Dave Courvoisier's Blog

Archive for the ‘Meet-Ups’ Category

Maybe you’ve noticed a fairly-new icon over on the right side of the blog.

FaffCon

‘Old enough to remember the advertising splash 7-Up made with the “Uncola”?  Apparently, when something gets too predictably flavorless, adding an “un” prefix immediately brands the alternative as a welcome rebel.

Hence, the ‘unconference’…the upstart stepchild of mundane meetings.  Not that there’s anything wrong with a conference.  Most of us have likely benefitted in some way from them…but admittedly, the concept is a bit overworked of late.

And it’s more than just the trip to the Vegas convention center for endless walks down the exhibit aisles of NAB or CES or BlogWorld Expo.  There’s the seminars, the teleseminars, and the webinars too.

Sure, we all hanker to rub shoulders with others of our ilk.  After all, virtual liaisons only go so far.  But there MUST be something that moves forward the notion of meet-ups.  ‘Something that’s a bit more organized than a lively conversation over drinks, but a little less stuffy than sitting at a table with a sweaty water pitcher, taking notes on a thin hotel pad.

There is.  THAT’s the unconference.

The Voiceover business has a short history of traditional conferences, but more than holds its own in the area of teleseminars and webinars.  The unconference idea took hold quickly, though, in the backrooms and hallways of VO forum fixture VO-BB.com.

Now it’s grown into a full-bore, headstrong movement with a date, a hotel, a registration, a website, and even a catchy name:  FAFFCON (it has to do with Scotland).

Faffcon, the VO unconference, took on an early character all its own, but has been, is, and will be defining itself right up to and through the event itself.  Voice actor, Comedian, Improv artist, and general gadabout Amy Snively – reflecting the true spiritual essence of an unconference if there ever was one – included all her VO peers from the start in evolving the concept, the website, the tenor, and the parameters of Faffcon.

UnInfo on the UnConference

The official site of Faffcon – http://www.faffcon.com explains much of what this experience will likely be, but as a teaser, here are a few bullet points:

• Faffcon seeks to provide a free-form, encouraging, enabling environment for established and seasoned voice actors.
• Early-on, organizers set an attendance limit of 100.
• The schedule is purposely loosely organized, the topics vaguely categorized, the format arbitrary (remember, it’s an UNconference!)
• Discussions may pop-up and last long, or play-out and dissolve in a short time.
• Faffcon is participant-driven, bring questions you have, give answers when you can.

Faffcon is an Open Space concept “based on the belief that the sum of the expertise of the people in the audience is greater than the sum of expertise of the people on stage.”

You won’t find boring speakers, slide shows, official hand-outs, and an expensive registration. There are no heavy expectations of your participation, and there is no rigid schedule of planned presentations. There is not likely to be a big exhibit hall populated with vendors, salespeople, hangers-on, and free, logo’d ballpoint pens. FaffCon is not forced relationships, uncomfortable liaisons, or pricey mandatory banquets.

One of the early commited contributors – Peter O’Connell puts it thusly: “…the conference will only be as strong as the people who attend because it is the attendees who most often are the presenters and each presentation will be very interactive and extremely participatory.”

Fun, creative, experienced VO souls, gathering spontaneously in their blue jeans and carrying only expectations of a high-level of interaction with their peers.  It’s a rich atmosphere can only spawn some of the best we all have to offer.

The conference is quite inexpensive: an early-bird rate of $149 is good until the end of July.  Of course, you’ll need to find your way there, and for some that may be a distinct cost, as Faffcon is being held in Portland, Oregon at the beautiful brand-new, all suite, Hyatt Place Portland.

You’d do well to register first at the Yahoo Group set up specifically for those hoping to attend. (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/faffcon/).

Registration for the event is on the Faffcon.com website itself:  http://sites.google.com/site/faffconwiki/home/register

CourVO

Sooner or later, I can count on getting a call from just about anybody saying they’re coming to Vegas.

This last weekend, there was a glut.

My friend Mark Johnson, News Anchor at the Boise NBC Affiliate KTVB had an all-expenses paid trip to Vegas to participate in the national finals of a karoake contest (he does Sinatra).  He didn’t make it past the first cut, but we had a fun time partying that evening at mydaughter’s college going-away party.

