Dave Courvoisier's Blog

Posts Tagged ‘James Alburger’

A number of my VO friends have already made the flight, and are in SoCal.

The Hotel is ready for the onslaught.

James Alburger and Penny Abshire have overseen the management of about 5.63 million details.

You CAN still register and attend…even just the exhibits…or just for a day!

Bring an extra extension cord…hotels never have enough plug-ins.

I’ll be blogging on behalf of myself, and SaVoa and VoiceOverXtra, so the iPhone will be getting a workout, no doubt!  Be sure to check back here for updates.

The presentation I’ve been working on with Terry Daniel is done.  We’re rarin’ and ready to go!  It’s gonna be fun!  I’ve been working on a website that displays all the information in our presentation and more.  It’ll debut the morning of our talk (Fri 6-4-10).

Can you feel the excitement??!!

CourVO

Actually, when you click on THIS very informative newsletter from VOICE2010 founder James Alburger, you’ll only see 14 reasons…

So, here’s #15:  Friday Morning’s General Session features veteran voice actor Terry Daniel (and me) presenting on the topic of “Leveraging Social Media for Your VoiceOver Business”.  A must see!….and a $7623 value…all included in your registration for VOICE2010  ;-}

Seriously, click on the link to hear the great info James shares.

CourVO

The Society of Accredited Voice Over Artists (SaVoa) began organizing in earnest about the same time James Alburger, Penny Abshire, and Frank Frederick put together the first true convention for voiceover talent: The Voice Over International Creative Experience (VOICE).  Both were the natural progression of an industry coming of age.

VOICE held its first conference in Las Vegas in 2007, its 2nd in 2008 in Los Angeles, and the 3rd is scheduled this June…also in LA.

SaVoa is also steadily growing and gaining members, and for the first time, will be appearing in force at VOICE.

VOICE 2010 is scheduled for the first weekend in June, which puts it roughly 8 weeks away.  As an organization, SaVoa is moving to make its presence known to the attendees at VOICE 2010. This is consistent with its goals, good for its growth, and just smart marketing.

SaVoa is also encouraging members to attend VOICE, and has been working with James Alburger and Penny Abshire  to get the best deal possible for SaVoa members.

From now until April 25th, all SaVoa members are eligible for a 15% discount in the price of attending VOICE 2010.

But wait, there’s more!!!

In order to achieve SaVoa’s goals at VOICE 2010, SaVoa will incur some expenses. SaVoa have a booth for attendees to visit for personal contact with attending SaVOa members, along with small promotional items for all attendees to help promote SaVoa. We need your help to offset those expenses. If would like to donate to the effort, you can make a $20 donation and you will automatically be entered in a drawing – exclusive to SaVoa members only – for one free registration to the entire conference!  Non-SaVoa members are welcome to help in this endeavour by making a donation as well.

The deadline for the $20 drawing is April 15th.  Click on this link: http:// http://www.savoa.org/donate to make your donation. The winner will be announced on the 15th.
After the drawing for the free registration is held on April 15th, if you aren’t the winner, you can use the code SaVoa20 when registering, to apply your $20 donation to your registration fee on top of the 15% discount.  Again, your donation helps defray the cost of SaVoa’s presence at VOICE 2010.

We hope you’ll take advantage of this special pricing. Feel free to contact your SaVoa Advisory Board member if you have any questions, or contact Dave Courvoisier at CourVO@CourVO.com 702-610-6288 or Dan Lenard dansvoice@verizon.net  716-689-8179. If you’ve ALREADY registered for VOICE 2010, and you’re a SaVoa member, please contact us and we’ll make sure you get the discount.

SaVoa members, please see check your recent e-mail from Board Member Thom Wilkins for the special SaVoa member registration codes and links you can use to get your discount.

We’ll see you at VOICE 2010!

CourVO

You’ll be seeing regular notices here about VOICE2010.  I’m a fan.  I’m a host.  I’m a presenter…and yes, I guess that makes me a shill.

