During these hot summer months, we witness an interesting phenomenon: an uptick in calls from mothers who want an album made of their child’s Bar/Bat Mitzvah. Many times this happens because their children are at camp and are sorely missed at home!  For those with children at summer camp, you know that while you are happy they are making friends, learning independence and having fun, you also miss them a lot.

We have found that one of the ways that mothers get over missing their beloved children while they are away is by looking through old photos of them, especially those from family events. You probably have some hastily thrown together photo book of your child’s Bar/Bat Mitzvah, but very likely it is missing some photos or is not very well organized.

Thankfully, we have a solution. You can either meet with us at our 5th Avenue Digital office and we would be happy to help you organize your photos or you can upload your images directly to our sister site www.albumboutique.com and facilitate your album that way.

Following the easy 4-step process outlined below, you can have an amazing keepsake album at home waiting for your child’s return from camp. It’s a great gift, and a perfect way to keep a memory alive forever.

Four Step Album Creation

1.  Separate your pictures into piles: Portraits, Service, Cocktails, Celebration.

2.  Separate these pictures further into piles: child alone, child with mom and dad, child with friends, etc…

3.  Pick favorites from each pile.

4.  Narrow down images to the number you want in your album – most albums have between 50 and 60 images.

It’s that simple.  Shortly after submitting your order, you’ll receive an electronic proof of the album pages, so you can review the design and make any changes. A few weeks after approving the design, your album will arrive! It will make any mother’s heart sing to see their pride and joy in a beautiful and professional photo album.

Here at 5th Avenue Digital we are 100% dedicated to helping you relive memories and moments from the special times in your life.  Give it a try and see for yourself how easy it is to make your memories last a lifetime.

Our concept was to give brides a chance to have one-on-one appointments with the masters of the wedding industry.  We put together an impressive group of wedding purveyors, presented in a luxurious venue, along with champagne and hors d’ouevres, informative sessions by wedding industry experts, and trunk shows with high end designers.  It was truly a bridal event like no other.

And I’m happy to report the concept worked!

In addition to being a sponsor of the event, 5th Avenue Digital provided photography coverage – you’ll find a link to the photos below.  We also provided an opportunity to try our new photobooth, complete with bouquet props, courtesy of Diana Gould.  (You can see these photos in our online link as well.)   Plus, we gave brides a chance to meet and see work from two of our top photographers, Julie Skarrett and Robert Evans.

The fact that it was the worst storm in a decade did not sway our mighty brides from attending.  Here’s what some of the brides had to say about the Ultimate Engagement:

“I love the one-on-one time. It’s so important when you want to hire a vendor; instead of sell, sell it should be about what I want instead. And that’s so NOT part of a bridal show. And bridal shows are always so BRIGHTLY LIT. This is so nice, so inviting.”

“Trade shows are a freakin’ zoo. They’re so crowded, and there’s no seating. There’s all this drama over gift bags. This is just such a lovely atmosphere, such a different experience.”

(From a bride who’s also a doctor): “I haven’t been to a bridal show, but friends have told me about crazy expos – I didn’t want to go. A patient told me about this; she’s always trying to get me into contests, so she sent me to the website. Each of my appointments was really personalized – I talked about what I wanted.”

(From a bride and groom): “It’s great because we get to sit down and tell them what WE want rather than having them just shove what they want to sell at us. It’s not a hard sell. They know what we want first – then they suggest options.”

“It’s so great vs. a regular trade show. It’s one-on-one, with nobody trying to talk over your shoulder.”
“I’ve been here since 9 am! [4:30 pm when I took her comment.] It’s so well-organized – no lines. Being able to talk to the owner is great – it’s really different from having brochures shoved at you.”

Picture galleries:

Here are some of the valuable tips that were offered by our experts during the upstairs sessions.  There will be individual posts about each of their sessions on the Ultimate Engagement blog in the coming weeks.  Feel free to sign up for the blog here:

Bentley Meeker – Bentley Meeker Lighting

•    There’s a primary misconception about light: people think of it just in terms of providing visibility. But it doesn’t just provide visibility – it creates a feeling, it’s artistic. We have all walked into some places and felt, “This is so great!” while thinking, “Hmm, this doesn’t feel so good – let’s go” about other places. Light has an enormous amount to do with it.

Marcy Blum – Marcy Blum Events

•    There is life after the wedding. If you’re mean to your sister-in-law, the groom, etc., they WILL     remember.

•    Don’t take all your bridesmaids with you to shop for a dress. The store doesn’t have room and you’ll get 48 opinions.

