BoothCon 2017 Retrospective

It's hard to believe but it's already 1 month since Australia's first photo booth expo, BoothCon, finished up!

As I write this I am knee deep in the process of vetting suitable venues for BoothCon 2018 along with the day to day running of my other businesses and juggling my 2 daughters who I am lucky to look after at home two days a week when they don't go to daycare (no one ever said being an entrepreneur was easy!). However despite being time poor I wanted to sit down today and finally take stock of how BoothCon went and how it was received by the 129 photo booth industry colleagues, 15 exhibitors and 12 speakers who attended.

As the organiser of BoothCon when I made the decision way back in Feb/Mar 2016 to tackle this project I knew it was going to be an uphill battle to get it off the ground. Not because people in the industry didn't want BoothCon but because everyone was sitting back and waiting to see if it was going to be worthwhile before jumping on board. Those brave souls who were the first to put their money on the table and commit to Sponsoring like The Wilkes Booth Co (me included via my businesses Photobooth Finder and Booth Cover) or the first exhibitors like JADavey/DNP along with our earlybird ticket purchasers really showed amazing faith in me and what I was trying to achieve. That support helped me a lot especially during those "Winter" months when one important potential sponsor/exhibitor's untimely decision to pull back on their commitment had me worried I wouldn't be able to cover costs. In the end Spring brightened things up and all of a sudden there was not just a buzz but 15 exhibitors and new sponsors who along with a bunch of ticket purchasers had BoothCon racing towards success.

The event itself was more than I could have hoped for in terms of how well it went and especially how it was received by everyone (Check out testimonials HERE). The Seminars all ran on time, all the speakers turned and up did a brilliant job of imparting valuable actionable information to all the attendees. The exhibitors were all set up and ready and brought their A game and really showed off the amazing products and services they have to offer the local Australian photo booth industry. Attendees all networked and socialised like they all knew each other and that really is a testament to the close knit community that has been created on Facebook over the past 12 months where most everyone is happy to help or give advice. I found that aspect particularly brilliant! 

Do I think we Raised the Bar on the industry?

Simple answer is yes I do. I think by sharing so much valuable information from the industries best we absolutely have raised the bar. Have we raised it for everyone? No we haven't but then the 129 industry colleagues that were present only represent less than 10% of the entire Australian photo booth industry. So the idea of raising the bar is an ongoing project but BoothCon is now well placed to spread the good word (no religious affiliation intended!) and effect change on the wider industry in the coming years.

Obviously no first year event gets it all 100% right but the beauty of that is that thanks to everyone's constructive feedback I can go away and tweak things and come back in 2018 with not just a bigger BoothCon but a better BoothCon and I know I am not the only one excited by that! Only thing to work out now is whether it will be in Sydney or Melbourne but you can expect an announcement very soon!.

Sign up to the BoothCon newsletter via the BoothCon website and join us on the Facebook group and stay tuned.

Happy Boothin!

Want more BoothCon blogs? Click here for the original announcement for BoothCon.

Disclaimer: While every caution has been taken to provide readers with most accurate information and honest analysis, please use your discretion before taking any decisions based on the information in this blog. Author will not compensate you in any way whatsoever if you ever happen to suffer a loss/inconvenience/damage because of/while making use of information in this blog.

(Photo Booth Blogger: Justin Jowett)