Seriously, though, organizers James Alburger and Penny Abshire make this sign-up process as easy as possible, but there ARE certain encouraging deadlines you’ll want to hit that make it worth your while.

Such a deadline is close.

See the reminder below from VOICE2010 rec’d just yesterday.

Uncertain about whether it’s worth it to attend?  Got questions?

Call me.  Seriously.  702-610-6288

CourVO
_________________________

January 31st will be here before you know it!

Save a ton on your registration now by going to www.VOICE 2010.com.

Register now at www.VOICE2010.com.

James Alburger & Penny Abshire
Executive Producers
info@VOICE2010.com

In 2007, 3 enterprising people took on a risky venture and launched the first open-invitation nationwide VoiceOver conference that anyone can remember.

By most accounts it was a huge success (my first and only meeting with Don LaFontaine).  Since it was in Las Vegas, I had access to the entire conference, in fact, I was its Emcee.

A year later, James Alburger and Penny Abshire – now on their own – launched the second VOICE (Voice Over International Creative Experience) in Los Angeles, and again I was lucky enough to be asked to be the host.

Which brings us to VOICE 2010.

The event has a sterling reputation, but there seems to be some lingering misconceptions, and I’d like to chime in on why they are, indeed, MYTHS.

VOICE  MYTH #1

VOICE is just for newbies.

Huh-uh…it’s for everybody, and you’ll see everybody there.  Everybody will have something to offer, and everybody will have something to gain.

It’s true that newbies may have the most to gain by attending, but then again, newbies in VO will see a steep learning curve in everything they do in this business when starting out.

Since networking is one of the three legs supporting the essence of VOICE, you will have a change to rub shoulders with people at all levels of expertise in voiceovers.  Certainly the instructors and presenters are among the more experienced, and really, you’ll find every other level of accomplishment represented…especially if YOU attend.

Forget sleep.  Go to all the mixers and all the scheduled presentations.  Mingle with people you only knew heretofore online.  It’s all about relationship.

VOICE  MYTH #2

VOICE is just a money-making venture.

Look, I haven’t seen James’ and Penny’s balance sheet, but my guess is their margin of profit is pretty thin.  No one would begrudge them returning SOMETHING on their investment… and when you think about it, THEY are the ones sticking their neck out.

In true American style, they take the risk, they reap the benefits.  They have no assurance that hundreds will register and come the many miles, and pay their dues (especially in THIS economy).  Yet there they are, spending the better part of their waking moments for at least one year, investing their own money, spending untold hours, wooing speakers, creating websites, promoting, promoting, scheduling, coaxing, arranging, calling, meeting, planning, and crossing their fingers.

Which brings us to….

VOICE  MYTH #3

VOICE costs too much.

You’ve got to be kidding!  I’m not going to force you to follow the bouncing ball here, but grab a calculator and do some elementary addition.  Sure, go ahead…add up the basic registration cost, the cost of the Hotel room (gorgeous and at a sizeable discount), travel costs, and meals/entertainment. Depending on how far you come, you may be pushing $1000.

Have you looked at how much it costs to spend an hour with the likes of Nancy Wolfson, Pat Fraley, Richard Horvitz, Peter Rofe, Deb Munro, MJ Lallo and others?  Well, they’re all there, they’re all presenting, and it’s all part of your cost of admission…all under one roof.

But here’s the big pay-off.  All those smart, experienced, talented, and approachable people just…usually….hang around.  And any enterprising passionate Voiceover talent would be crazy not to take advantage of the opportunity.  Again, networking is (to me) the biggest advantage of a hoe-down like this.  A chance to meet face-to-face the movers and shakers…the people with the pull, the aces with the answers, the jokers with the juice (OK, maybe I was trying too hard for alliteration).

HONORABLE MENTION MYTH:  Los Angeles is too far. Of course, that depends on where you are, but logically, and as a matter of practicality, it almost HAS to be in LA or NYC to get the caliber of presenters and talent close-at-hand, to be there.  Yes it’s easy on them, and perhaps hard on YOUR pocketbook, but that’s the business side of things that effects the bottom line of risk for a venture like this.  So, why LA, not NYC?  ‘Cause James and Penny are based in SoCal, have the most connections, and the best arrangements there.

