VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[TheVoiceOfBob]

Caryn,
You will be among many many friends that are going to be willing to help out, so don't worry about getting from point A to point B. Bring the GPS and let's go explore!
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Try to imagine a world where there is no such thing as hypothetical situations.

The Voice of Bob

[Bruce]

I concur with Bob on the LAX Hilton. Pleasant rooms, comfortable facilities, and if you like watching planes from all over the world take off and land be sure to ask for a room that overlooks the runway. A child's (me) delight. Also, you can't get much more equidistant from LA's big attractions than the airport.

The four days is still a problem...Dan O'Day's forums are two days and a welcoming gathering the evening before, and he packs a lot in. They're on a Friday-Saturday so most folks lose one and a half work days from home.

B
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VO-BB Member #31 Enlisted June, 2005

I'm not a Zoo, but over the years I've played one on radio/TV. .

[CarynClark]

Ok, Bob and Bob... I'll be there with the GPS!!
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Caryn Clark... The Hip Chick Voice!

"A positive mental attitude and having faith in your ability is quite different from being irresponsible and downright stupid." - Dave

[jalburger]

Many of you have been posting ideas and suggestions for VOICE 2008, and we want to let you know we appreciate your input. Keep those ideas coming! Post them here or send them directly to info@voiceacting.com. Nothing is set in stone as yet as far as the content for VOICE 2008 - and we're taking a serious look at many of your suggestions for presenters and topics. But the dates and location are set: May 18-22 at the LAX Hilton in Los Angeles.

I’ve noticed a few comments regarding the dates and location, so I thought I’d give you some insights into our process for putting together an event as complex as this.

We spent a great deal of time reviewing the evaluations from our first Las Vegas VOICE event before we even began looking for a venue or dates. One of the things we determined was that it really didn’t matter when or where we hold the event – someone is going to be unhappy! Holidays, family events, work schedules, school terms, vacations, and more all seem to get in the way. Sadly, there is no perfect place or time to hold a convention such as VOICE. NAB (the second largest convention in Las Vegas) is held over a 4-day period in April each year and has an attendance well in excess of 100,000. Somehow, all those people manage to arrange their schedules to attend. Sure, some of those people are taking paid time off to attend, but many are not. The best we can do is to pick a time and place that we believe will best serve the majority of attendees. The entire Las Vegas VOICE event was put together in just under five months! We moved the dates to May to give us – and you – more time for planning.

After several trips to Los Angeles to scout potential venues and looking at available dates, we ultimately settled on May 18-22 at the LAX Hilton. We considered several other cities, but decided on Los Angeles because that is where we will have access to the people we want to invite to be part of this event. Now, some of you may think the LAX Hilton is just another “airport hotel,” but you’d be very wrong! Those vo-bb members who attended the Dan O’Day Summit will tell you that this is definitely not the typical airport hotel. It has the space we need, the facilities are wonderful, the service is excellent, and the location is very convenient for out-of-town attendees. When you attend VOICE 2008, we think you’ll be very pleasantly surprised. BTW, the Hilton LAX is an animal-friendly, non-smoking hotel (with the exception of 1 floor).

As you all know, VOICE is intended to be much more than a simple seminar or workshop. Our purpose is to provide a broad range of information, training, and ultimately create a much-needed face-to-face community for voiceover talent at all levels of experience. To be of value to attendees, any convention or conference must allow adequate time for everything to happen – it simply can’t be done over a weekend. One of the common requests from 2007 was for MORE - more time for networking, more free time, more time to meet with the exhibitors, more time for more coaches. Many people came up to us on the last day and truly did not want to leave!

VOICE 2007 ran from Wednesday through Saturday, with a networking party on Tuesday evening. Most attendees traveled on Tuesday, so that’s 4 week days and one weekend day. For VOICE 2008 we’ve chosen to start with our networking party on Sunday and schedule the conference for Monday through Thursday. Still, 4 week days and one weekend day. This change can actually save some money because there are zero weekend nights at the hotel, even for those who choose to stay over on Thursday evening for a Friday departure.

Yes, VOICE is intended to be an event for working professionals, as well as for those who want to be working professionals. When we set up the first VOICE event we were initially concerned about attendees passing up work to attend. What we learned in Las Vegas surprised us: there were at least 6 attendees that we know of, plus a few presenters, who were actually tracking auditions and doing sessions from either their hotel rooms or a nearby studio – while they attended VOICE. The potential issue of losing work was, in reality, a non-issue. We’re working on making similar arrangements for VOICE 2008.

We learned a LOT of other things from Las Vegas that we’re incorporating into VOICE 2008, many of which have already been suggested in this forum. We truly appreciate your ideas and suggestions, and we hope you understand that we simply won’t be able to put all of them into VOICE 2008. What we can’t do in 2008 we’ll be keeping in mind for the future.

We think you'll like what we have planned for VOICE 2008 and we look forward to seeing you in LA next May.

James Alburger
Executive Producer, VOICE
info@voiceacting.com

[Lizden]

Hey James!
Thanks so much for all this info!

I'm SO looking forward to this!...oh yeah...I was one of the ones you mentioned that actually did some work while @ VOICE2007...and who didn't want to leave!