At the same time, Merlên Hoekstra called. I met Merlên when she was a volunteer at VOICE2008.  She attended VOICE2010 in a lesser role about a month ago, but wanted to make sure to look me up when she was in town.  Merlên lives in France, but has extensive worldly VO experience, including broadcasting in Japan.  She made a point to visit me at the TV station this week.

Just one day later, Randye Kaye sought out a lunch meeting with me.  She was in town with her husband, who I discovered was the brother of a friend I knew from church for many years.  Small world!  They live in Connecticut, and she works at Edge Studio as a coach, while pursuing a successful career in voice-acting in many different niches.

These face-to-face meetups are important.  We voiceactors maintain virtual liaisons with a wide spectrum of characters…and the natural curiosity is to (some day) sit across the table and share the same space over a meal or a game of dominos.  It doesn’t matter what the backdrop is…the important thing is conversation in the same airspace.

I am blessed by rich relationships with interesting people.  I hope I give to them at least as much as they return to me…

CourVO

You’ve probably seen the pictures by now…the smiles, the poses, the general commiseration among friends giddy with the proximity of relationship.

I was there.  I know.  It was special.

The place was small, and a bit noisy…but hey…we’re all talkers.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.  First there was the afternoon, and the rain…a grey colder-by-the-minute wet that prompted a small band of us (Bob Souer, Doug Turkel, and Anthony Mendez) to continually seek refuge in dry places of warmth.

Mind you, every other citizen in NYC with a lousy umbrella was doing the same thing, so this was a challenge.  First there was Katz’ Delicatessen.  Obviously a favorite stop for millions…it felt like there were, indeed, almost that many in the place…but the food was great, and the conversation even better…and no one made us leave for about an hour…even though many glanced our way with full trays and an urgency in their eyes.A quick cab ride in the rain brought us to a more cosmopolitan neighborhood where we found warm and dry seats around a table for a couple more hours.  It was a Starbucks near Broadway and 8th.

Another walk (unable to hail a cab) just at dusk, and with rain changing to big fat fluffly flakes of snow, brought us to the lobby of a hotel where several of our companions were either staying or changing clothes.

John Florian joined us, as did Philip Banks, and eventually Liz de Nesnera and Moe Egan.

In scant minutes, we crossed the street to Boca Chica for a VO-BB pre-party party.  Lee Gordon, the inimitable DB Cooper with husband DeWitt, Peter O’Connell, Pam Tierney, Mary McKitrick, Philip Banks, Mandy Nelson, and (I’m sure I’m forgetting someone) others barely could find the time for food around busy conversation.

Before we knew it, the time was 7pm, and it was off to the party.  Most everything after that was a blur, and somewhere I started losing my voice trying to talk above the din, but the hilites included Erik Sheppard proposing to his fiance…Terry Daniel whining about Minneapolis not getting any respect, and Dave Kaplan handing me a chocolate microphone as a Christmas gift.

I got to meet Roy Yokelson, Dave DeAndrea, Bob Bergen, and other luminaries like Melissa Exelberth, Ron Levine, Diane Havens, Randy Kaye, Trish Basanyi, Stephanie Ciccarelli, Michael Schoen, Tom Dheere and Bobbi Owens.

Again, this is not mean to be an exhaustive list…and any omission is certainly not meant to be a slight…the place was packed with people I admire from top to bottom and as I expected…by the end of the night, my face hurt from smiling.

Too many pictures…not enough room for them all!

Bob Souer and I finally collapsed into our hotel room after dropping-off Dave DeAndrea at the airport.

We looked over some pics, posted some to the VO-BB, and crashed.

What a day!

CourVO

Look, I don’t wanna get ahead of myself, but in about 48 hours, I’m gonna climb onto a big bird and fly to the Big Apple.  The next two days at work will seem extra loooong.

The 2nd Annual NY VoiceOver Mixer is this Saturday night, and that means so many of my virtual friends will become real people…I mean, I’ll finally get a chance for some face time with those who are heretofore lines in an e-mail, or voices on a phone.

