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Aside from me having done a little math, few people will likely care that much that I’ve now been a professional voice talent for 40 years.

I’ve been in the voiceover business, getting paid, getting new and repeat clients for 4 decades.

And yes, for you trivia savvy, MTV and I launched in the same year. MTV has made much more money than I have.

But back to my 40th anniversary.

Sure, clients and prospects may like the idea that they are working with someone with 40 years of professional voiceover experience and coming with that, a plethora of voice acting skills. But as for the rest of the world, Peter K. O’Connell’s 40 years as a professional voice actor doesn’t really mean that much.

The anniversary IS important to me but not because of longevity or being self- aggrandizing. The very slight marketing benefit I may enjoy really isn’t cause for celebration either.

What makes me proud to celebrate 40 years in the voiceover business is who got me here. Not me being in the business all this time.

It’s about the support of SO many people, not all of whom could be named here but none of whom are forgotten.

Their help is really the story I want to share here. My failures are mine (and plentiful) but my successes are because of their help.

Thank you God for all of them and all of this.

How did I get to 40rty years in voiceover?

My family first…my saintly wife and glorious kids today (and every day). Certainly my parents, who originally gave me the public speaking and broadcasting genes to start with and then the ability to attend Canisius High School (where I met my video production teacher, video company partner and groomsman at my wedding, Terry Fisher) and then the University of Dayton.

Knowing my interest in broadcasting, my brother Michael connected a junior-in-high-school-me with local radio broadcaster Susan Hunt, who was the morning news anchor at WFXZ-FM. I was able to become an intern with Susan and the program director, Jeff Appleton. What a coup for a sixteen year old broadcasting novice!

I was probably more of a burden to Susan and Jeff than a help – but I was/am grateful for the opportunity. I am still embarrassed to think about how green I was at the time. But by doing the internship at that time, I established what I was told was the first broadcast internship at my high school. I guess that’s something…not sure what.

Let’s see where we go from here.

DAYTON, OH

In 1982, when I started working at the University of Dayton’s student-run, carrier-current radio station, WDCR-AM (now WUDR) and a little while later at their professionally operated 50,000 watt station reaching three states, WVUD-FM (now WYDB), I simply didn’t know how much I didn’t know.

All I knew was that I wanted to work in radio. I still would work in radio if today it was even ½ the business now that it was then, but it’s not. I keep my hand in radio volunteering at an independent Catholic formatted radio station here in Raleigh (Divine Mercy Radio), which is just fine for me.

Before entering UD, I didn’t know John Luttrell who hired me at WDCR (who is now with Cumulus Media in Albany, GA) or Tracy Hurd who was my program director and who is not involved in broadcasting any more. I didn’t know the late Mike McMurray who was the PD at WVUD who hired me or Music Director Sandy Huff-White, who I have been friends with ever since we worked at Hitradio 100.

I had no idea there were other broadcast fanatic people my age until I move into a college apartment with Dan Suffoletto, Ron Alexander and Jeff Wagner. Oh what fun we had.

How about props for my Dad and especially my Mom, who was attending a charity dinner in Buffalo while I was at college, sat with weekend TV sports anchor Clip Smith and, by the end of the dinner, had secured for me an internship at WKBW-TV my first summer back from college.

Back at Dayton, I was working as the afternoon news anchor, then weekday evening DJ, 6-9pm as well as morning host fill-in when the morning man went on vacation.

Speaking of vacations, I went on vacation from the station for a week one summer (we worked year round). While I was gone, there was a sort of melt down in the commercial production department and I came back to be made Production Manager…this is where the voiceover bug really started to brew.

Commercial production clients liked how I sounded, they pay me a little extra sometimes to do their spots that aired on other stations…and for much of that help, I owe thanks to the radio station account executives Gary, Lenny and Ruth.

So there I am at school studying (sometimes) working (a lot of the other times) and having a swell time. Unbeknownst to me, the host of our live local weekend oldies show failed out of school (he was more into radio than studying) and I get put in that slot (while continuing in the production department. I finished at WVUD in ’86 with the #1 rated Saturday show in the entire market, 7p-12a, against some really great programming. There’s luck, timing and a little talent included in all that craziness, as you might guess.