(P.S. for the best answer to this question, ask Andy Boyns, who is determined to travel from Istanbul, Turkey for VOICE).
___________________________________________________

I’ve tried to present these arguments even-handedly…but disclaimer:  I am again helping to host this event, and I’m even a presenter this time….so I have a vested interest in all this.  But really, I just bristle when I hear mention of the above 3 myths.

Myths tend to have their root in loose tongues and fast facts…but honestly, there’s not a shred of truth to any of these.

Click on the above logo today, and reserve your spot.  I swear, you will never regret it!

CourVO

Cyber Monday is here, and some pretty special offers from a few of VO’s best are certainly worth considering:

VOICE2010.  It’s gonna be here before you know it!  The other thing you know:  budgets are tight…that’s why you should really look at this one-day offer from James Alburger and Penny Abshire.  Browse around the Website…the conference has a pretty incredible line-up of seminars and instructors.  They’re even gonna let me and Terry Daniel do a session on Social Networking.

Also, the following specials are courtesy of Julie Williams, and her helpful “VO Things of Interest” Newsletter

VOCareer.com is offering $100 off a demo. (Regularly $700-$900)Click HERE. Or go to http://www.vocareer.com/home/Demos.php

Deb Munro is offering several discounts, including, $25 off private coaching sessions, , and $50 off her Creating Voices home study course. Contact Deb at chantidm@telusplanet.net.

Julie Williams is offering $50 off How To Make Money in Voice-Overs Even If You Don’t Live in N.Y. or L.A.  Email julie@voice-overs.com

Rob Sciglimpaglia will offer a free legal info mp3. Email Rob at robscig@usa.net

Visit Julie’s free forum at www.voice-overs.com/forum

CourVO

…You can hear it in a teleseminar with James Alburger and Penny Abshire later this month.

Zurek is the visionary who launched VoiceOver Universe, and is quite an accomplished Voice Actor in his own right.

As James & Penny note:  “we secretly think he never sleeps”.

There’d be much to learn in this session, I’m sure.

Click HERE to learn where and when.

CourVO

Still eight months out, but already starting to get pretty stoked about the upcoming VOICE2010 conference being held in LA by James Alburger and Penny Abshire.

Today, they released the slate of presenters, along with the schedule of the conference.  You’ll note that Terry Daniel and I are the General Session presenters Friday morning on the topic of Social Networking.

Click HERE to see the matrix of presenters and days/times.  You will not want to miss this event…the talent, resources, and networking possibilities will boost your VO career in ways you never imagined.

C ya there!

CourVO

James Alburger and Penny Abshire today threw open the doors of the next in their series of highly-succesful Voice Talent confabs.

VOICE 2010 will be held June 2-5 at the Century Plaza Hyatt Regency Hotel in Los Angeles…and YOU’RE invited.  In fact, YOU MUST COME!

If you’ve been to VOICE 2007 or 2008, you know how valuable is the experience of networking with your peers, and the advantage of rubbing shoulders with the presenters and professionals who gather at such events.

Why wasn’t there a VOICE 2009?  ‘Cause they’ve been working incredibly hard to make sure ’2010′ is JUST THAT MUCH BETTER.  (these things are tough to organize!)

Yes, there’s the expense of the conference, not to mention the travel…but every soul who’s been to either of the previous events would tell you it’s well worth it…IF you can get them to come down from walking on air!

I know this blog sounds a bit “cheerleader-ish”, so bear with me…I’m gonna be there as a host, and I’d love to see you there!  Please consider it.  Click HERE to see all the details of how to register, and reserve your room.

CourVO

James Alburger has landed on Twitter with a profile for VOICE 2010….named…appropriately: @VOICE2010.

I highly recommmend you following this profile:  http://www.twitter.com/VOICE2010 for all the extra-latest info leading up to next June’s next big VOICE event.

…and there’s always the VOICE 2010 website for the complete facts.  HERE.

Nice going, James!

CourVO