A Look Back on 2011: Lessons Learned From the Trenches

January 18th, 2012 by Elizabeth Beskin | Share Blog

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The overall morale in 2011 was higher than it has been for the past three years.  There was hopefulness in the air.  Here at 5^th Avenue Digital, we saw:

•    Companies having summer outings and holiday parties for the first time in years.

•      Advertisers spending marketing dollars on events with consumer interaction and (thankfully) photo capture, for   mementos or social media benefit.

•     The return of corporate incentive trips and large company celebrations.

•      Companies putting money back into their image and deciding to update their employee’s headshots.

•      Business surging once again for the venues and planners we work with.

It seems like everyone is starting to see the economic woes dissipate. The many jobs we were lucky enough to be part of this past year indicate we are on our way, after two years of corporate celebrations being relegated to the back burner.

I’ve worked hard to assemble a team of super-talented photographers, who have captured not only incredible corporate images this year but have also taken our 5^th Avenue Social division to new heights.  We have partnered with a dynamic group of planners and venues and are very excited to share our new portfolios that feature images from their clients’ events.  I am already anticipating the new images we’ll be seeing in the coming months.

 

One of my proudest accomplishments in 2011 is the newest model of the YouBooth photo booth.  The collaborations with our clients have allowed us to introduce the newest technology crazes to their events.  The YouBooth has a new exterior design, plus the most exciting new feature: a social media application that allows guests to upload their photos directly to Twitter, Facebook or email.

This year the YouBooth was proudly used at pop-up store events, holiday parties, mitzvahs, weddings – any occasion where fun was required.  What we love the most is finding creative solutions that maximize each client’s use of the booth.  I owe a special shout-out to my producer, Rylan Crooks, for always finding ways to execute our clients’ unending ideas of how they envision using the YouBooth.

Building a strong business in this economic time is certainly a challenge.  We have watched many of our partners in event planning scale down the past few years, and it’s so comforting to watch them scale back up.  We are very grateful for their trust in us and we treasure these partnerships.

I am also very grateful to my 5^th Avenue Digital team: the amazing group inside the office, Beth, Rylan and Tim, and the photographers, videographers and designers that make our clients their number one priority.  Teamwork and partnerships have been the overall theme in 2011.  Knowing that you have the right people in the ship makes being the captain a joy.  I am grateful every day that I get to work with the team I have, and I would not have been able to double our business this year if it hadn’t been for them.  There have been some rough waters in terms of owning a photography business over the past three years, but it looks like smoother sailing ahead.

Thank you all who have contributed to an amazing 2011.  We will be sharing some of our favorite photographic moments in galleries over the next few weeks.  Here are a few more of my favorites.

Calling All NYC Wedding Planners: Have You Been Scammed Recently?

August 16th, 2011 by Elizabeth Beskin | Share Blog

We’ve learned that there is a woman going around to local high end wedding planners and consulting with them about her dream wedding.  The catch is, after spending quite a bit of time with the planners and receiving detailed proposals from them, she writes bad checks for the deposits and isn’t heard from again.  Clearly she was never intending to go through with the signed contract.
This has happened to at least two planners I work with, and we all feel there must be more planners who have been scammed by this woman.
The part we haven’t been able to figure out is, if this woman is trying to learn how wedding planners do their sales and how they present their contracts, why the need to write a bad check?
Here are some of the consistent specifics she’s presented to the planners:
•    Getting married New Years Eve
•    Two separate venues were mentioned as locations.  In both cases, the “bride” said she was friends with the owner of the venue.
•    Guest list of 250 to 300 people
•    For a meeting with one planner the pseudo-bride brought a “groom” and with another planner she brought her “mom”
One of the planners is considering small claims court for the time invested.  If you have a similar case, please let me know so we can add you to the proceedings.  We want to stop this woman from wasting any more planners’ time!
Thanks to you all for any further information you may have.

Highlights from Special Event

February 8th, 2011 by Elizabeth Beskin | Share Blog

The appeal of Special Event, the annual gathering of movers and shakers in the special event industry, has something to do with going someplace warm every year during the first few weeks of January.  I usually find an inspiring mix of event ideas from the trade show, educational elements and massive doses of networking.  This year’s event was in Phoenix, and though the weather was warmer than home, I didn’t see the sky except for my walk across the street from hotel to convention center.

I got off to a rocky start when my plane from New York was canceled because of frozen lines.  The day was not lost because my fabulous traveling companions, Xocital Gonzalas and Howard Givner, not only quickly rebooked us on a later flight, but kept the conversation engaging and prevented a true travel nightmare. Read the rest of this entry »

What I Learned at Harvard

January 24th, 2011 by Elizabeth Beskin | Share Blog

I’ve been asked over and over what I got out of the three year program at Harvard Business School that i recently completed.  It’s taken me some time to fully absorb and mentally organize my observations, because I learned so much it’s hard to narrow down the experience into one cohesive Blog post.

It’s not just the Harvard program itself bouncing around my brain, but the realization that this program corresponded with one of the world’s worst financial crises since the Great Depression.  I’ll never forget that first year in October 2007, watching the large screens in the communal room as the market fell before our eyes and business as we know it changed.

At that time, I had recently separated my corporate photography business from my original business, so my revenue source was mostly from corporations, and two of my largest clients were Lehman brothers and AIG.  If any of you own a small business, you can imagine what this economic news did to my peace of mind.

