January 20th, 2006
2006 CCS
Las Vegas Winter Seminar
With the plethora of exciting
seminar presentation material and valuable networking
that took place recently at the CCS 2006 Winter Seminar,
we know that what happened in
Vegas will most certainly not stay in Vegas!
These best practices and new information will be incorporated
into many customers’ plans to increase their business.
To download the Power Point presentations presented in
Las Vegas, click the links below
Seminar
Introduction
Email
Marketing
Finding and Retaining Great Photographers
Greek/Campus Break-Out
Prom/Dance
Break-Out
Sports
Break-Out
Grad
Break-Out
Group Opportunities Break-Out
PPS
Break-Out
School
Break-Out
To view and order pictures from the seminar, go to Party
Pics and the password is vegas.
Sportography
Named CCS Customer of the Year for 2005
by
Brian Speers
The highlight of the recent Candid Color Systems Winter
Seminar in Las Vegas took place when
Greg and
Eric Eisen of Sportography, Inc. of Brookfield,
CT took home the top prize and were honored as the
Jack
E. Counts Customers of the Year for 2005.
CCS Customer of the Year Greg Eisen is pictured
with Jack Counts and Brian Speers after receiving
the coveted Green Robe, symbolic of the COY. |
Since switching to digital and moving their print finishing
to CCS just a little over 18 months ago, Sportography
has proven to be a formidable competitor in the sports
market where they operate offices in seven states in the
northeastern part of the United States.
Sportography has managed to carve out a powerful niche
by providing high quality sports photography and exemplary
customer service to the more than 200,000 athletes they
photograph each year. They were also a pioneer of sorts
by being one of the first sports photography companies
in the country to offer online proofing. In addition,
they have been extremely helpful by providing critical
input to the sports software application as we know it
today.
Congratulations to Greg and Eric and all of the staff
at Sportography for achieving this great milestone. We
salute you!
Upcoming
Workshop & Seminar Dates
The CCS Summer Workshop will be held in Oklahoma City
on Monday and Tuesday, July 23rd and 24th with various
training sessions offered on Sunday the 22nd. Although
not your normally considered vacation destination, having
the Workshop here in the lab’s home city provides
us with great opportunities not possible at the annual
seminars. Besides the regular full agenda on a wide variety
of topics, we are able to offer many hands-on training
opportunities in our facilities, as well as the ability
to schedule face-to-face meetings with other lab personnel
at your request.
More information will follow in the coming months on hotel
accommodations and agenda topics.
The CCS Winter Seminar will move to the East Coast in
2007 and be held at the Eden
Roc Hotel on beautiful Miami
Beach, Florida. So plan to leave your wintery locale behind
and spend Feb 26th and 27th with us.
And, since you’ll already be in Miami Beach, wouldn’t
it be great to extend your trip by winning a promotional
trip to Grand Cayman immediately following the Winter
Seminar? Read all about it!
Collages
and Cropping in QP+!
Collages
With 14 available templates and 31 backgrounds to choose
from, your customers can now create a collage online from
their selected favorites. A product initially designed
with the greek market in mind, the templates are available
with and without titles and crests.
The Zoom/Crop feature is also active on collages so customers
can manipulate the individual images they choose to put
in their collage. And since the collage product is rendered
online, they can make changes to their custom collages
to their hearts content.
Click to enlarge screenshots |
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If you choose to offer collages on your QP+ events, then
an “Introducing – Party Collages” link
on the proofs and favorites pages will provide your customers
some additional information on and sample images of this
product.
Click to enlarge |
Cropping
Cropping a party image gives the customer the opportunity
to narrow the focus of the image by creating a tighter
shot or create a brand new focus by cropping out other
subjects.
Whatever the reason, cropping is a valuable tool that
your customers will welcome. If you choose to offer cropping
on your events, then a “Should I Crop My Image”
link will appear on the proof and favorites pages to provide
more information and show an example.
Click to enlarge |
Both Collages and Cropping are yet another reason to use
QP+ and deserve special announcements to your customers.
For more information, call Customer Support.
Create
Your Own Customized Products
For a select group of popular products, you now have the
ability to create your own customized versions of these
products and upload them as part of your event. This initial
set of products includes the sports memory mate, greeting
cards (horizontal & vertical), race plaque, and co-branded
prints.
If you have someone in your office familiar with PhotoShop,
you can create endless versions of these products based
on template specifications in the detailed instructions
here.
Click to enlarge |
Give yourself a competitive advantage
by customizing your Memory Mates for each team or league,
for example. Create event specific graphics for use
with the co-branded prints. The options are endless!
As this is a completely automated system, you create
and activate these products without any new product
development from CCS. So your process to offer one of
these new products is faster and the designs are only
limited by your imagination.
More great news – there
is no additional charge to create a customized product
via this new method.
It is strongly suggested that a test
print be submitted when using this new process to ensure
you are happy with the result.
Click to enlarge |
The holiday greeting card shown on
the right was created by Island Photography using this
process. And the co-branded
print you see above was created by CCP for a tailgating
event. We are anxious to see the many creative designs
and uses for these products. For more information, call
Customer Support.