Oh, speaking of luck, I graduated college.

BUFFALO, NY

I mentioned earlier about the video production company I started with Terry after I graduated from the University of Dayton. Also at that time, I became the voice of Burnham’s Appliances in Buffalo, NY with the help of Kevin Brayer, who was a family friend and working in management at the local chain of stores. That was a nice break for me.

When I recorded those spots, usually over at local radio stations, I met terrific local radio folks in Buffalo (and some others of whom did NOT hire me to work on the air as I wished they had 😉  One jock/production manager who was especially nice to me recording the Burnham’s spots was Keith Luke at WBUF, who had one of the deepest voices you’ve ever heard. I also met Chris Nichter when recording a few of those spots at WJYE.

Interestingly and again unbeknownst to me (cause I love saying unbeknownst) starting his radio career around that time and going on to be a long time production voice in Buffalo with Entercom radio (now Audacy) and local TV was my high school buddy Matt Young.

Actually, I came across many nice folks while I was recording voiceover and working other jobs over those years (“other jobs” because Buffalo has never been as busy as LA, the internet VO biz wasn’t yet a thing and recording studio technology was not yet as portable…but it WAS stupid expensive).

Those who I met who stand out the most in my Buffalo voiceover memories include Alan Baumgardner and Kim Ferullo over at Chameleon Communications, Shaun Mullins at Propellerhead Media,  John Ciglia and Dan Innes at Crosswater Digital Media, and maybe most importantly Toni Silveri, who just started All Coast Talent when I met her and she quickly signed me. We’ve been long time pals ever since…Toni also introduced me to the great character voice actor and teacher, Pat Fraley.

VOICEOVER AGENTS

I’ve had many voiceover agents over 4 decades, which reminded me of the old phrase ‘you have to kiss a lot of frogs to find your prince’.

While there are many frogs, who I decided to no longer work with, there are far more princes (and princesses) including Toni (who I mentioned) Erik Shepard of the Sheppard Agency, Kelly Wilkening at Big Mouth Talent, Laura Von Holle and the team at Heyman Talent, Cindi Davis-Andress and the team at Pastorini Bosby Talent, Stacey Siegert from Moxie Talent, Tanya Buchanan of Ta-Da Voiceworks in Toronto and Jeffrey Umberger (formerly of Umberger Agency) in Atlanta.

These folks do the work for their clients and I appreciate each of them even more because of business relationships with those former VO agents who did NOT do the work.

Live and learn.

Muhammad Ali’s said: “The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.”

VO-BB.COM

What I know now as a voice talent that I didn’t know then is that while this is among the most sole of sole proprietor businesses, I am happy to report that I found I was not in it alone.

The “there are others like me” moment became most apparent to me in 2005 right after the on-line voiceover world really kicked off around 2003-04. I was on an unmemorable VO bulletin board web site (mostly conversations in text) where a VO talent I knew from that board, the great Connie Terwilliger, posted about a different voiceover bulletin board website, VO-BB.com.

It’s hard to effectually put into words the world that opened up to me on February 2, 2005 when I joined VO-BB.com. Insightful information, humor, arguments and just friendships among people who knew my business, knew my challenges, shared my fears…just everything.

Phone calls, in person meet-ups and people who I can call on and who can call on me when they need my help…all sprang from this simple website. It’s like if one were alone on a journey, seemingly forever, to finally came upon a camp of delightful and insightful fellow travelers. DB Cooper (and now Bruce Miles) cannot be thanked enough for keeping this enterprise going.

Without this internet bulletin board, there could have never been a FaffCon or FaffCamp.

FAFFCON

Some years before the first FaffCon, a bunch of VO-BB’ers were at the VOICE conference in Hollywood. It was a nice conference, I was invited to speak on one of the panels, and everyone had a nice time, especially seeing VO people in person. But following the event, those of us in attendance chatted on the VO-BB about the event. VOICE felt very corporate.