At Harvard that first year, I learned about finding opportunities in turmoil.  And there was certainly a lot of turmoil. Read the rest of this entry »

Sustaining Success in a Weak Economy

August 26th, 2010 by Elizabeth Beskin | Share Blog

5th Avenue Digital recently hit its two-year anniversary.  There were no celebrations – we’re too busy working!  But the occasion gave us a reason to pause and think about how far we’ve come in the two years we’ve been operating as our own entity.  I thought our blog readers might be interested in what’s happened since separating 5th Avenue Digital from Sarah Merians Photography, and what we’ve done to keep our business viable in this weak economy.

Over 10 years ago, while still a part of SMP, 5th Avenue Digital started by doing corporate photography, and we continued to focus on this segment after the split.  However, we soon realized we’d need to expand beyond this rather narrow market.  The companies officially separated shortly before the start of the economic meltdown.  Subsequently, the corporate work (particularly with our larger clients, Lehman Brothers and AIG) dwindled drastically.  We knew then that we’d need to regroup, find ways to reach new market segments and develop new offerings, if we were going to survive.
Read the rest of this entry »

Lessons Learned at This Year’s WPO Conference

April 27th, 2010 by Elizabeth Beskin | Share Blog

Once a year I have the privilege of going to the Women Presidents Organization’s annual conference, and it’s usually one of the highlights of my year.  This year’s conference in Ft. Lauderdale was no exception.

It’s not just the keynote speakers and the workshops that make the experience so valuable; it is mostly being a part of the collective energy of 500 smart, successful, honest, hardworking and philanthropic women.   Each woman there has dealt with struggles and successes, and they have such incredible compassion and warmth, I am always astonished at the almost superhuman quality I feel when I return.  Like nothing is impossible!

Here are a few of the pearls I took away from some of the sessions:
Read the rest of this entry »

Results from the Ultimate Engagement

April 8th, 2010 by Elizabeth Beskin | Share Blog

On March 14th, I co-produced an event called the Ultimate Engagement, at Manhattan’s Gotham Hall.  Frequent readers of this blog will know that I created this bridal event with my industry colleague, Maya Kalman, as a way for us to showcase our wedding businesses in a more personalized and targeted format.

Our concept was to give brides a chance to have one-on-one appointments with the masters of the wedding industry.  We put together an impressive group of wedding purveyors, presented in a luxurious venue, along with champagne and hors d’ouevres, informative sessions by wedding industry experts, and trunk shows with high end designers.  It was truly a bridal event like no other.

And I’m happy to report the concept worked!

In addition to being a sponsor of the event, 5th Avenue Digital provided photography coverage – you’ll find a link to the photos below.  We also provided an opportunity to try our new photobooth, complete with bouquet props, courtesy of Diana Gould.  (You can see these photos in our online link as well.)   Plus, we gave brides a chance to meet and see work from two of our top photographers, Julie Skarrett and Robert Evans.

Read the rest of this entry »

A New Year for 5th Avenue Digital

March 1st, 2010 by Elizabeth Beskin | Share Blog

This year marks a new path for us.  Last year was more about…what do we want to be when we grow up?  We did a lot of soul searching, deciding where we fit as a stand-alone company.  In 2010 we are acting on what we learned and rolling out our plans.

This is our first newsletter letting you know all that we’re doing at 5^th Avenue Digital and our sister companies.  Please let us know what you think!  We are always looking for new ideas and ways to improve, and we welcome your input.

5^th Avenue Digital started as an innovator in digital technology, at a time when the world was still using film.  We have taken that spirit of innovation and brought it into our mission, addressing our clients’ changing needs for our products and our services.  This month we are launching our deconstructed photo booth. Read the rest of this entry »

How the Ultimate Engagement Came to be

March 1st, 2010 by Elizabeth Beskin | Share Blog

As an entrepreneur who’s been involved in the wedding industry for over the past 20 years, I’ve never known a more interesting time to come up with a new idea.

Because nothing is the same as it was ten years ago…

Ever since the internet came to be, information is on overload.  There is so much easy access to information from blogs, wedding websites and directories of vendors, most consumers find the choices overwhelming.

I started my career in the photography industry, where brides first started to purchase their wedding services online.  I saw photographers shoot one wedding with their inexpensive cameras, create quickie websites and – voila! – they suddenly became experienced wedding photographers.  Most people couldn’t detect these photographers’ lack of real experience or artistry from their websites.

As an entrepreneur, I noticed that these brides still wanted heirloom albums.  I created Album Boutique to fill that hole in the market and give all brides a chance get a high quality bound album for a reasonable price. Read the rest of this entry »

Gravity Summit-Brand Marketing using Social Media

December 14th, 2009 by Elizabeth Beskin | Share Blog

A few months ago, a new social media friend and business associate asked if I was coming to Boston to go to Gravity Summit, her favorite with social media event of the year,because it focused on brand marketing.  I was unable to make the trip, having just got back home to New York from my first session at Harvard.   Luckily, the event was streamed live on CNN.Live. 

I was glued to my computer far longer than I had time for, as I grasped as much as I could from the masters in this new world of  brand marketing and advertising.  Included were social media branding superstars such as Gary Vaynerchuk, Ramon DeLeon and MC Hammer.  I learned so much from this presentation, that when I recently learned the Gravity Summit was coming to New York City, I was quick to sign up.

The day was packed-full of speakers who look at social media from the perspective of  brand Marketing and advertising.  They examined how people are using social media campaigns to change their businesses, and more importantly, how they are able to track those changes. Read the rest of this entry »