

Why should you come to hear my lecture?  Because this lecture is a fantastic lecture for photographers of all levels that will inspire and energize you.  Because, it’s like a photographic sermon that will leave you shouting Amen!  Because I am always lecturing at the same time as Joe Buissink and if you don’t wear your glasses, or if you come with sleep in your eyes, we kind of look the same!

I look forward to seeing everyone there!

By the way, I already have my umbrella.

Jared Platt will be speaking on Wednesday, November 4th at 10:10 AM. For more information such as the Katrina Photo Shoot, speaker bios, and schedules visit www.partnercon.pictage.com.

Hi, I’m Liana.  While many refer to me simply as “liana banana”, I was married in April of this year, so I’ve officially changed my last name from Lehman to Hall!  I’m based out of the Atlanta GA area which is great because my focus is destination weddings and it’s easy to get around from here.  While destination weddings is our specialty, we also photograph plenty of Atlanta weddings and lifestyle portraits.  When I’m not shooting, I’m teaching Photo Business Boot Camps and traveling.  Right now I’m one of the only working pro wedding photographers certified to teach the not-fun business stuff to other entrepreneurs.  It’s a lot of work, because I don’t have any “down-time” but so rewarding to be able to do both!

I thought I knew what it was like to plan a wedding because, before I started shooting weddings, I assisted a wedding planner and knew the industry well.  What I found out this past year, while planning our own wedding, is that I had NO IDEA how stressful it can be – and how wrong I was about some things before.  Being on the OTHER side gave me a whole new appreciation for what our clients go through, and things we can do to make their experience SO much better.  There are some things about the wedding industry that drove me CRAZY during the process, things I noticed could be better, and I hope that I can share these insights with others during my session at Partner Conference.

If you want to know all the things your clients may not be telling you, come to my session.  In the past year I’ve had tons of friends and even my little sister who also got married and I was able to pick their brains for dos and donts as well.  It’s crazy how similar our experiences were – and how the industry falls short in making the process easy and enjoyable.

The people, and the chance to do something great by giving back to the community.  Partner Conference is always like a big reunion and the perfect place to meet new friends in the industry.  If it weren’t for those I’ve met at Partner Conferences since 2005 (yes, I’ve been to all!)  then I probably would not be in business today.  Running a photography business can be such hard work, frustrating, and even lonely at times.  It helps to know you have a network of photographers who support, encourage, and stand by each other.  This is the first year we are given the chance to use our talents to tangibly impact the community around us during the Partner Conference.  I know it will mean a lot to be able to help the families who were effected by Hurricane Katrina. Giving back may just be one of the most rewarding experiences of all!

Liana will also be bringing her wedding albums, designed by her and printed by KISS.

Liana teaches the not-fun-stuff every photographer needs to know in order to be profitable in business.  She is the ONLY professional wedding photographer in the USA who teaches managerial accounting, finance, and business planning to other photographers in a small group, hands-on environment.  Join her in Austin in November or Atlanta in January for her next Photo Business Boot Camp!  www.BananasEDU.com

One attendee will win a copy of Carlos’ DVD “See the Light”, a $150 value. For more information, registration, and payment visit Carlos’ blog here.

Carlos’ speaking session is titled “Rated MA: For Mature Audiences Only” and will be taking place on November 3rd at 10:10 AM. Watch the video below for Carlos’ very own explanation of the session and why you should plan on attending.

Rated MA: Mature Audiences Partner Con Promo from CARLOS BAEZ on Vimeo.

For more details about Partner Con, speakers, and schedules visit www.partnercon.pictage.com.

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Learn more about Jared’s speaker session and what he is most excited about for Partner Con below.

1.What is your session about?
Your Business – On Auto Pilot for Six Figure Income
In today’s era, nothing is more important than building a solid foundation for your business. Known as an industry leader in business education, Jared will show you how to set your business up for six figures – this year! Creating an auto pilot of profit for your business is essential in these economic times, and Jared has broken down the process into simple, practical steps that are easy to put into action. Examples will include efficiency analysis, automization techniques, and profit focuses. You will leave with the tools to make a six figure income this year!

2.Why should we attend?
Everyone stuggles with the balance between the business and the art.  This session will help center photographers around some key business practices.  They will be practical, easy to grasp, and simple to implement.  By learning how to think big picture, photographers can attain their financial goals.

3. What are you looking forward to about Partner Con in general?
I am most excited to hang out with other photographers.  Its so good to hang out with people that are so much like myself and share a common bond – shooting weddings.  Also, I love the Bed Jump tradition that has been started.

Because this is the 10th round, there are special prices for our winners. Timothy Riley of RPG Keys provided an RPG mini unit. Lauren Hillary of GO BEE Bags has donated a GO|BEE Card Holster for a man or a GO|BEE Hip Clutch for a Woman.  Mitche Graf of Power Marketing 101 has provided a Boot Camp in a Box 9-CD marketing crash course. Thank you to Timothy, Lauren and Mitche for their donations.

We are so excited to announce this round’s winners… so here they are!

FIRST place goes to Gerald Pope of Seattle, Washington.  Congrats Gerald!

From Beckstead: “Gerald nailed the whole idea I had about  the ‘veils’ contest! I was looking for compositions that focused on the liquid feel of how veils fly around or become the strongest element and line structure of the frame. This is just a wonderful shot with very few elements: a simple yet very powerful composition! The veil mocks the angle of her dress and everything is isolated perfectly and ‘pops’ from the background. And just for fun I noticed if you flip the veil it looks just like Gerald’s logo!! Cool! Totally deserving of the first place winner!!”

2nd Place goes to Jolie Nicole Churchill of Southeastern Florida.

From Beckstead: “The veil feels like an extension of the background clouds! I just love this abstract composition! The dark b&w sky really highlight the clouds and the veil seems to mock the look and style of the clouds perfectly! I am glad the bride is facing away so her look does not interrupt the flow. Just great!”

3rd Place goes to Don Bryant Thompson. Congrats Don!

From Beckstead: “I love the abstract feel of Don’s image! The symmetry of the light-lines from the veil on top balance the veil-lines on the bottom…just great!!”

11th round is now open! Submit your “Black and White” images the Admired  by Beckstead Facebook page.

San Diego photographers and PUG leaders Jeff and Erin Youngren will be leading a session, titled “Keepin’ it Real in a Rockstar World.”  Their presentation will take place on Thursday at 10am. And, now you even shoot with Jeff and Erin in New Orleans – we  JUST added their bonus Jeff and Erin workshop!

We figure who better to tell us about their presentation than the speakers themselves?

For more details check out the Pictage Partner Conference website. You can see The Youngren’s work at theyoungrens.com.