That kind of relationship tells you a lot about someone, but sooner or later, ya gotta “seal the deal”.  In other words, there’s nothing like a real meet-up in physical space.

So who reading this is planning to attend?  How will I find you? 

The official RSVP list says some 220 will be there.  Can you imagine THAT many people who TALK for a living, all talking at the same time in the same room?  Too cool!

My guess is, if you aren’t already signed-up, it’s not too late. So join in if there’s a chance at all!

To me, the networking, and the relationships are what this is all about..  I’m having too much fun even thinking about it.  My cup runneth over.

CourVO

  VO friend Erik Sheppard called today to remind me that I need to come to the next big fun-time voiceover mixer in NYC, December 5th.

While I’m busy checking Orbitz and Travelocity, why don’t you mosey on over to THIS site and take a look at the details.

Apparently at the last party, the bar ran out of Schnapps (I keed, I keed).

One of my goals from now on is to start getting some real face-time with all my virtual VO friends.  This may be the perfect kick-off of that dream.

Thanks Erik!

CourVO

Among the Las Vegas Strip’s tall resorts, you could easily miss The Peppermill.  In any other town, the Peppermill would stick out with it’s bright pink and purple neon highlights.  But stuck between the Riviera and the Encore, Peppermill is sort of an anomoly.

Yet, on the day after its 37th anniversary, I met Ron Knight there for lunch. ‘Fitting, I think,  that I’d meet such a venerable voice-actor in such a lasting establishment.

Ron and I actually had almost simultaneous roots in broadcasting.  I preceded him by only one year in attending the KIIS Broadcasting Workshop in Los Angeles in the 70′s.  We both had inauspicious beginnings in small-market radio, but after that, our paths diverged for decades in different vectors of the industry.

I singularly pursued the TV news broadcasting end of things and Ron…well, Ron made waves in many-a-pond/lake/sea.  The voice of Nickleodean, and Disney to name a few… musician, entertainer, voice-actor, audio-engineer, casting agent, Voice Coach, entrepreneur, producer…I’m sure I’ve left out something.

And then our paths converge at the Peppermill.  I for one, wanted to absorb all I could of the conversation.  Ron seemed obliging.  …and did I mention opinionated?  Ron has strong feelings about unions, and agents, and well…most things…not the least of which is how the business has changed over the years.

Our time was fleeting, mostly because I concurred with Ron on almost everything, especially the efficacy of a certain online pay-to-play site that has numbers after the word ‘Voice’.

Ron seems drawn to the Vegas market for reasons many find familiar.  It’s a town of acceptance, opportunity, and rugged individualistic entrepreneurship.  I hope I see a lot more of him here, and that our relationship will bear fruit in many ways.

Thanks, Ron, for taking the time to break some bread and sharing so much with me!

CourVO

See the goings-on at the SAG Foundation party hosted by Joe Cipriano on behalf of Don la Fontaine.

HERE.

Oh, you need to be a member of VoiceOver Universe.

CourVO

Another great reason to make it to the June 2010 conflagration of voice artists in Los Angeles: VoiceOver champ Terry Daniel and I will be presenting on the topic of making Social Networking.work for your VO business.

OK, well, maybe that’s a reason NOT to come.

Nah…Terry’s great, and we’re just a couple of geeks who’ve found some ways to make Twitter and FaceBook work in our favor.

HERE’s the link to the official VOICE2010 site, where sign-ups and early registration are now open.

CourVO

(Everybody-wants-to-be) Joe Cipriano writes to update progress on the party he’s hosting for the late great Don LaFontaine on behalf of the SAG Foundation.

Click “read the rest of this entry” below to see the full report, and click HERE to go to the original invite.

If this wasn’t on a weekday night, I would SO be there.  Maybe you CAN be!

CourVO

Read the rest of this entry »

Joe Cipriano writes to invite:

SAG Foundation is holding a Garden Party Fundraiser to benefit the initiation of a voice-over lab addition to the SAG Actors Center in Hollywood in the name of the guy who started it all:  Don LaFontaine.

Click HERE to see the invite and more details.

CourVO