A smashing end to the VOICE2010 conference Saturday evening, but one that still leaves you saying, “…where did the time go?…”

Joe Cipriano hosted an incredible panel of the top Promo VO professionals in SoCal, including Stew Herrera, Ashton Smith, Rino Romano, Sylvia Villagran, and Scott Rummel.

Then, a poolside mixer occupied many of us for the rest of the afternoon until cocktails were served pre-banquet.

The picture and video-taking reached a fever-pitch today…most people realizing they had neglected to capture the moments or the people they’d hoped to earlier. I was no exception, especially in the moments before the banquet opened the doors.

I hope most people will post their VOICE2010 photo albums online.  I know I appeared in many pics, but did not always have my cam available to take the same opportunity.  James Alburger mentioned arranging for a repository of pics, but I’m not sure that’s going to be available at no cost.  His professional photographer, CC, was prolific and tops in getting pics, but I’m similarly unaware if those photos will be available freely.

Zurek at VU is beginning an album of his pics HERE.   I suspect John Florian at VoiceOverXtra may attempt a similar effort.

I’m posting about 500 pics I took at my new SocialMediaVO site HERE.  They’re displayed in an easy-to-use Flash Player interface.  I wasn’t everywhere, but I got a few good shots.

The evening included a fine meal, great company, and lively conversation.

The program kicked off with a nice summary of progress on the Don la Fontaine VO Lab from Joe Cipriano finishing with an appreciation of George Whittam for his tireless work on the facility, which is nearly done.

Following that, Zurek was called up to pass the torch for best VO community-building to VoiceOverXtra’s John Florian.  Yay John!  So deserving!

Next to take the stage was none other than voice-acting legend June Foray…the original voice of Rocky the Squirrel in the Rocky and Bullwinkle show.  June is 92, very sharp, and still working.  She was assisted by Bob Bergen who made it clear he thought it was an outrage that June had been snubbed by Sony pictures in their plans to produce a new Smurfs movie without even so much as asking June to appear in it.  June was also known to be the voice on The Smurfs as Jokey Smurf and Mother Nature.

Hence, I’ve already launched a FaceBook page to get a groundswell of support to prompt Sony to reconsider.  Click HERE to see the Smurf Justice for June Foray FaceBook page.

Finally, Rob Paulsen and Maurice LaMarche of “Pinky and the Brain” rounded out the night to talk about their escapades — not only on that show, but on others, like Animaniacs.

Dancing and more talk all around the property brought the night to a close…hey, whadya expect… we’re all in the business of talking!

Most of the attendees planned to leave the next morning…many of them very early…so it’s understandable that they’d want to turn in early, but there was reluctance on everyone’s part to say goodbye.

I continue to add stuff to the SocialMediaVO.com website, so I hope people will visit in the weeks and months ahead, and take advantage of all the info Terry Daniel and I contributed to the site.

Let me offer a huge thanks to James and Penny for including me in the program again this year, and to all my colleagues who were so gracious in seeking me out in conversation during the event.

Once again, I’m sure there were people I did not get to talk to whom I will regret missing once I realize it.  My apologies. Ohers whom I promised to write, or with whom I exchanged business cards…please keep in contact.  Networking is THE primary advantage of conclaves like this.

CourVO

For less than 24 hours, I left the VOICE2010 conference for the best of reasons: my middle daughter’s HS graduation in Las Vegas.  Some told me they thought I was being a good dad by making that decision.  Here I thought I was a lousy dad for even being in LA on a graduation weekend.  Yes, I was at her graduation, but I missed some of the context and the nuance of the weekend event by being at VOICE.

Luckily, my daughter seemed fine with it all, and I WAS able to share the important moments well enough.

When I walked back in the door at the Century Hyatt Plaza the next morning at 9am after a quick turn around of SW Airlines flights, I honestly wondered if I had been gone (??) at all.  Strangely confusing, but not all bad.

The rash of Saturday seminars are excellent, and I was back in the swing of introducing the presenters, and trying to get around to talk to all of the amazing attendees from whom I can learn so much.

