Sydney Meetup
PhotoMerchant held its third meetup of photographers and business partners in Sydney last week, coinciding with the PMA Australia 2011 Conference. A great group of folks came along to mingle, munch snacks, and learn about PhotoMerchant’s latest product and business updates.
Photographers from a wide range of disciplines participated in the event. There were wedding, fashion, portrait, event and sports photographers. There were full-time photographers, those with aspirations of leaving the day job behind and those just dipping their toes in the water. It was a perfect opportunity to network with the Australian photography community and to hear about the exciting things people are doing with their businesses.
We caught up with the gregarious DJ Paine of Studio Promise, who is a staunch supporter of the local photography community. DJ hosted our Gold Coast Meetup and is full of ideas for future gatherings, events and even podcasts.
Rex Imperator Elmar kicked off the speeches with an update of what we’ve accomplished over the last three years including entering the US market and improving our support offering with 24/7 support being a priority as soon as costs allow. He also introduced the full PhotoMerchant team, which now consists of 10 people.
Engineering Czar Derek took the mic next and did a demo of our product updates. Digital downloads inspired some cheers from the peanut gallery; it’s been our most requested, most successful feature. With it we’ve tripled the number of sales done on behalf of customers. The demo provided a valuable opportunity for customers to pose questions directly to Derek, who developed the system.
Wrapping up the speeches was Raconteur Kain with an update on our immediate strategic plan and our vision to make local photographers more profitable. We’ve opened up our application to third party systems through our API includuding the forthcoming Adobe Lightroom Export plug-in, and through partnerships with Sociapad, an iPad app developed based on the idea of a portable, shareable studio to showcase proofs and sell photos to clients.
We’ve started new partnerships with some great local businesses like Blurb Books which provides high quality on demand photobooks and Creative Photo Workshops which helps photographers improve their skills through workshops and seminars. Both companies gave away vouchers on the night for their products and services.
In three years we’ve come a long way from our humble beginnings as an Aussie start-up operating out of Elmar’s garage. The meetup was a huge success and we hope everyone found it informative and a good chance to connect with the community. It would be great to see you at the next one!
Special thanks to our partners Nulab Professional Imaging who recently launched their new web service NuShots, and to Catalin Anastase who offered his talents to photograph the event. You can download images from the event through his PhotoMerchant website using our recently released Digital Download options.
