Dyesub event printing and after-event fulfilment

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vibrantcolour

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Hello All,

I'm sure this has probably been asked a million times before, but i did have a flick through and couldn't find anything.


I'm in charge of Media for a large Scout and Guide camp in 2013, and one of the things i'd like to implement this time round is some sort of photo sales capacity.

The event is a week long, and has approx 5000 on site - certainly in previous years, a large quantity of photos have been taken, uploaded to the web and remained there slightly stagnant.

I think both campers and management would welcome the ability for photos to be able to be purchased.

There are 3 main hurdles i can see here:

1. photos would be available to buy on-site, and take home, and we'd like the facility for people to order them afterwards.
On site would probably lend itself to the hire of a decent dye-sub unit, but i'm unsure of how to handle post-event sales.
Ideally, a system where people can order and the photo is automatically printed and dispatched would be great.

2. cost - On the camp, the cost would probably be low, as there would be high volume sales and we want to capture the pocket money market. I understand that post-event sales would probably cost more due to p&p, outside printing etc.

3. cataloguing - my media team will be taking photos throughout the week and uploading to a central server. ideally, a way to link this in to an index that people on camp can search through at a terminal, and the same catalogue can be used to purchase online so uploads dont have to be duplicated.


Hope that makes sense, and i look forward to hearing any ideas.

In addition, if anyone involved in Scouting/Guiding would like to get involved, i would be equally pleased to hear from you!

Thanks

Christopher
 
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I would try a re-post in the business section there are lots of threads covering this. Good luck :)
 
It sounds like you have the picture taking side covered and you only want to address the viewing/printing/sales side of things - correct?

dye-sub is definitely the way to go as you will need the picture to be robust and not smudge as soon as small (or even not-so-small) people get their fingers on them!

it's hard to see how you can get unit cost below £1 a pop, especially if you include rental price

I'm also guessing labour costs won't be an issue - all manned by "volunteers" (press ganged or otherwise)?
 
I will be looking in more detail in 18 months as Mike suggested, however i need a rough idea of costs to budget.

Come across Imagepartner by Colourworld imaging, anyone used this?

And does anyone else other than Systeminsight offer dyesub rental?
 
Photomart in London also rent dyesub printers.

I may be wrong, but I *believe* that the cost for a decent dyesub is around £150ish per day, which means that you'll have to sell an awefull lot of photos at £1 each to cover your costs. There may be cheaper options, and I'm sure the cost of hire for a week is substantially cheaper than the daily rate.

At the risk of sounding negative, have you thought about just who would want to buy, and more importantly, why ?

At these sorts of events everyone wants to be in the photos, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they want to buy them. Also, if you're after the pocket money, then you'll be in competition with the tuck shop and ice cream van, and the youth of today (and, to be fair, yesterday) value their immediate sugar intake above their long term memories.

Are you producing something unique, that the participants can't produce themselves with their own camera's ?

I'm not putting the idea down, but be wary that enthusiasm for having your photo taken and buying that photo afterwards are two very different things.
 
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No, exactly - i value your input - i'm trying to look at costs etc to ensure it'll be feasible.

I also want to go down the group photo route if possible, and we have means of plugging sales via radio, newspaper etc on site.

The other advantage we have is kids are discouraged from bringing expensive electronics such as digital cameras, so the only real competition is leaders cameras, and disposable film cams.

There will be approx 6,000 on site from Saturday-Saturday - a mix of leaders and young people.

Systeminsight are charging £200 ish for one machine - working at £1.50 per 8x6 print, costing 59p each, and minus machine hire costs 200 prints would generate £3000 income, and about £1600 profit.

Is this a reasonable sales figure or am i seriously overestimating - bearing in mind most youngsters bring at least £30 with them to the event, and the commercial services team made a considerable profit in 2008's event.
 
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It's really hard to advise you on this one.. You know the potential better than anyone else.

I would say that perhaps 7x5 would be a better size. There's no reason why you can't stick with the £1.50 price.

Again, I don't know the event at all, but another issue would be access to the photos. How will the people get to see and therefore select and purchase their images ? Will it be via one computer ? If so that'll be an issue.

Could it be organized that each group / chapter / area could be allocated a specific photo viewing time ?

As I said, just throwing ideas in the air as I don't know what's involved.
 
Some good points there. All photos will be going up on the website - so whether we can have a little viewing station with 3 or so computers and little slips in an Argos fashion for people to select from?

And thanks for the headsup, i think by selling cheaply it might evade some of that but still to bear in mind nontheless.
 
vibrantcolour said:
Hello All,
...stuff...
Christopher
Click to expand...

Hah, I can help for sure here...

hey Chris... I wouldn't be surprised if we've met at some point already...

Which one are you working at? KIJ I assume? Well hi...

I'm leading the photo team at charnwood jamboree this summer, and at least working, and hopefully team leading, at EIJ next year, and WINGS in 2014...

I was a on the photo team at NORJAM last year, and video at WINGS 2009... you can see just a small set of my photos from norjam here

How can I help? ;)

My site's here, drop me a line some time, happy to have a chat about it... I've got good IT, image workflow and some my own professional onsite print experience, but short version, there's several pretty useful and essential tools for managing the workflow and photo sales :) And yes, photos can definitely bring money in to media rather than be a cost :)

and you can get away with charging more than £1.50 :)
 
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Damnit - i'm at CamJam this year, albeit on the Radio side of things!

If you've got nothing to do in 2013 then if you want to be involved you're more than welcome! Its Poacher i'm working on.

=)
 
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vibrantcolour said:
Damnit - i'm at CamJam this year, albeit on the Radio side of things!

If you've got nothing to do in 2013 then if you want to be involved you're more than welcome! Its Poacher i'm working on.

=)
Click to expand...

ooh, the plot thickens, I thought they couldn't afford radio this year? :LOL:
 
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No, i'm not. I'd heard that today. Basically it seems like they've been told they can have it if it funds itself, so the lad in charge has been running round like a looney trying to find sponsorship. Fair play to him.

Trying to get ScoutRadio for Poacher but possibly double-booked!
 
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ah ok, interesting :) Yeah, think you'll have to fight KIJ for them :p

either way, drop me an email at some point :)
 
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