It seemed like the people presenting were, for the most part, trying to sell their services by giving you a little taste of their knowledge with a 45 minute presentation. Also, people with greater voiceover experience gained less there than those who were just starting out in the VO business.

Nothing wrong with all that but it was just like every other conference.

In any industry.

Ever.

Amy Snively posed a question on the board about an idea she had for a different kind of voiceover conference strictly for experienced voiceover talents, based on a conference design that was developing at the time…something called an unconference.

Presenters at this unconference would be made up of attendees (versus pre-arranged, more well-known speakers), who presented their ideas for voiceover topics. The organizers would review the topics, chose the ones that made the most sense for the audience, merge the similar topic ideas and presenters together, create a daily schedule right there at the event and, alakazam, the conference content and schedule would be set.

Attendance at the conference would be limited in capacity and to those who were professional voice talents versus those who might have a lesser experience level. Later an event called FaffCamp would be created for voice talent at any level of the VO journey.

Bottom line and the point of difference: at this voiceover unconference, nobody would be trying to sell you a product or series of lessons. The 3-4 day event would just be about education and networking based on voiceover performance, voiceover business needs and voiceover technology…with everyone sharing as much as they were willing to share. It was a safe place to meet, share and learn.

Needless to say, the voiceover talent on the board thought it was a great idea…Amy created a team to help her and – in short order – she created and produced 9 FaffCons and I think 2 FaffCamps. Amy Snively did that and turned voiceover education on its ear in the best possible way.

My participation was small compared to Amy and her co-producers (first Pam Tierney and later Lauren McCullough). Because of the birth of my son, I could not attend the first FaffCon; at the end, I attended all but two. I produced a promo video for the first unconference and got asked to help out selling sponsorships. I think it was at FaffCon 2 in Hershey that I was handed a microphone during the giveaways and asked last minute to MC it. It went well and I helped with the MC duties after that. Minor support that I was glad to offer in support of those doing the real work.

But the biggest impact on the attendees and the industry (including me) was the content offered, the people networks built, the enormous knowledge shared and fantastic individual revelations uncovered. You really had to be there to understand the intense impact FaffCon and FaffCamp had on many lives but it was unlike ANY other voiceover conference I have attended before or since. I remain grateful for FaffCon to this day…and there are hundreds more like me.

VOICEOVER MEET-UPS

Even before FaffCon, voiceover meet-ups are something that have sustained me professionally and personally for many years. These are simply a gathering of two or more voice talents – sometimes in in your area or when you’re traveling, in a fellow voice talents town. Nothing fancy, usually breakfast, lunch or dinner at a spot…the important thing was and is the conversation and fellowship.

In June of 2007 (according to my voxmarketising blog post) – before FaffCon or other conferences that I ever attended – it was everyone’s voiceover friend Bob Souer who called me up from his then home in Charlotte to say he would soon be in Western New York. Would I want to meet with him? At the time he was working in the Media Department of the Billy Graham Association in North Carolina and a Crusade was going to be in our region of the country.

Where had I originally met Bob? On the VO-BB.com of course (told you that was an impactful place).

This would not be the last meal, event, baseball game etc., that I would share with Bob or his wonderful family. But it would be the spring board for me to initiate many more meet ups when I would travel for my marketing business or when people would come to my town.

If you’ve ever had the unfortunate lot to travel a lot for business, having the option to call on friends (especially voiceover friends) in other cities makes such business travel more enjoyable and gives you something extra to look forward to than just the monotonous itinerary airport-hotel-quick dinner alone-hotel-meeting-airport-home. Plus information shared with smart voiceover people is great for my business too.

For me, it is truly humbling to realize how many great folks in voiceover blessed me with their time in these small meet-ups since 2007. Time is a great gift to share and for the scores of voice actors who have allowed me to spend time with them, I am really grateful. Thank you.

One of the meet-ups that made quite an impact on me (which will surprise no one who has met the man I am about to mention) was when I was in Miami in 2009. Doug Turkel had assembled a group of local voiceover talents to create a kind of Mastermind group – voice talents meeting together at a scheduled time with the expressed purpose of mentoring each other, helping to solve VO business problem and share ideas. All through my future travels and my FaffCon experience, I kept thinking we needed to do this kind of meeting in Buffalo.

