Photography Lectures / Guest Speakers

[-Rob-]

I am the Treasurer of my local Photographic Society and at the moment I’m in the process of pulling together the budget for next season and something we’d like to put on the syllabus are a couple of high profile guest speakers. One of the names that is in the process of being lined up is Colin Prior (http://www.colinprior.co.uk) who a lot of you will of heard of for his landscapes and particularly his calendars. Now obviously Colin comes at a price and not the kind of price that fits easily in to our usual shoestring budget.

Now I need to make it clear that I’m NOT advertising this lecture for ticket sales but I would be interested in getting opinions on how popular a speaker like this would be to local photographers if it were to be advertised to non club members for a charge of say £5 or £10. The only way we could afford to get a speaker of Colin calibre would be to hire a good sized venue and to sell tickets for it but obviously we run the risk of not selling enough tickets and having to foot the even bigger bill of the speaker plus the venue hire.

So, hypothetically speaking, if a speaker like Colin was to make an appearance at a venue local to you would you potentially spend £5 or £10 on hearing him talk about his photography and his experiences for a couple of hours?

 

[BazEP]

Read your post and thought - ooh I've heard of him - got as far as google before looking up at my calendar...

It would depend on the subject, duration etc but I reckon I'd pay a wee bit more tbh.

 

[AlfyB]

Agree with BazEP, if it was at a time that worked for me, probably a weekend, I'd probably be willing to pay a bit more than £10.

 

[stevewestern]

Assuming it was close enough to me then yes, without a doubt.
As above, a tenner is not a lot for someone who is very likely to teach a lot of us something new, so I too would be happy to pay a bit more. Good luck with it !

 

[Photodiva]

I voted for £5 (cos I don't know that much about him). If your club doesn't have enough regular members to cover the costs, then have you considered advertising this event to other local camera clubs? Flyers in the library (if it hasn't closed down!) or council offices might also attract some new outsiders.

 

[-Rob-]

I voted for £5 (cos I don't know that much about him). If your club doesn't have enough regular members to cover the costs, then have you considered advertising this event to other local camera clubs? Flyers in the library (if it hasn't closed down!) or council offices might also attract some new outsiders.

We have about 75 members at the moment so we'll allocate about £5 per member from the annual membership fees towards this lecture and hope to fund the rest of it through ticket sales to members of other clubs and other people interested photographers in the area. We'll advertise at the local college, camera shops, the local rag, Facebook and if it's allowed we'll put a post up on here and other similar forums.

Nothing is booked yet and no dates are decided so don't go saving up for your tickets just yet.

 

[-Rob-]

Little bump for anyone who fancies helping me out with a vote or an opinion on this.

 

[Bucketp]

I have paid £6 pounds to go and listen to Joe Cornish next month, this was advertised by another camera club through our own. Im really looking forward to it. So yes I think £10 is good value.

 

[-Rob-]

Thanks William.

Just out of interest, what camera club is it that's running the Joe Cornish lecture?

 

[hepburn]

.

 

[Bucketp]

Thanks William.

Just out of interest, what camera club is it that's running the Joe Cornish lecture?

It's the Penicuik club and it's on 17th march I'll try and dig out the guys email who is organising it.

Sent from my iPhone using TP Forums

 

[EdMoss]

Never heard of him until 2 minutes ago, but if he's popular in certain circles then why not pay.
Just to put things into perspective, I've been to loads of talks, here is a list of prices I've paid.

Martin Parr freex5
Eamon Mcabe free
Don Mccullin £10
Steve Mccurry free
Dennis Thorpe free

I would happily pay £5 or £10 if it was someone I was interested in seeing.

 

[david357]

I'd happily pay and travel to Preston to listen to a Colin Prior lecture (or any other photogragher whose work I liked), so good luck with the planning.