Studio NSFW wrote:
Sounds like it would have been a slightly productive trip, even if I would have to go to Vegas for it- but I’m booked a bit too far away the same days...

To be honest, I haven't attended WPPI for the past few years,
Before Scott Kelby's company took it over it was a HUGE convention held at MGM Grand.
The expo alone had over 350 booths, ranging from small mom and pop to the huge companies that everyone knows.
I would spend all three days at the expo and still not see it all.

After Kelby took over the expo vendors dropped drastically.  The last time I went (pre covid) there were less than 50 vendors.  I spent more time walking from the parking lot to the Mirage convention hall than I spent actually at the expo.  This year is supposed to have about 100 vendors, which still is nothing like the attendees pre-Kelby.

The rest of the convention (classes, workshops) to me is worthless. 
Several years ago I got free passes to the whole event.  I attended a portraiture class, which basically was an infomercial for some overpriced Wescott light wand.  I attended one other class and walked out halfway through it.  It too was nothing but an infomercial selling instructional DVDs from a well known photographer.

It really infuriated me that people were spending close to a grand and more just for the admission to the convention... not including travel or room, only to watch informercials.

So no, I don't and haven't endorsed WPPI, but there's still a lot of people that go so was just wondering.
This will be the first time I'm attending the Expo in about 5 years, despite the fact I live less than 15 minutes away from it (and my studio was about 1 mile from it), and am only doing it because a cute female friend wants me to go with her.

Shot By Adam wrote:
... they thought that the slot would be better suited to one of their show sponsors.

One of the classic stories as to why I don't recommend WPPI falls along those lines and was briefly mentioned in my previous reply.

Wescott used to have a few booths at the expo.  One of them was explicitly to promote their flourescent light wand.

The portrait 'class' that I attended briefly mentioned the light wand at first, then started mentioning it more and more, and by the end of the 'class' it was mentioned every other word, pretty much a classic brainwashing technique.

Then they made the advertisement.  To paraphrase it "The light wand is normally $800 but if you act today and purchase one from an authorized vendor in the Expo you'll save $200".  They were encouraged to purchase a few of them.

The lemmings lined up to buy one.  I doubt they ever used it after buying one.

A year or two later they came out with a "new and improved" LED version.  Now their pitch changed to include "the older models are great but the newest versions are really much better and is something you really need!"

Again the lemmings lined up ready to fork over the green in their hands.

BTW, many hardware stores and mechanic supply places sell extremely similar things for hundreds of dollars less.  They can be had for less than $80 at places like Home Depot and $50 at Harbor Freight... (but they won't have the Wescott label on them).

SayCheeZ!  wrote:
One of the classic stories as to why I don't recommend WPPI falls along those lines and was briefly mentioned in my previous reply.

Wescott used to have a few booths at the expo.  One of them was explicitly to promote their flourescent light wand.

The portrait 'class' that I attended briefly mentioned the light wand at first, then started mentioning it more and more, and by the end of the 'class' it was mentioned every other word, pretty much a classic brainwashing technique.

Then they made the advertisement.  To paraphrase it "The light wand is normally $800 but if you act today and purchase one from an authorized vendor in the Expo you'll save $200".  They were encouraged to purchase a few of them.

I would swear I was in the room with you during this. I tell the identical story to people. The Ice Light. I've been shooting sales-pitch seminars for 25 years. It was identical to every get-rich-quick type presentation I've ever seen. The entire class was devoted to them selling this $700 wand.

BTW, many hardware stores and mechanic supply places sell extremely similar things for hundreds of dollars less.  They can be had for less than $80 at places like Home Depot and $50 at Harbor Freight... (but they won't have the Wescott label on them).

You can get some that change colors and are bluetooth compatible for less than 100 bucks on Amazon that do the same thing too. It's clever but overpriced. But yeah, I saw that same presentation too.

They kept encouraging me to apply to be one of the speakers there but I stopped when I was told that one of my topics sounded good and they were moving me to the final round of approvals. I never heard back from them and a week before the show last year I contacted them to find out what ever happened (to be honest, I forgot about it) and was told they forgot about me or lost my application or some other such nonsense. I really like teaching and such and have been doing it for a long time but these guys are just total amateur night.