HEARD AROUND BUFFALO

With the success of the FaffCon, I was busier than ever because – for a while – the events were running on top of each other…plus VO business, marketing business, travel and a growing family….it was a lot.

But this local meet-up thing was gnawing at me…this would be good for me and for the local folks I knew OR didn’t know yet but would get a chance to meet. But time…and pressure and…and…I needed help.

I did something that – due to my awful pride or ego or both – I tried not to do too often. I asked for help to put together the local Buffalo meet-up group. It couldn’t just be on me to set up the group or it wouldn’t get done at that time.

So in the spring of 2013, I made two phone calls to (at the time) Buffalo-based voiceover friends I knew I could count on: Dan Lenard and Leslie Diamond. Loosely based on my experience with Doug’s group and FaffCon, we together created our Buffalo voiceover meet up group: Heard Around Buffalo (Leslie provided the creative name).

All volunteer, no profit just everyone who wants to be there and who should be there was there, with a focus on pro VOs. We tried for monthly meetings and we got pretty good at it. Very voiceover focused, lots of conversations about performance, marketing, technology…and life. Exactly what it needed to be. We were even blessed to have voiceover friends from the central part of New York state and Southern Ontario. These were special evenings indeed.

Even though Dan, Leslie and I moved out of Western New York, the group still gets together and I am very happy about that (though, selfishly, I miss our time together). Voiceover superstar Maria Pendolino oversees the group now. Local voiceover meet-ups are a very worthwhile use of time and it recharges one’s spirit to be around people who understand one’s profession. Again…very grateful to all who have joined me here.

RALEIGH DURHAM VOICEOVER MEET-UP

Had you asked me at any time in my 50+ year life in Buffalo, NY, “would you leave Buffalo?”, my answer would have been no. I couldn’t think of a reason to leave. Snow? It’s all I ever knew.

Well, a reason involving the health of a family member progressed to the point that my wife and I had to make a decision and not an easy one. But it was the RIGHT one.

We had to move south in 2016 due to this situation, but I got to pick the city because of travel schedule. I needed to be in a city that had a good airport. We wanted good schools for our kids. We wanted a good quality of life. My choice. No pressure.

Because I had been in the area many times before on business and it seemed very nice, I told my wife we should explore Raleigh, North Carolina first. What made Raleigh most immediately memorable for me was their beautiful airport that could get me anywhere. I said if they spend that kind of money on the design of their airport and expansion of its airline schedule, this is a town that cares about quality of life.

Well fast forward to today and we are very happy here and grateful for the friends we’ve made. We will always miss our home in Buffalo.

From a voiceover business perspective, I was fortunate to know a few voiceover friends in Raleigh-Durham already including Rowell Gormon, Deb Stamp and Wendy Zier. They, of course were, very welcoming and provided local insights that helped in our family’s move to Raleigh and my business transition to a new market.

But because of my experience with Heard About Buffalo, I knew I wanted…no, needed to start a voiceover meet up group here. I needed to grow my network, learn about the market and make new friends.

So was born the Raleigh Durham Voiceover Meet-up (RDUVO). With the help of Rowell, Deb and Wendy we had our first meeting in June of 2017, less than a year after moving here. Even through COVID, when we met virtually (like pretty much everyone else) we got together for organized meetings and sometimes just for coffee. Glad our group is going strong.

CATHOLIC RADIO VOLUNTEER

All my professional life, I’ve been involved in a variety of community activities – to better myself and to better the community I live in. I think this is true for just about everyone…we donate our time, talent and treasure to those organizations we feel drawn to help.

In Buffalo, my biggest commitment was to the Buffalo Niagara Sales and Marketing Executives, which was formed in 1942. I joined because I felt I needed to learn more about sales and marketing, which I did. I was a member there for about 25 years, leaving BNSME a year or so before we moved to Raleigh.