As I’m here blogging, I’m sitting in on the “VO in the Trenches” panel with the likes of Philip Banks, Bobbin Beam, Bob Souer, Zurek, Janet Ault, DB Cooper, and hosted by the acerbic John Taylor.  The information is golden… these are salt-of-the-earth working voice-actors…some are union, some are not, some have agents, some do not…but they are all full-time, working professional voice actors sustaining themselves and in some cases, even their families with their VO work.

The talk was of marketing, and cold-calls, and the value of Pay-2-play sites …what value Fi-Core, finding your niche, follow-up, demos…yes the topics were far and wide, and the advice was imminently usable.

Were you to consider buying the DVD recording of VOICE2010, this session alone would be worth the price.

Yet to come:  Joe Cipriano’s panel on promo’s…but it was oh-s0-much-more in 2008.  In fact THAT was the session that gave me more impetus than any other almost two years ago.

More later on Joe and a few more observations in general coming up later.

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Pat Fraley’s General Session Presentation on this first day of the VOICE2010 conference promised a “mystery” celebrity guest, and it was Brad Garrett, TV star of “Everybody Loves Raymond” and the voice behind may animated characters.  Brad began as a stand-up comedian, and has a host of film credits as well.

Pat’s presentation was on the topic of comedic timing, and having Brad there for the entire hour-and-a-half was the perfect complement to Pat’s impeccable instructional insights.  In other words, the whole session was hilarious!

Brad was gracious in meeting many of the attendees and having his picture taken with many.

The rest of the morning and afternoon was filled with sessions by experts who know the business in one way or another, and shared information in their niche area of expertise.

Deb Munro delivered her presentation on the advantages of using online tools in  your VO business, fittingly, on SKYPE from her studio in Vancouver, CA.

I sat in on several other sessions, as well as introduced the speakers in sessions all day.

One of the more candid and useful seminars came from Erik Sheppard, a NYC-based talent and agent who did not mince his words talking about the common (and frustrating) mistakes VO talent do when submitting or relating to possible clients.

And, Marc Cashman, LA-based talent and producer had a wonderful presentation on “taking it to the next level”.

I didn’t get to see much of it, but home studio master Dan Lenard had a rapt audience for his session on making sense of a quality home studio at an affordable price.

Now you might understand why I say this is where the VO rubber meets the road.

There’s no success in ANY endeavour without practice, know-how, consistency, and attention to detail.  Attendees got an earful today!

CourvO

VOICE2010′s lofty goals are: Education, Networking, Technology.

Tonite, at the opening Red Carpet Reception, Networking took center stage.

That’s me on the left with co-host Bobbin Beam kicking off the program.

For 3 solid hours, people just talked and mingled and talked and introduced themselves and talked and laughed and talked some more.

People whom I consider to be giants in this business were there: Pat Fraley and Joe Cipriano and Paul Pape.

I am humbled to be a part of such a vibrant, supportive, giving community of artists.

Then, Thursday, the fun REALLY starts.

My thanks to Greg Takizawa for posting the above picture n FaceBook.

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Staffers, producers, and volunteers gathered in a Penthouse suite late Wednesday afternoon to celebrate the upcoming VOICE2010 event.

Much work has gone into the planning and implementation of this conference.  The lot of us took a few minutes to raise a glass of bubbly and acknowledge the dedication that it takes to pull off an event of this magnitude.

Now, off to the Red Carpet Reception!

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More photos later!

James and Penny with the event manager, Connie Mustang

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The drive in from Vegas was nice, and before I knew it, there I was standing in line to check in at the Hyatt Regency Plaza, and recognizing the guy in front of me was Andy Boyns, all the way from Istanbul, Turkey!

From there it was downstairs to deliver the SaVoa promotional stuff I brought to the SaVoa booth.  Dan Lenard helped with that (he already had the SaVoa banner hung in our booth).

James Alburger and Penny Abshire were there setting up their booth, and going through registration, I met all sorts of people I know:  Jodi Krangle, Dave Kaplan, Leslie Diamond, Curt Byk, etc., etc., etc.

This is the way it’s going to be for the next few days.  My face already hurts from smiling.

(top) Dave C, James Alburger, Penny Abshire

(middle) Dan Lenard, Jodi Krangle, Leslie Diamond

(bottom)  Dave & cohost Bobbin Beam