Meli, Rachel and I headed south to Washington DC for a two-day trip to show off our photographers’ portfolios at client meetings including Chronicle of Higher Education, Glover Park Group, World Wildlife Fund, AARP, United Way, and SmithGifford. The ride down featured a marvelous DJ (I’m sure you can guess who that was), a thorough review of our itinerary and a bizarre introduction of a cockney accent (I’m sure you can guess who that was. No? Okay, it was Meli). Upon arrival we parked the car and made a beeline for Potbelly, stuffed our faces full of panini-goodness and made our way back to the hotel to prepare for our first meeting on Wednesday morning with the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Wednesday greeted us with clear skies and unseasonably warm weather as we walked to meet with Rose Engelland, a veteran photo editor at the Chronicle of Education.
We made sure to take in the sights around the city and snap a photo of the Washington Monument.
Rose had asked us to bring editorial education portfolios and became enthralled with Colin M. Lenton’s book as he had a wide variety of images that suited her needs. Additionally, we were able to make a few other photographer recommendations for an upcoming project she was working on with Penn State University. Next up was Glover Park Group, an agency just a few blocks down from the White House. We greeted a carousel of creative directors, art buyers and photo editors who were all very interested in our photographers and our art buying and shoot production services.
Pat pulling up Wonderful Machine’s website to stream it live during our Glover Park Group meeting.
Collectively, we agreed that after our meeting at the Glover Park Group offices, we had to reward ourselves with a lunch rendezvous to Burger Tap and Shake. I’ll save you the details about what we ordered. What happens in Burger Tap and Shake stays in Burger Tap and Shake… Our third and final meeting on Wednesday took place at the World Wildlife Fund, just a short walk from our hotel.
Our meeting was fantastic! Their passion was infectious, and we fed off of their energy for the entirety of the hour and a half meeting. They are looking for videographers in countries such as Uruguay and Mongolia and were thrilled when we showed them Greta Rybus’ book which was printed in-house a few days before our trip!
After a successful first day, we wanted to take the remaining hours of our day to meet with our phenomenal photographers working in the DC area. Six of our photographers were able to make it out to our hotel bar for a happy hour. Not only was it great to put faces to names but it was awesome to see WM-veterans like Scott Suchman interact with newer members like Noah Willman and Marisa Guzman-Aloia.
Photographers mingled with Wonderful Machine staff for a happy hour. Shown from left to right are Marisa Guzman-Aloia, Noah Willman, Barry Harley, WM Associate Producer Pat, Matt Rakola, Rebecca Drobis, WM Associate Producer Meli, Scott Suchman, and WM Senior Marketing/PR Consultant Rachel.
Thursday morning began with a visit to Michael Wichita and his team over at AARP. The creative team was happy to see a mix of familiar faces like Ackerman & Gruber, John Kuczala, and David Arky, as well as some newer photographers they have not worked with yet. One photographer’s portfolio they mentioned, in particular, was Reno, NV photographer, Jamie Kingham. They enjoyed his travel brand narrative project for Jeep and also spoke about the aesthetic of his Reno eNVy project.
Meli speaks to Michael Wichita and a team of creatives at AARP.
We packed up and hustled over to United Way, arriving thirty minutes early, thanks to my superior driving. We sat down with Juan Torres and Ayana Jackson to discuss their 2017 marketing plan which featured a much more rugged approach, a relatively progressive shift from previous campaigns.
They were particularly intrigued by Gary S. Chapman’s work with NPO’s in foreign countries:
Finally, we ended up at SmithGifford, an agency in Virginia complete with a pool table and a dog and/or wolf named Rumble.
While we have worked with Bill Cutter and his team on previous projects they were excited to see a few of our newer photographers.
After our meeting with SmithGifford, it was time to head on home. We packed up our bright blue Toyota Rav-4 and bid D.C. adieu. Thank you, D.C. for treating us well!
Pat, Rachel, and Meli take a final selfie before the ride back home. Great work team!
Another successful portfolio event for us and can’t wait to go back!
Need help getting your portfolio in front of dream clients? Reach out!