I was also involved in supporting Catholic education, which helped me a lot in my life. I served on the alumni board of my high school, the board of trustees of my grammar school and finally on the Diocese of Buffalo’s Board of Catholic Education. There are other groups I served but this isn’t my resume and that’s not my point here.

My point is that when I moved to Raleigh, I told my wife that I was really done with trying to serve on multiple committees with multiple groups all while taking time away from my wife and children. Plus I also kind of felt like I’d been there, done that.

So what I said to her was I was going to pick one charity and that was going to be my sole community focus in Raleigh. And the charity I picked was actually selected before we had officially decided to move to Raleigh.

In Buffalo, I had done some volunteer announcing for the Station of The Cross Catholic Media Network, headquartered in Buffalo. To my knowledge almost all Catholic radio stations are non-profit 501 (c) (3) groups and many are run by volunteers. This particular group of stations in Buffalo didn’t have a roster of announcers so they would get volunteers to read the community announcements for their radio stations in the Northeast.

So when we were looking at Raleigh, while in my hotel room here one morning I looked to see if there was a Catholic radio station here.

There was, sort of.

Divine Mercy Radio was operating two low-power radio stations (where you could hear the signal within about 3 miles of the transmitter site) in both Cary, North Carolina and Wake Forest, North Carolina. They also broadcast on their web site. Their broadcast schedule was basically a retransmission of the EWTN radio network and a few local programs. So they were barely on the air but they had big plans.

Anyway, back in Raleigh at the hotel…while we still hadn’t decided where we would move to, I called the phone number on the Divine Mercy Radio web site and ended up speaking to the wife of the couple running the radio stations. I introduced myself, said my family was thinking of moving to Raleigh, had experience working in Catholic radio and I would be glad to volunteer my announcing services if they might need them.

Cecelia Flanary and her husband Keith could not have been more excited to receive my unexpected call. Cecelia had just been to Church that day — praying for help to get an announcer for a script that had to be recorded — because none of their volunteers were announcers.

Then she gets my call out of the blue. And why did I pick that moment to call? I just thought I should do it while I was thinking about it. Mysterious ways indeed.

So I have been volunteering my radio programming, production skills and live announcing abilities with them ever since I moved here. On February 4, 2019, the station powered up it’s 10,000 watt AM station (bye-bye low power) and about a year later we got our own app. Today, we have a pretty great assortment of local programming. In our first year as an AM station, our production work received one of only a few national awards from EWTN for excellence. Very blessed.

IT’S NOT ABOUT ME

The smartest and most effective voiceover talents in the business have all learned one important lesson about their performance in voiceover.

It’s not about me.

That means that, as a voice actor, you completely serve at the vocal pleasure of your director. Whether you think a script should be performed a certain way matters not a wit. Your acting skills need to serve the objectives of the director…not your performance preferences. Don’t like the professional direction you are given for the voiceover job you accepted to do? Tough, do what you are told…you were not hired for your opinion (in most cases).

Leave your ego and opinions at the recording studio’s door.

It’s the same for me as I reflect on my 40 years in voiceover. I was the vessel but any success I have enjoyed came on the shoulders of the family, friends, clients and contacts with whom I have interacted with.

As I hope these stories have proven, it’s not about me.

It’s about those who have taken the time to befriend me, mentor me, berate me, ask me, listen to me, accept my apology, tolerate me, love me, hate me, respect me, help me, disregard me, pray for me, marry me and certainly give birth to me. And importantly, vice versa.

40 years as a professional voiceover talent is NOT a reflection on me but a testament to those people, helpful and awful, who showed me direction, red flags or even disrespect in my life.

What I did with the sum total of all those interactions is how I ended up here today.

If I stumbled (which I did, many times), that’s on me. But if I succeeded, it was because of all the people (named and unnamed) who did what they could with the developing lump of clay that is me.

More to come…God willing.

Tags: Faff Camp, faffcamp, faffcon, voice 2012, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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At the end of FaffCon 9 this weekend in Charlotte, NC, I again did what I have often found myself doing at the end of a FaffCon…trying to take mental pictures of the people there while trying to harness the positive energy in the room.

The faces and energy of the people in the room fills me with hope for my voiceover industry.

