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What are you looking for from speaker proposals, especially from people who haven’t spoken at WPPI before?
We have 10 new speakers this year who have never spoken for us before. They’re a little different from what we normally see. They may be talking about a different aspect of lighting, or a different approach to Photoshop, or right now photographers are very interested in posing and lighting techniques. And, of course, they should address how to make their work stand out from everybody else so that they can continue to do business in this down economy.

What goes into that program description?
There is an outline, essentially, of what they want to teach. Sometimes it’s only five or six lines, and then we ask them for more information. Remember it’s got to fill up a 2-hour class. It has to be a topic about which the person is extremely knowledgeable and a topic that will pique interest, to make the audience want to ask questions. We also check out a potential speaker’s website to see what kind of photographer they are.

Do you think there are topics that are particularly hot-button issues right now, and how do you keep a finger on the pulse of what people who come to WPPI would like to hear more about?
We always send out a survey after the convention. We ask people to critique the classes that they have been to and also to submit topics that they think were missing.

In the big classes, people want to go back to the basics. We have a lot of attendees who have never been professionally schooled in photography. They picked up a digital camera and thought they had a feel for it. They didn’t go to Brooks or RIT. They feel they have a lot to learn in some of the basic areas they may have just skimmed over because they have a good eye.

As I said, posing and lighting are two of the main areas of interest. They also want to learn how to get the picture right in the camera, without having to “fix” the image in postproduction. This year, of course, we’re emphasizing how to keep your studio afloat in this bad economy. We have a whole program track, The Business Institute, which covers that topic, with seven classes specifically addressing marketing.

Are there common problems you see with propositions, or things that are missing that you wish you saw?
You wouldn’t believe the spelling and grammar errors that we see. Someone may have a good idea, but if they don’t communicate it on the page in the right way—it’s like reading a resume that has the kinds of errors that make you unwilling to hire a person. Also, the more detail the better. If you can give us a short description of what you are interested in teaching, and it encapsulates everything that you want to say, that’s fine. But don’t give us two sentences and expect us to expand that into what we envision to be a two-hour program. We’d rather have too much information than not enough.

Are there topics that you just get tons of proposals for every year?
Well, you can only have so many “How to Run a High-end Wedding Studio” classes. Most people are from middle America and they are not interested in doing destination weddings, even though we always have a couple of those. But, especially in this day and age, destination weddings are definitely less of a market than they were a year ago. We get a lot of children’s portraiture proposals. You can only have a few of those as well.

Senior portraiture has become a big area. This year, we have a really interesting class on senior citizens, not just high school seniors. We have photographers who rotate pictures in the community and post them, like at the local library. They do it as a public service, but when you’ve got your name up there, and when people are looking for pictures of their neighbors, they remember who the photographer is.

Do people send in videos of them talking or some presentations they’ve done in the past?
No, not really. We have gotten promotional videos from studios, or a DVD, a resume or marketing materials that give us more of an idea of who they are.

Would you be interested to see a video of someone teaching?
Yes, if it is someone we have not heard of before, absolutely. We have no way to judge who they are. And we do want to know about teaching experience, even if you’re teaching in the community college. We do choose unknown speakers, but it also helps to know if they have a relationship with, say, a better-known photographer. It can’t hurt to include that name in the proposal as well.

How does it work after you’ve taught one class? Are you generally invited back, or do you have to re-apply?
No, everybody puts in a proposal. In fact, we had a couple from last year that came a little late in the game, and said, “Oh, I just thought you would call me.” The only ones we call and ask to teach are our Plus Class instructors. Everybody else submits a proposal. Some of them specifically ask for a Platform class or a MasterClass, but most of the time we end up making that determination.

Can you give us an idea of how many proposals you go through every year?
We have Spanish-speaking classes every year, which is great, and we’re really proud of that, because we do get attendees from all over South America and Mexico. So we probably get 20 just for the six Spanish-speaking classes. We have 100 classes beyond that—I’d say we probably get 250 proposals. We’ll probably start looking at them in April. The process goes through spring to the beginning of summer. And we send out everything to the speakers by the fall. The lineup is pretty much set in stone then, because we start publishing promotional material in September, and registration opens in October or the beginning of November.

Is there a payment for being a speaker?
We do pay for our speakers, although they’re not going to get rich from it. The amount depends on which class you’re teaching. And we also pay a per diem for the day before, the day of, and the day after their classes so as to cover their expenses. And we pay their airfare, up to $500 if they’re out of the country.