London Calling

Last week we held our first regional training outside of North America. Our destination was London, England and home to a handful of current ExpressDigital users and the potential for many more. Regional training was sponsored by our newly appointed dealer Photomart http://www.photomart.co.uk/ the UK’s largest professional photographer supplier. It is estimated that the UK has approximately 15,000 professional photographers, of which nearly half work less than full-time. Eventing – the name given to the business of event photography in the UK is the fastest growing segment, as it once was here in the states. New photo entrepreneurs are entering the professional photography industry attracted by the unique combination of business opportunity and creativity. In short – a really fun way to make money!

During my visit, I got a chance to meet many of our existing customers and discover the creative and profitable ways they are using ExpressDigital software to help grow their business. At the event, I met Keith Trainor, named the 2005 Event Photographer of the Year as awarded by the Master Photographers Association. I learned that he has been traveling across the UK speaking about eventing and the software, equipment, supplies and techniques he uses. You can check out his website at http://www.eventportraits.co.uk/. He is a great asset to our industry and is a driving force for eventing in the UK.

I want to thank Photomart and their staff for a great event and also thank our representative, Bryan Osborne for helping get ExpressDigital products and services over in the UK market. Without his leadership we would still be just thinking about it. Much more to come for the UK as we follow-up Darkroom’s introduction there with a localized version of PhotoReflect.com and connect them all to pro labs using our Labtricity network. Our Photoreflect.com service will allow UK photographers to post and sell 24/7 and more importantly transact and get paid in the local currency (either the British Pound or Euro). Establishment of some local UK labs is already in process and soon enough the entire pro photographer eco-system that has become the standard here in North America will soon take hold overseas. We look forward to more expansion and fulfilling the demand of digital photographers to efficiently manage their workflow and make more money.

Cheers!