Professional voice talents came from all over the country to FaffCon 9…maybe even further, cause I wasn’t checking passports. They each had all kinds of business challenges and insights to share as fellow voiceover business owners. They asked questions, they shared answers.

Some had been in the business as long or even longer than I have been. Some were only 3-4 years into the journey.

FaffCon 9 was wonderfully populated mostly by first and second time Faffers, including the most first time Faffers at ANY FaffCon event, even FaffCon #1.

Even though FaffCon had vetted them long ago, some new participants felt, at the beginning of the unconference, that they didn’t belong at FaffCon 9 and that they would be found out to be voiceover frauds. They belonged, of course…they were just initially overwhelmed.

They were not frauds and to Sunday’s closing circle, each new Faffer brought with them a new confidence in their talent and their ability to run their voiceover business.

That’s one of the many wonderful things FaffCon does for every Faffer.

Of course, there are plenty of frauds in voiceover.

There are people who plug a microphone into a computer and with no professional voiceover or technological training (and certainly little discernable VO talent) call themselves a professional voice talent, usually at a dollar a holler.

There are companies within the voiceover industry who lie in wait for those brand new people who have a true desire and calling to be in voiceover but don’t yet know the pitfalls of running a voiceover business. Those disreputable companies (the number of which grows almost weekly) take the money of the well meaning, new VO people, promising them riches and successes that the disreputable companies never provide these new voice actors.

Inexperienced people passing themselves off as pros as well as disreputable companies making promises to new voice talent, taking their money and delivering nothing in return are both changing and hurting the voiceover industry.

FaffCon, to me anyway, is an island of legitimacy in a sea of voiceover frauds and wannabes.

2018 will bring the final FaffCon, FaffCon 10. I will look forward to that special, final event and, for now, try not to think too much about life in voiceover after that.

Tags: faffcon by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Most everyone in voiceover knows about FaffCon, which starts this Friday. It’s a participant driven educational and networking event that positively impacts just about everyone who has ever attended a FaffCon.

But beyond the learning and fun, FaffCon has had a charitable component to it. Often, we focus on an important charity within the host city where FaffCon is taking place. Simply put, we pass the hat, with no expectations and seriously no pressure.

The second nicest man in voiceover, Bob Souer, has been the leader of FaffCon’s fundraising efforts pretty much since the beginning…the beginning of FaffCon, not the beginning of time.

In 8 Faffcons, we have raised nearly $30,000. To me, that is wonderful and amazing and generous and and and and.

I bring this up not as a part of the FaffCon team but rather as an individual who is attending his 7th FaffCon and is gobsmacked by the generosity of people who give what they can, because they can. Not everyone can and that’s absolutely OK.

Give the timing of this year’s FaffCon, we are focusing on providing funds for those folks who are trying to recover from both Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. We will be making our FaffCon donation to Comic Relief USA’s Hand in Hand: A Benefit for Hurricane Relief. Our donation to this fund will benefit the Rebuild Texas Fund, United Way of Greater Houston, Habitat for Humanity, Save The Children, Direct Relief, Feeding Texas as well as The Mayor’s Fund for Hurricane Harvey Relief (administered by the Greater Houston Foundation).

Working together, these groups will ensure those most impacted by these Hurricanes have the help they need.

So if you will be joining us for FaffCon 9, you are not expected or commanded to participate just because you will be at FaffCon. No. If you do not want to or cannot or already gave….you need not be concerned. All is good. If you can support our charity efforts with whatever amount you are comfortable with…that would be OK too.

POST SCRIPT: At the conclusion of FaffCon 9, the voiceover unconference among it’s participants, had raised $10,100.00 for the charity…a new FaffCon Fundraising record.

Tags: faffcon by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Ever since In:Quality introduced their ISDN alternative service ipDTL, life in the worlds of broadcasting and voiceover have gotten a little better.

Whether connected, with ipDTL’s web based software, to another ipDTL connected studio or bridged to an ISDN studio, the recordings just work. As simple as that sounds, it hasn’t always been that efficient with ipDTL’s competitive predecessors.

