faffcon in portland, oregon – “only experienced voiceover talent need apply”

I am going to introduce you to an entirely new conference (or more properly unconference) for experienced voice over talent.

It’s called Faffcon.

Yes, I am serious, that’s the name and if you want to know all about it in detail, visit here.

I am a contributor to this event – in knowledge only and do not benefit financially at all from it. I am also a full proponent of it and if you can, I think you should attend Faffcon. If you are one of the first 25 to register for the first Faffcon in Portland, Oregon on September 11-12, 2010, you will save $25 on the already amazingly low registration fee.

If I may be so egotistically bombastic (why would today be any different, right?) as to quote myself from the Faffcon FAQ page, I shall describe Faffcon thusly:

What is FaffCon?

FaffCon is an unconference for established voice over talents who encourage each other to actively learn, teach and share performance and business experiences for the benefit of everyone in attendance.

It’s an informal yet informative conclave of some of the brightest minds and talents that voice over has to offer where voice actors learn through conversations with each other.

Topics covered at FaffCon will be decided on by the participants – sometimes there will be discussion leaders who have more experience on a particular subject who help lead a discussion and sometimes there will simply be a best practices discussion where everybody is welcome to chime in. The group will decide. –Peter K. O’Connell

DIFFERENTIATORS
There are some key points of difference for this conference that I think you should know about. Further, you should know that these differences do NOT make Faffcon more or less important (or better or worse) than any other conference. It’s a big world.

First of all, it’s an unconference – which means the structure is looser (but not non-existent) compared to standard conferences.

Because it’s an unconference, it also means that the conference will only be as strong as the people who attend because it is the attendees who most often are the presenters and each presentation will be very interactive and extremely participatory. If you’ve been to one of the more famous unconferences (a bar camp, podcamp or product camp), Faffcon will be ALOT like that.

EXPERIENCE REQUIRED

The second point of difference is that Faffcon is for experienced voice talent only. If not so much explained, this point certainly needs to be discussed so I’ll offer my two cents.

People who are just starting out in voice over begin (as we all did) with little or no knowledge about performance techniques and styles, technology, marketing or business issues that are so critical to a voice over business. My example would be the difference between getting a high school diploma and getting your Masters degree. People in a Masters program don’t belittle or denigrate the learning that goes on in high school – it’s the necessary step everyone has taken. BUT the teaching, conversations and learning at the Masters level would make a high school student’s head spin.

Or to clarify even better, I will turn to the founder of Faffcon who I think clears it up fairly nicely:

“Are you currently getting paid spendable money by real customers for actual voiceover work? (Not podcasting on your webcam mic, not announcing bakery specials at the market, not DJing an internet radio station.) Do you have a professional voiceover demo and a website? Yes? Good. Come on over!” —Amy Snively

This will be the first in what will likely be a series of Faffcons versus it just being a once a year event, I think. If it goes the way I think it will, other cities will create regional Faffcons or maybe event state Faffcons (just for travel sake I’m guessing – but also not to the exclusion of anyone from around the world who might want to come to, say, Faffcon Oshkosh). But that’s getting waaaay ahead of things – let’s get through the first Faffcon.

I hope you will be a part of it.

What are your thoughts about Faffcon?

3 Responses to “faffcon in portland, oregon – “only experienced voiceover talent need apply””

  1. […] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Peter K. O'Connell, Amy Snively. Amy Snively said: FaffCon: the Voiceover Unconference Portland 2010 on @audioconnell 's awesome voxmarketising blog http://bit.ly/b2vBTR! […]

  2. […] your not sure what it’s all about, I’ll refer you to this post I wrote about Faffcon a while back. I hope you’ll attend. […]

  3. […] OK, so sometimes I forget to hit the edit switch when I come up with an idea that’s going to take a lot of time and effort to put together (effort I got, time not so much). Such was the case when Amy Snively of voice over fame and Faffcon lead sled dog said she needed help and ideas to promote Faffcon. […]