I bounced around quite a bit glad-handing prospective clients, sharing portfolios, and connecting with members in June. To kick the month off, I crammed myself onto one of the smallest planes I’ve flown on in years, so small that the flight attendant had to balance the aircraft before take-off by asking a passenger in the back to move closer to the front (that’s one way to get preferred seating). It was totally worth the hair-raising experience – flying into Milwaukee, on the shores of the vast Lake Michigan, was amazing. Unfortunately, I didn’t have much time for sightseeing as my first meeting with a senior art buyer at Cramer-Krasselt was scheduled for shortly after my arrival.
The CK offices are in Milwaukee’s historic “3rd Ward,” which is a backlot/standing set of a neighborhood that is easily confused for parts of SoHo – it would be a great location for an automotive shoot! After navigating my way through the charming brick warehouses and cobblestone streets, I checked in and sat down with my contact. I then walked her through a presentation of our website’s functionality and our team’s capabilities and explained all of the different ways CK and their clients could benefit from Wonderful Machine’s support. After a well-received presentation, we exchanged war stories about tricky clients, outrageous retouching, and the challenges of integrated production.
Before I hung it up for the day, I grabbed a quick bite to eat just down the street at Milwaukee Public Market, consuming a respectable amount of cheese and beer. I was in Milwaukee after all! Over the next few days, I had similar meetings at Kohler and Bader Rutter, and snuck in the opportunity to meet with two of our amazing Milwaukee-based shooters, Kat Schleicher and Sara Stathas (thanks for the thank you note, Sara!) over a few enormous beers at a beer garden in Hoyt Park. I always enjoy connecting with our members and prospective clients face-to-face.
After flying back to Philly in an even smaller rattletrap and kissing the tarmac when we arrived, Julia helped me line up two more meetings at Visit Philly and Drexel University School of Law to spread the Wonderful Machine “gospel.” Like the Milwaukee meetings, when we visited the Visit Philly office in Philly, we walked through the site functionality and our capabilities, though the focus was mostly on local and regional photographers’ work. At Drexel, we shared a dozen member portfolios with the creative director there, who has seemingly worked at every notable agency from Boston to Philly throughout his career. Though they have an obvious need for photography locally, they also commission alumni portraits and projects across the country and were keen to explore the portfolios we brought along and browse the photographer directory. He was also generous enough to put us in touch with the visual assets manager for the university at large, whose visual content needs are quite a bit more substantial than his own – we’re eager to see what comes of that!
Have questions about how we promote our photographers? Check out our Membership page. Want to know how you can get the most out of your Wonderful Machine membership? Check out our Jumpstart page or just reach out!