So it is with great excitement that we received word from In:Quality’s Kevin Leach that ipDTL has agreed to be the Presenting sponsor of FaffCon 9 in Charlotte, NC from September 22-24, 2017.

FaffCon 9 is the second to last FaffCon, as it has been announced that FaffCon 10, to take place sometime in 2018, will be the final FaffCon ever.

Already sold out, FaffCon 9 was the last chance for new, vetted and professional voice talents to attend a FaffCon. FaffCon 10’s attendees will consist solely of alumni from previous FaffCons as well as FaffCon 10 corporation sponsors.

Welcome ipDTL to FaffCon 9! See you in Charlotte!

Tags: faffcon by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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FaffCon 9 is upon us.

The dates are set for September 22-24 and it will be held in Charlotte, NC.

Mike Coon and I will again be your FaffCon sponsorship team and we are pleased to be joining Amy and Lauren as part of FaffCon 9.

FAFFCON 9 SPONSORSHIP SALES WILL BEGIN ON MONDAY, MAY 1, 2017.

If you need a presentation right now, it is on the FaffCon Sponsorship page: http://faffcon.com/sponsorship-info

This is a note to explain the CHANGES IN SPONSORSHIP AND REGISTRATION for FaffCon 9.

These changes are discussed in greater detail in the sponsorship kit. To receive a sponsorship kit, simply email sponsorship@faffcon.com

If you were at FaffCon 8, some of what I am about to share with you will not be a complete surprise as some of it was discussed then.

But please read the whole thing anyway. Thanks!

REGISTRATION FOR FAFFCON 9

• A big focus of FaffCon 9 is to welcome as many 1st or 2nd time Faffers to this conference as possible – this is a major FaffCon 9 priority because attendance at FaffCon 10 will be exclusive to working voiceover pros who have attended at least one of the previous nine FaffCons

• We are expanding the attendance cap for FaffCon 9 to 150 attendees; we want as many new, qualified, vetted voiceover talents to attend as possible and still not lose the completely unique unconference relationship offered via the FaffCon experience; again, FaffCon 9 will be a new Faffer’s last chance to attend a FaffCon

• To ensure we get as many 1st and 2nd time Faffers in to FaffCon 9 as possible, 1st and 2nd time Faffers will be allowed to register A DAY BEFORE general registration

• FaffCon 9 Registration will be held as follows:
* Tuesday, June 6: Presenting, Key, Supporting, & Voice Pro Sponsors
* Wednesday, June 7: First & Second Time FaffCon Participants
* Thursday, June 8: Contributing Sponsors & General Registration

SPONSORSHIP FOR FAFFCON 9

• After some grueling pencil sharpening, we were able to keep the Key and Supporting sponsorship pricing and benefits the same as last year

• New this year: Key and Supporting sponsorship levels will be sold exclusively to voiceover vendors

• There is a NEW SPONSORSHIP LEVEL JUST FOR VOICE TALENTS who want to support FaffCon as well as help secure their spot at FaffCon 9
* It’s called the Voice Pro Sponsor, it costs $1,000 and there are 25 Voice Pro Sponsorships available for FaffCon 9
* The purpose of this category is to leave more spots open for 1st and 2nd time Faffers; spots that might otherwise have been secured by voice talents who purchased a Key Supporting or Supporting sponsorship level (support we appreciated then and still appreciate today, thank you!)
* The Voice Pro Sponsor sponsorship category may prove popular so…IF there are more than 25 people who want this sponsorship, we will create a list of all those folks and subsequently broadcast a live, on-line random drawing where 25 names will be selected as Voice Pro Sponsor sponsors at FaffCon 9
*  This does NOT mean that those who might not be selected in the Voice Pro Sponsor random drawing cannot go to FaffCon 9, they will just have to register during the General Registration based on remaining spots available after – further, they can be a Contributing Sponsor if they like as well
* Those interested in being a Voice Pro Sponsor MUST send their email request to sponsorship@faffcon.com before Wednesday, May 31st at midnight PT

No doubt there will be other questions but we will answer those as they arise.

