Dawg Treats: The Write Shot

Book 'em!

Being dawgs, we are naturally curious about everything from design to other dawgs. This dawg treat about The Write Shot and what they do combines the best of both! The Write Shot photographs, designs and writes custom books that show and tell the story of dogs.

Actually, these dawg tales are not the company's primary focus, but have grown in "pup"ularity. Once clients work with The Write Shot to create a photo book for their wedding or corporate anniversary they naturally begin to think of other things in their lives they would like to have remembered in a high-end book.

An example of a wedding book

The Write Shot was founded by photojournalists Natasha Chornesky and Chris Cozzone who have between them more than 20 years of professional photography and journalism experience. When they teamed up they found that a picture may tell 1,000 words but as photo albums get passed from generation to generation the details of that story begin to fade. Their work takes the time to find the stories and document them both with words and photos in a beautiful package.

An editorial style of layout makes compelling reading

Chris and Natasha commit to only two projects a month so they can spend one full week interviewing and photographing the subject be it a dog, couple, event team or corporate partners before the event.

Each 10-by-10-inch, hardcover book is completely custom and contains an average of 100 heavy-stock, glossy pages of text and images. Past photos can also be incorporated (which works especially well for personal events corporate anniversary events).

The Write Shot doesn't miss any details!

And we designdawgs are impressed with Chris and Natasha's pedigree! Their photographs and articles have appeared in Newsweek, The New York Times, Playboy and Der Speigel. Chris has won multiple awards for his magazine layouts and photography and Natasha has taught journalism and her work has appeared in national educational publications.

The Write Shot has offices in Los Angeles and Las Vegas and travel anywhere to create these one-of-a-kind books.

The Write Shot, www.writeshot.com, 310.798.5700

August: Up In the Air, Up for Awards!

August has been a whirlwind month what with large events in several locations and site inspections and meetings in Las Vegas, Boston and Hawaii. I guess I should have seen it coming. The month began with me up in the air, and up for awards!

At the beginning of August we traveled to Baltimore to attend the ISES Eventworld conference (ISES stands for International Special Events Society). It's a great time to see old friends, renew relationships and forge new alliances for the coming year. And, it always ends with the ISES Esprit Awards. This year we were thrilled to take home two awards for AOO Events.

The first was in the category of Best Social Event Budget Over $75,000. It was a hip-hop themed event. We worked with our amazing client, Star Trax in Detroit to create "AK's Club 13/13." Total transformation was the key to turning this upscale Detroit hotel into a very hot rendition of a nightclub.



The second award was in the category Best Design/Decor, Budget $25,000 to $75,000. In this case AOO worked with an already beautiful pool site at the Miramonte Resort and Spa in Palm Desert, California, to enhance and add to it in order to bring guests of a corporate sales meeting a taste of the "Bohemian Life."


Happily, my feet are planted back in Los Angeles this week as my team and I prepare to produce opening and closing nights for The ASAE 2010 Annual Meeting and Expo. We are working hard to make this one an award-winner next year too!

GUEST BLOG By Wendy Anderson

As event professionals, the bulk of our days are spent producing events for clients. But every now and then we carve a little time for our own causes or passions as I did recently for the Center for Hope and Healing. That was rare for me and I loved it. Then there are people like Wendy Anderson who created an event based on her passions, and continues to produce it year after year. Not only does The Cherry Blossom Festival draw 60,000 attendees, but it is 100-percent volunteer based. Now that a labor of love! To find out more about it, I invited Wendy to talk about on designdawgs.
David Merrell
Creative Director of AOO Events and lead designdawg


FESTIVAL SEASON
By Wendy Anderson

Cherry blossoms are a symbol of Spring. They are fragile, usually disappearing with the first wind after a brief bloom. When I began the Cherry Blossom Festival, I had no idea if it would be able to withstand the test of time either but now, as it goes into its tenth year, it's turned out to be very strong.

As a little background -- I started the festival in 2001 as a tribute to my parents and my culture. My dad grew up on his father's farm in Van Nuys, a suburb of Los Angeles. He and his brother were the only two Asians at Van Nuys high school. My mother grew up in Long Beach. The two areas could not have been farther at the time (no big freeways like today) but the two came together when the U.S. made the unfortunate decision to evacuate Japanese and Japanese-Americans to internment camps during World War II. My parents met at the camp, Manzanar located in the Owens Valley of California.