Sylvia Weinstock – Sylvia Weinstock Cakes

•    You don’t have to serve anything with the cake (ice cream, etc.).
•    The best clients: those who are neither set in their ways, nor totally without a clue.
•    It’s only a wedding; it’s not a marriage. Don’t fight.

Julie Raimondi – Editor in Chief at brides.com
•    Before looking at dresses, locations, anything – ask yourself, “How do I want it to feel?” rather than “How do I want it to look?” The words you come up with in answer to that first question (e.g., like a nightclub, like my living room, etc.) will inform everything, and do it better than Pantone chips.
•    Even if the church is within walking distance of the reception, provide transportation – get a shuttle bus. Don’t cause the guests angst.
•    Conversations about guests bringing guests (e.g., bringing a boyfriend) should occur before invitations go out. But decisions can be made on a case-by-case basis rather than across the board.

Xocital Gonzalez – Always a Bridesmaid
•    When trying to combine cultures, think, “What ceremony would make me feel married?”  It might be a tea ceremony, jumping over a broom, etc.
•    Sometimes cultures are so different (white wedding dress vs. Indian groom) that ceremonies really can’t be integrated. But there are ways to integrate multiple ceremonies into a single day. For example, separate the two ceremonies by a cocktail party. The bride and groom can even change clothes while the guests have a chance to chat.
•    Food is very important. Through food, a family feels they’re reflected.

Lisa “Ceci” Johnson – Ceci New York Wedding Invitations
•    Don’t be afraid to use color in your invitations. Or to use different colors for different pieces. Color doesn’t cost more; it can be a money-saving effect. Black paper can be beautiful!

•    Keep in mind that a wedding is about what makes you happy; the invitation should make you happy! If it feels good, go with it. You don’t need everyone else’s opinion.
Matt and Tamsen- relationship experts
•    Weddings make men more nervous than proposals. You don’t want to be fighting during the wedding planning. The wedding planning takes a lot longer than the wedding; you want it to be fun. Don’t let the wedding affect your marriage.

•    Keep in mind that the idea that you’re the only woman he’ll be sleeping with for the rest of his life can be a treacherous thought for guys. Bickering before the wedding will make this thought more treacherous.

Wedding Photography Panel– thoughts from several masters
•    Anybody with a camera can take a picture, but not everybody can be a photographer. (Sarah Merians)
•    A wedding is about the people at the wedding – the story. It’s not just about the fashion; it’s not just about the bride. (Terry Gruber)
•    Photography is memories; video is entertainment. (Sarah Merians)

Two things this experience has confirmed for me: bridal events are in need of a change, and vendors are excited to find new ways to connect with their clientele.  Since we plan on creating the Ultimate Engagement again, we are excited to have ideas about how to tweak it and make it even better – come rain or come shine!

Thank you to all the amazing partners in this event, and for all the collective support Maya and I received in putting the Ultimate Engagement together.  From the social media of Square Martini and the PR of 7th Wonder, to all of the amazing staff of Swank Productions and 5th Avenue Digital, this was truly a collective feat.

I have a new-found respect for any producer of events.  I was not expecting the emotional rollercoaster that goes along with the ebbs and flows of fast-paced decision making.  Thank you Maya, for being so masterful at the event part!

To all the wedding masters that took this leap of faith to see if they could connect to brides in a new way, to old friends and new…I thank you for your feedback and am grateful that you are seeing success from your efforts.

Please continue to check out the Ultimate Engagement blog for updates on each of these masters’ and partners’ amazing achievements.  And check the website to get a list of all participating vendors and contact information.

This is our first newsletter letting you know all that we’re doing at 5^th Avenue Digital and our sister companies.  Please let us know what you think!  We are always looking for new ideas and ways to improve, and we welcome your input.

5^th Avenue Digital started as an innovator in digital technology, at a time when the world was still using film.  We have taken that spirit of innovation and brought it into our mission, addressing our clients’ changing needs for our products and our services.  This month we are launching our deconstructed photo booth.

We have seen how the old fashioned photo booths are still hits at parties, but there is so much more you can do now with new technology.  We created a modern photo booth that allows your guests to have fun taking their own pictures, but at the same time offers many more options, such as custom designed prints with logos and branded images.  We have also made the booth accessible to output for A/V connection, when you want to project the images onto a large screen.  This allows all your guests watch the fun at the booth, and encourages everyone to join in.