My only suggestion in terms of the Hotel, is to make sure the Broadband Internet connection at the hotel can handle the traffic...the Palace seemed to have some issues in that regard....and to have it included as part of the room rate would be a bonus (instead of it being yet another charge)...But either way I'M THERE!!!!

See you & Penny & Frank in May!!!!!!!

Have a GREAT day!

Liz
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Liz de Nesnera O.A.V. ~ Livin' The VO Dream!
English/French Bilingual VO w/ ISDN
HireLiz.com / liz@hireliz.com

[Bruce]

James,

Thank you for your detailed response. Unfortunately there are a couple of your points that deserve comment.

One is that the vast majority of NAB attendees are employees of large companies (broadcast and cable networks and stations and such) and they have people to back them up back at work and their companies often pay their way to the convention and continue to pay them a salary. They're not being missed that much back at the home office. You apparently aren't considering that self-employed voice talent don't have back-up. We're it. We're the whole office.

Two is this assertion of yours that flies in the face of reality:

[MelissaVoicer]

James, so good to see you on the board, and thank you for your detailed explanations. I second the "reliable broadband" concern...and also, I think you're probably already planning on this, but can we find a NEARBY studio with ISDN that is willing to take an influx of people for a nice low, prenegotiated rate? Perhaps provide us the SPIDs, etc, in advance so we can pass these on to our clients...

Also, yikes, "animal friendly" i.e. dogs barking in our recordings? Perhaps we could book a bunch of reserved rooms that is NOT animal friendly so we don't have to deal with that?

I look at it this way: yes it's 4 days...and I might lose "some" work, but not all if I take my HH box, and I could just as easily have come down with a nasty cold during those four days and not have been able to work! So we'll just pretend I'm sick!

The only thing that will nix this trip is if Jarod's school has a bunch of stuff planned for the last week of classes... Hope to see you in MAY!!!

[todd ellis]

[CarynClark]

James,

Thank you for the detailed explanation. I do appreciate it, and my concerns about the venue are now alleviated.

Caryn
_________________
Caryn Clark... The Hip Chick Voice!

"A positive mental attitude and having faith in your ability is quite different from being irresponsible and downright stupid." - Dave

[Moe Egan]

James...Thank you muchly for your timely and thoughtful reply to our board's ramblings. Yous got class.

Melissa mentioned hooking up with an ISDN studio for the week....here's something that just came to me. Liz saved my bacon last year with her porta-studio....did four or five spots while there.....I'm sure there must be a local studio willing to set up a "portable studio" some where in the hotel for those who have work coming in over the week. Not an ISDN set up - just a portable studio that attendees could rent out by the half hour or something.

With the number of VO talent who will be there, I'm sure some studio in LA has a "B Team" of engineers they could send out for the week....I'm sure it would be worth their while.

Other than that, I'm totally psyched to get there. Please tell Penny one thing for me....'WOW'.
moe
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Moe Egan
i want to be the voice in your head.
~~~~~

[bobsouer]

James,

Yes, thank you for the long and detailed message. When you decide to start posting here, you come out of the gate with a bang!

Regarding the Internet connection in the hotel, let me offer these thoughts. It's solid, reliable and in almost all the rooms above the 10th floor, wired as well as wireless. (Wireless only 10th floor and below.) I've used both the wired and wireless connections there. Sadly, it is an additional charge to use the Internet service, but as I said, it is very reliable. I've been in the hotel multiple times when it is full and have never had a problem getting on line or making large file transfers from there.

With all the ISDN studios in LA, I'm sure there has to be more than one that's relatively close to the airport. Hopefully, James, Penny and Frank can work out deals with a few of them.

And yes, I was among those who was doing work in my room during VOICE 2007. In fact, not only did I do my own work, as 2 other members of this board can tell you, I also helped both of them out with work they needed to do. This meant that I missed half of Rodney's presentation, half of Connie's presentation, all of Bettye Zoller's presentation and the first few minutes of Deirdre's presentation. I made those sacrifices because I knew I'd be getting them on the DVD and that I had all the notes pre-done in my workbook. I would rather have seen all of these live, but you do what you have to do to keep your clients happy.
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Be well,
Bob Souer (just think of lemons)
The second nicest guy in voiceover.
+1-724-613-2749
Source Connect, phone patch, pony express

[asnively]

And if the event had been held Friday through Sunday, you would have been able to record most of all that in your home studio and would have been able to enjoy, live and in person, that which you paid to see.
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debt management

[bobsouer]

Amy,

No argument from me.
_________________
Be well,
Bob Souer (just think of lemons)
The second nicest guy in voiceover.
+1-724-613-2749
Source Connect, phone patch, pony express

[Bailey]

James... Thanks for touching all the bases. Can't wait to see you in Los Angeles! Well... maybe I'll just stop by the house and say "Hi" for now.
_________________
"Bailey"
a.k.a. Jim Sutton
Retired... Every day is Saturday, except Sunday.
VO-BB Member #00044 .gif" alt="W00T" border="0" />
AOVA Graduate 02/2004 ;
"Be a Voice, not an Echo."

[MelissaVoicer]

Good point, Moe, about the porta studio...A booth would be great...however they would be swamped! I envision--like you said--1/2 hour signups...but it would have to be "overnight" so we don't miss sessions...and also, those of us who want to work would come armed with flash drives and simply save what we record in "their studio" to our drive...