That period ended but because of the war the dislike for Japanese and Japanese-Americans continued. When my parents married they settled in Pasadena to raise a family and put the past behind them. I was brought up like many of my generation with only American culture and not taught about the camps until my teens. When my parents both died in 1997 I realized I had no knowledge about my ethnic culture. As I began my own education into it, I realized there was a lot that Americans, and Americans of Japanese ancestry (especially the younger generation) could learn and embrace about their history. That was the beginning of the Cherry Blossom Festival.

For the first five years it was held in Pasadena, but our demographics showed that only 12 percent of attendees actually came from there. That was when we realized we weren't a local festival but a regional one and that our festival was actually bringing people into the area, creating tourism for the city. L.A. Councilwoman Jan Perry's office called us yearly inviting us to move the festival to Los Angeles where it would be welcomed. So we did. We moved it into the Little Tokyo district of L.A. Today our demographics are consistent, the largest base of our attendees are Caucasian, followed closely by those of Japanese, Chinese, and Latino ethnicity. This year we also reached out to the African-American community and increased our attendance there as well.


We bring a lot to the table and are contacted by travel agencies to help bring tours to our event which helps with the economic development to this community. I'm proud that we get people from Northern California, San Diego, Santa Barbara and Palm Springs and surprisingly, many travelers from European countries. During the weekend of the festival, restaurants are standing room only and the shops and hotels are full. So, why all the attention for our "little" festival? Probably because there is something for everyone!


We have four stages with non-stop entertainment that performs pro bono (admission is free, our budget comes from sponsorships). This year, in addition to all our events and activities, we added the J-Pop Stage. Here we introduced Anime performances, a Cosplay Contest, a Lolita Fashion Show and quite a few hip hop artists to attract the younger population. We started a Beer and Sake Gardens and also had four screenings of Only The Brave, a film that spotlights stories from the famed 442nd, an all Japanese-American army unit.

The kid's craft area is especially popular.

Our regular activities include Teachers Making a Difference Awards, Senator Daniel Inouye Cherry Blossom Leadership Awards, Best in Show Most Photogenic Dog contest, Cultural Pavilion, Kids Activity Craft Area, Kimono Fashion Show (This year the theme was vintage, last year it was traditional Japanese wedding ... and every year Councilwoman Perry is a model or a Japanese dancer at the festival), Cultural Story telling with SAG Foundation Book Pals as readers, Martial Arts Arena, Hawaiian Village and a food court.


And we just started a stand-alone educational component called "Camp Stories," tales from families before, during and after internment. The first one of these traveling shows was underwritten by Southern California Public Radio in September and we have another scheduled at Cal State Fullerton.


What I've learned
Prior to the Cherry Blossom Festival I had never worked on an event like this. I've learned a lot of lessons as the festival grows larger every year. Unfortunately, given that everyone is a volunteer, including me (I handle about 85 percent of it as a volunteer), as it grows it becomes more difficult due to time and expertise. For instance, this last year we had a devastating "glitch" caused internally by someone working as part of the festival. It caused major issues and financial costs of which we are still climbing out from beneath.

Kudos to special suppliers Mark Vanis at Elm Concierge (the rental company), Dan Wachs at SMS Generators, Councilwoman Perry, the Los Angeles Fire Department and the Los Angeles Police Department who are fabulous every year, but especially so this year. They all pitched in at the last minute and made the festival happen as did our amazing team of volunteers.

What I learned from this experience is that even though we are volunteers, the festival has to be approached as a business entity. I now know that if I feel someone is not doing their job to address it immediately and not let feelings get in the way.

As planners -- whether we are producing a wedding, corporate event or festival -- we all learn so much when there is an error in judgment or a mistake. Needless to say, myself and my colleagues at the festival learned A LOT this past year.

But while the cherry blossom itself is beautiful and fragile, the tree that produces it is not! We are looking forward to the future as the festival firmly plants its roots and grows even stronger.


About Wendy Anderson

Wendy is owner of WOW! Event Productions & Public Relations, an award-winning company for corporate, entertainment, non-profit, community and social events. She is also a partner with the Sake Institute of America, Kellye Wallet Studios and White Satin Wedding Show.

Wendy has been nominated for five international awards in the event industry and won three of them. Additionally she has won five regional/chapter awards from the International Special Events Society and a Legacy Award from the Western Region.

She is Producer/Co-Founder/President of the Cherry Blossom Festival Southern California.