Our social website is now live: www.5thAvenueDigital.com/social.   Thank you to all of you who allowed us to be part of your social occasions last year, without a website.  We are happy to report we’ve had wonderful feedback from our new business model of representing top talent, and we look forward to sharing some of our new talent’s amazing work.  Some of the photographers 5^th Avenue Digital is currently representing include Robert Evans, Julie Skarratt, Daniel Kruger and others.  We look forward to sharing many happy occasions with you in the coming years.

5^th Avenue Digital is still doing amazing events for the corporate community.  We are well known for our onsite print service and get asked to do all sorts of interesting events.  This month’s favorites were for The North Face and for fashion bloggers during New York fashion week.  Both events brought fun and community-building opportunities to everyone who participated.  You can read more about them on our blog.

There are also many developments with our sister companies.  I’ve created these related businesses because it’s natural for me to see areas of opportunity in the market – holes that need to be filled.  While co-owner at Sarah Merians Photography, I discovered that many people were using freelance photographers but had no place to make beautifully crafted albums.  I launched Album Boutique to fill this hole, to rave reviews.  The website offers high end albums at a third the price of albums offered at traditional photography studios.  This service is an added bonus to our social photography clients, because they are able to seamlessly take the images we provide and make an heirloom-quality album, while taking advantage of the significant savings.

In exploring the right avenues to launch Album Boutique., I went in search of the perfect bridal event to meet my target brides face to face.  I couldn’t find one.  So, along with Maya Kalman of Swank Productions, I came up with Ultimate Engagement. This is an event where brides get to make pre-scheduled appointments with some of the masters in our industry.  On March 14^th, 5^th Avenue Digital will be at the Ultimate Engagement event, representing the work of Robert Evans and Julie Skarratt.  If you have not met either one, I’d love to offer you the chance to come by.  Please contact me if you are interested.

We look forward to sharing more of our clients’ intriguing work in the pages of our Business Behind the Artistry blog – and maybe featuring your work, too.  We are getting a lot of traffic at our blog and will continue to showcase actual events we’ve done, as well as the folks who work on these events, with video interviews and tips from experienced industry leaders.

We hope you will be a part of this community.

If you are new to social media – or even if you consider yourself an expert – we hope you will connect with us in our various social media communities.  I am always happy to answer any questions you may have and love speaking to groups about social media.  I have gotten many clients and friends through my involvement and I’m thrilled to share what I’ve learned.

So jump in and join the conversation!  You can comment on this post, follow me on twitter @elizbeskin and/or sign up as a fan on Facebook.  Have a stupendous March, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Because nothing is the same as it was ten years ago…

Ever since the internet came to be, information is on overload.  There is so much easy access to information from blogs, wedding websites and directories of vendors, most consumers find the choices overwhelming.

I started my career in the photography industry, where brides first started to purchase their wedding services online.  I saw photographers shoot one wedding with their inexpensive cameras, create quickie websites and – voila! – they suddenly became experienced wedding photographers.  Most people couldn’t detect these photographers’ lack of real experience or artistry from their websites.

As an entrepreneur, I noticed that these brides still wanted heirloom albums.  I created Album Boutique to fill that hole in the market and give all brides a chance get a high quality bound album for a reasonable price.

In the course of responding to the changes in the marketplace and creating Album Boutique, I saw a downside in online retail.  It’s that, online, you don’t get a chance to meet the person you’re dealing with face-to-face, or to discover what’s unique about the people you may choose to orchestrate your perfect wedding day.  Everyone’s personality and individual style is reflected in their work, but shopping online you usually miss that.

As the launch approached for Album Boutique, I began to search for a place where brides and grooms could touch the products and learn about the Album Boutique options.  I visited a number of bridal shows but quickly became disillusioned.  The shows I visited were more like cattle calls, and as I wandered around the vibe felt like something right out of reality TV.  I couldn’t find a venue or format that enabled me to present my brand in a warm and civilized manner.

One evening  last year, while I ventured into another so-called ”luxury” bridal event with Maya Kalman from Swank Productions in tow, we looked at each other and knew there had to be a better way.  We could see each other’s creative wheels in motion.

Maya is a wonderful producer of corporate events and beautiful high end weddings. She approached the concept from a producer’s point of view, so her insights were vital to determining its viability.  Over the next few weeks, we continued refining the idea until we recognized that we’d discovered a hole in the market we were uniquely qualified to fill. Together, we knew we had what it took to create something truly exciting.

Maya and I share the same ultimate objective as our many colleagues in the industry: to grow our respective businesses.  We knew if our event could meet this objective for us, it would also be successful for the other vendors involved.  With the support of many friends and colleagues we have worked with over our collective years in the industry, this event is sure to make an impact!