Gene Mangiante with Jack Counts accepting one
of the three awards he received at the CCS Awards
Ceremony. |
Other winners at the CCS Awards Ceremony were:
Dan Hays Contributors of the Year
–
Marty Evenson, Sport Photo, Dallas, TX
- Holly Freedman, Ultimate Exposures, Hollywood, CA
Highest Online Race Sales – Alex and
Cheryl Ipiotis, Island Photo, Glen Cove, NY
Most Sports Finishing – Greg and Eric Eisen,
Sportography, Brookfield, CT
Best New Idea – Marty Evenson, Sport
Photo, Dallas, TX
Best Website – Gene Mangiante,
Mangiante
Photography, Memphis, TN
Most Graduates Photographed – Chappell Studios,
Fairfield, IA
Most Group Pictures Sold – Bob and Gail Knight,
Bob Knight Photo, Tallahassee, FL
Jack Counts congratulates Marc Nathan for winning
the Hero Award which was presented to Marc for his
efforts in aiding CCS customer Joey Fasullo after
Hurricane Katrina wiped out Joey’s customer
base in New Orleans. |
Hero Award – Marc Nathan, Marc Nathan
Photography, Houston, TX
Most Composites Sold – Bud and Susan Stagg,
University Photo, Lawrence, KS
Fastest Growing Big Shot – Holly Freedman,
Ultimate Exposures, N. Hollywood, CA
Fastest Growing Hot Shot – Gene Mangiante,
Mangiante Photography, Memphis, TN
Sam Milling Customer Service Award – Tom and
Renee McNutt, BOPP, Knoxville, TN
Kyp Hardaway Award of Excellence –
Gene Mangiante, Mangiante Photography, Memphis, TN
Kyp Hardaway Award of Excellence –
Joey & Debbie Fasullo, Candid Campus, New Orleans, LA
Most Prom Units Sold –
Michelle Jagers of Bob Knight Photo was the first
recipient of the Most Valuable Employee Award. Here
she is being presented the award by CCS president
Jack Counts. |
Strong Family, Flash Photography, Dallas/Ft. Worth/Waco/Denton,
TX
Newcomer of the Year – Radley and Tina
Muller, Yary Photography, Bellingham, WA
Most Party Pics Sold – Gary Limmroth
and Keith Zemnes,
ZAP Photography, Tuscaloosa, AL
Most Valuable Employee – Michelle Jagers,
Bob Knight Photo, Tallahassee, FL.
2006 Print Finishing Promotion
Could Land You in the Cayman Islands
News of the 2006 CCS print finishing promotion was recently
announced at the winter seminar in Las Vegas, and winners
of this year’s promotion will be spending four exotic
days in the Cayman Islands.
Winning accounts will leave early on the morning of February
28th for the short flight from Miami—site of the 2007
CCS winter seminar—to the Cayman Islands and return
to Miami on March 3rd.
Similar to last year’s promotion there are two opportunities
to win with an added incentive to win trips by July 31, 2006.
Here are some of the basic details:
All CCS customers are eligible to win trips based on increases
in print finishing from January 1, 2006 to December 31. 2006.
All print finishing counts toward the promotion
There are two ways to win trips:
If you increase your print finishing by $12,000 by July 31
you win a trip. Increase it by multiples of $12,000 by July
31 and you win multiple trips.
If you increase your account by $20,000 by December 31, 2006
you win a trip. Increase it by multiples of $20,000 by December
31 and win multiple trips.
Maximum of 4 trips per customer/owner.
Complete details and rules will be published and mailed to
each CCS customer. In 2006, most of our trips winners took
advantage of the July 31 deadline and won their trips early
on taking advantage of the lesser increase even though it
was in a shorter amount of time.
Either way the race is on and you have 12 months to plan where
your increases will come from, what markets you will increase,
and what new markets you may want to pursue. If you have any
questions about the promotion please call Brian Speers at
ext. 251.
View Enlarged Proofs on the Proofs
Page of QP+
by Blake
Whitney
 |
An enlarged image preview is now available
on the proofs page of QP+. Customers no longer have to add
an image to their favorites and move to step 2 to enlarge
a proof. This is a new development that has been recently
released, but it will also apply to active events previously
set up on QP+.
Click to enlarge |
In each proof box, there is an “+ Enlarge” button
the customer can click on to bring up the enlarged image
in a different window. If your images are protected, the
proofs on the main page will not be visible on the main
proofs page while the enlargement window is open.
The main proofs page will become visible when the enlargement
window is minimized or closed. If your proofs are unprotected,
both the enlargement window and the main proofs page are
visible at the same time(see below).
Click to enlarge |
We believe this feature improves the experience for the
end customer and aids the selection process by allowing
them to view an enlarged image to decide if they wish to
add it to their favorites
Lab service
times for the week of 1/8/06 through 1/14/06
by Bo Lewis
90% of all orders shipped in less than 48 hours.
Developments
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