All of our FaffCon 9 team cannot properly express our thanks to all the voice talents who have supported us over the years.

We are so excited to welcome old AND new peers/friends to FaffCon 9.

We hope to see you…and lots of NEW faces in Charlotte!

Tags: faffcon by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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I’m not sure where to start.

Really, I feel like there are so many pre-event, in-event and post event stories that it would make your head spin to share them all or maybe even bore you or…if you wanted to go and didn’t then you might be envious or annoyed.

I don’t want any of that for you.

So I will just list some of my notes (in no special order) in the hopes that it will give you a taste of some of the moments that made FaffCon 8 special for me.

There are over a hundred stories just like this.

My story isn’t special. All of them are.

•   Maybe not to the point of jumping and singing (because that might cause the police to be notified) but I was so full of joy at how many first time Faffers were in attendance at FaffCon 8 — each of you deserved to be there

•   FaffCon simply does NOT happen for me without my wife taking up the parenting slack for a long weekend and my kids giving Da a weekend pass, thank you loves

•   I came into this FaffCon with the goal of listening — one of the people I always try and listen closely to is Dan Hurst; because I listened to Dan at his FaffCon 8 presentation, my professional life will get better…thank you Dan, yet again…I needed to hear your words, yet again (Kelly Brennan also understands this)

•   The purple FaffCon 8 t-shirt was my idea…totally

•   If you were at FaffCon 8 and did not meet Kelly Kelmolin, you missed a HUGE opportunity to meet someone who could have your golden nugget — I’ve lost track of how many I’ve received over the years —so you need to make a point to call her and introduce yourself in the next week

•   Frustration is the emotion I will share with you to describe my feeling as to why the world doesn’t understand that Natalie Stanfield is one of THE most talented improvisational actresses and teachers we have on our earth – wake up world, she’s right THERE!

•   Best audience member for my presentation: Jodi Krangle

•   I’m not going to brag but I will say only this: Maria Pendolino, I do not lie and now you know the truth of my words…do not miss FaffCon (Buffalo Voice Over Meet-up Group Represent!)

•   Energy and impact awards for F8: Celia Siegal, Brad Newman and Tracy Lindley – they make things happen

•   Two words: Dan Friedman

•   One word: Yeni

•   Most glad to see award (besides everyone): Fred Filbrich, Bruce Miles and Amy Taylor Fernandez (tie)

•   Melanie Murphy could take over the world with her charm and street smarts – you have been warned

•   Faffers are generous with their time, talent AND treasure as evidenced by the $8,000 donation to Breanna’s Gift — generous work done in support of the families and young children with cancer and other serious diseases…heartbreaking and soul crushing to imagine what these children and their families have, do and will go through

•   So personally and unpredictably heartbreaking that on my final and unexpected appearance on the mic as emcee, after the Breanna’s gift check presentation, to end FaffCon 8, I could barely (and I mean quite. literally. barely.) speak: verklempt — critically sick children are my emotional kryptonite, even now – sorry about that Faffers

•   There are many valuable reasons for businesses to sponsor FaffCon and Edge Studio had good cause to be FaffCon 8’s Presenting Sponsor…but I hope they truly understand (beyond money) how genuinely valuable their sponsorship was to supporting the true mission of FaffCon for the voiceover community; thank you David and Graeme

Thank you EVERYONE who sponsored FaffCon 8

•   Best Church Buddy: Anthony Gettig

•   Mike Coon is a talented and underated voice talent – but sponsorship sales for FaffCon would simply not be successful without him, period

•   Amy Snively and Lauren McCullough had many unique and completely unnecessary challenges from those outside and inside the Faff Circle since the last FaffCon and leading into this one (adults behaving badly on a multitude of levels will be the broad brush stroke I shall use here) — it might have led less hardy souls to quit but they did not quit and for that I am grateful

•   To those who were at the Thursday meeting: thank you and thank you again

•   To everyone whose name is not on this post – you were only omitted here but not forgotten here

•   Note to self, there are only two FaffCons left: live these days like they are “the good old days”, because they are and they are slipping away

Tags: commentary, faffcon by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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