The Ultimate Engagement was created to be everything an upscale bride wants as she prepares for her wedding: a place for ideas, for fashion, for education, and for meeting with the Masters of the New York wedding industry.

This is an event where brides get to make pre-scheduled appointments with some of the masters in our industry.  In addition to showcasing our albums, 5^th Avenue Digital will be at the Ultimate Engagement event, representing the work of Robert Evans and Julie Skarratt.  If you have not met either one, I’d love to offer you the chance to come by.  Please contact me if you are interested.

I hope you’ll join us for the first bridal event to revolutionize the way brides talk to vendors face-to-face, on March 14th at Gotham Hall.

Last year, I had just left the comfort of being a partner in a well established social event photography business, to forge a new direction and venture.  I felt that a Harvard Business School education would fill in the gaps of what I had learned in running my small business for the past 20 years.  Little did I know that while I was at HBS, learning about economics for the first time in my life, the world would be witnessing one of the most significant economic crises in over a generation.

Upon returning from my first three weeks devoted to innovation and seeing opportunity in challenging times, I swam for my life – upstream.  Me, along with all the other event professionals in New York City, who made their living planning and executing events for all those businesses that were suffering.

I may not have had time to reflect on my new found education, but I certainly used it to survive last year.  I made quick turns in our company and went after the opportunities I saw in the market.   Now I’ve taken the time to assimilate what I learned – here’s a quick summary:

•    The corporate photography market had dried up.  However, photography in event marketing was still being used as a way of bringing the brands to the consumers.  I therefore focused our corporate business on photography and technology to target this growing market.  I am proud to say that our event marketing business has continued to grow this year and 5th Avenue Digital is becoming a bigger player in this growing marketplace.

•    After owning one of the most successful social event photography businesses in New York City for over 20 years, I had no desire to make a name for myself in this market again, for many reasons.  However, I saw a number of changes happening in the marketplace that shifted my thinking about getting into social event photography.  With the economic downturn, I saw many potential customers turning to freelance shooters who could better meet their budgets.  I also saw many, many talented photographers not working because they had out-priced themselves in this wedding market segment with limited budgets.  Where there was turmoil, I saw opportunity.   I am now taking this business up a notch by representing some of the top photographic talent in the country, here in New York, much like an agency for the social event market.  We still provide the disk and allow the client to use the images as they wish, but we can provide some of the top social event photographers in the country for a reasonable hourly rate.

•    Should our social event clients choose to make an album, I’ve created a website to help them use their images, where they can create a high end heirloom album.  This was the venture I originally left SMP to build.  Launching the site has been an amazing experience, and I’m happy to say we have made it through the Beta launch and are working toward a robust social media campaign to target the bride and groom that would like a professional digitally designed album at a reasonable price.

•    In the realm of social media, I was given a head start by my friend Ed Monohan at Kodak.   An early morning conversation with Ed convinced me this new medium was worth learning, to help me target the young bride.  I dove in head first and I used this year to build and expand on my knowledge.  Going to conferences and reading books turned into giving lectures and making 16,000 new friends on my social networks.  I will continue to use my love of this new medium to forge new directions for all my ventures.

My brain now thinks differently because of the experience of those first three weeks.  It’s taken me a year to reflect on that knowledge and to see the directions and paths I have chosen because of that experience.

I started off this week planning to reflect on this year’s experience and found that I couldn’t discuss the implementation unit without first discussing the innovation unit.  I can’t wait to go back to HBS.  I miss the friendships, the cultures and complete absorption in expanding my mind.  It has been wonderful to reflect on how I utilized the information received in my first year.

I hope my HBS-OPM friends will share with you some of the innovations they initiated when they returned home last year while the world went through its economic devastation.

What opportunities have you seen in this new paradigm?

Here are a few snippets of my upcoming blog posts:

Harvard Business School – Year Two of my Executive MBA program was crammed with many valuable experiences, inside and outside of the classroom. I learned so much, not only from my professors; I learned important wisdom from my fellow students, about their various cultures and their challenges in running businesses in emerging nations where credit is scarce but successful ventures can thrive.  The idea of sharing all of it in one 500-word blog post seems as impossible a task as the essay my son is working on for college admissions! But I’ll take a stab at the highlights in the next weeks.

Event Marketer’s Summit – For me, 2009 really enabled me to bring together my love of photography and my love of marketing. Fifth Avenue Digital was hired again and again to produce and expedite branding using photography for many Fortune 500 companies. And through those assignments, we have become the “go to” company for that type of branding, even for small businesses and not-for-profits. The technology is vast and the opportunities are limitless!  The Event Marketer’s Summit was inspirational for me as I learned how advertisers are approaching viral marketing. Very exciting stuff and I’m in the process of integrating it even more into Fifth Avenue Digital’s capabilities.

Gravity Summit New York – This impressive conference was geared towards advertising executives who shared their experiences of how they help large and small businesses as well as not-for-profits to effectively use social media. I learned from some of the best in the business about tracking results, contests, consumer interaction and what’s next in Social Media. So exciting to sit in this room and interact with the people who are making this stuff work for them.

The Beta Launch of Album Boutique – The launch has gone very well, as Beta tests go. We found bugs and we fixed bugs. Now, we are ready to begin our marketing campaign. Thanks to all of you who gave us your feedback and placed the orders that allowed us to test the system. Good news: we have extended the Beta test until December 4th so if you haven’t placed an order for the holidays, there’s still time to get a huge discount!

5th Avenue Digital – Your best resource for corporate event photography is now also your best resource for social event photography. We will continue to bring the same approach we have been perfecting for business to the New York wedding market.  We expanded our roster of uniquely talented photographers, adding shooters from around the country who are using technology, angles, lighting and their sheer personality and perspective to differentiate their work from what we are used to seeing in the New York market. They will be available for social events in New York in 2010 – stay tuned for their bios and selected works.

Look for my blog posts in the next few weeks as I share more about what I learned at Harvard Business School, the role of event photography in Viral and Social Marketing, what’s happening with the Album Boutique’s launch, and the announcement of our roster of amazing photographers for New York weddings.

Here’s how Twitter Lists work:

Twitter Lists enable you to segment your community (the people you follow) into categories. Your lists can be whatever you feel defines a group of who you follow.  So, with Twitter Lists, people who visit your profile can see whom you are following in an organized way.

As someone that has a lot of followers, I find the main Twitter feed very hard to navigate.  That’s why I’ve been using TweetDeck for the past year to segment the people I follow into groups.

For example, I follow “event professionals”, “photographers”, “social media folks” and I also have a list of my “top tweeters”.  Now with Twitter Lists. I don’t have to leave Twitter.com to organize my groups in that way.

The best part of this new feature, in my mind, is how Twitter Lists helps you find new followers in subjects that you care about.  If I look at someone’s profile that I admire and see they are mentioned on many lists, I know the list owner has good taste-, and I can choose to follow the same list.  It’s like a Follow Friday referral, but even better.

Here are some of the Twitter Lists titles in my profile:
•    Social Media Folks I Learn From
•    Funniest Tweeters
•    Wedding Bloggers
•    Event Professionals
You can choose to make your Twitter Lists private, but I am one that finds privacy on Twitter to be useless, since the reason you are on Twitter is to do social networking.
Some things to be aware of when starting your own Twitter Lists:

1. Be specific in choosing names for your lists so followers can quickly decide if a list would pertain to them.

2. Be patient: building a list takes time; there is not an easy way to sort your own followers. Don’t worry if your followers are not in your list immediately. And avoid words in your list like best and favorite, so not to offend.

3. Build your lists and your following by checking out the lists where you appear. If someone has included you in a list, see whom else he or she has in his or her lists.

4. Use geography to build lists to help your followers find local info (i.e. NYC Tweeps).

5. Be gracious and thank those that include you on their lists. It means that you have value to them. As with everything on Twitter, it’s nice to engage and build rapport.

6. Hashtags are not as important now. You can use a list instead of a hashtag (#) to follow an ongoing conversation.

7. Twitter Lists may make it easier for vendors, companies and potential consumers to follow and target you. For instance, in my account @AlbumBoutique, I want to reach brides so I am compiling a Twitter List of bridal bloggers. It’s a way of building my credibility as a resource for brides!

8. Twitter Lists help you easily identify what types of people a Twitter user follows. Seeing their lists in the sidebar what is important or useful and this helps with networking. When you see that you have a mutual interest and follow some of the same people it’s easier to start a conversation. Great when you are trying to join a community or connect with a new person.

9. You can see how many lists other Twitter users are on…it’s a popularity gauge. As I write this, I’m on 40 lists but @Mashable is on 8,945!  @Mashable is a great resource for all things Social Media, so it makes sense. But, it’s nice to know that since Thursday, 40 people have included me in their lists!  It is my hope that I can increase that number, because it means that people find value in my tweets.

10. Follow other tweeters’ lists. This feature allows me to look at a stream of conversations and make a decision if it is of interest to me, and moreover, it also gives me a great tool to find new followers. I am actively checking out the Twitter Lists of people who I get value from.