Advice on how to organize a workshop

[Annabelle]

I've been reading these forums for a few months now and I am always impressed by the excellence and generosity of most of the people who post here. I had this idea a few weeks ago, and people are telling me it cannot be done. You see, I live in Guatemala for most of the time and come to L.A. on ocassion. In Guatemala I have this friend, a woman who is a life coach and a really good motivator. She organizes workshops, mainly for women, back there, and she is very successful. I realize it is easier to be successful in a small community such as ours, but I thought we could organize a workshop in L.A., for hispanic women and maybe make some money in the process. I am totally ignorant of all matters in L.A., and a friend who lives here (L.A.) told me organizing such a workshop would be extremely difficult, as there are a lot of permits from the city to get. I would really appreciate any input from you guys. Has someone get first hand knowledge of something like this? At times I feel somewhat inclined to forget about all the matter, but then I realize that I have always been very easily disappointed and I know this is not how things must be approached. Any advice or idea will be greatly appreciated.

[PhilK]

First of all let me say that nothing is impossible - so don't let your friends comment stop you. Take his advice and make the best out of it. You can learn from negative feedback - but don't let it stop you.

I'm not really aware of the legal situation in CA but i just hosted my first photo workshop and did quite well. So I might have some input for you.

I suggest you simply start by contacting the community officials (of the community in LA where you plan to host the workshop) and ask for yourself what they would need you to do. You can do so by email i guess.

My workshop was not a public workshop. I help it is private and did not charge a prize for it - I had the participants pay a fee to cover costs. If I hosted the workshop on a regular basis I might have to open a business for this - but since this was a first try and a private workshop my settings worked fine for me.

I good way to promote such a workshop is to create a website for it and let people know about your plans in forums such as this. Just make sure that you do it in a non spam way!

I found some great topic related forums and website to promote my workshop and had almost 1500 unique visitors at my website in the first month. Off course you will have a lot less once you stop promoting your workshop website (unless you also provide quality material and value that makes your visitors come back).

I hope I've been helpful and wish you good luck with your plans! Feel free to contact me any time.
PhilK

[Annabelle]

Thanks a lot, Phil! Your are right, even negative comments are informative. I 've been asking around and some things that I were told are simply not true, but there are some other stuff I hadn/t even thought about...your idea of promoting the event in the internet is excellent and I am also trlying to contact this lady who has a radio show. So far I had not been able to communicate with her, but am still trying. I think this will be a doable thing, only a few things I'll have to work out. Thank you very much for your comments, tell you the truth, I was starting to think than nobody cared, although I am old enough to know better...

[PhilK]

Thanks for writing back. It seems that you are well on your way with this project. Just continue to follow your own path instead of letting other's comments and feedback push you into directions that you don't want to be headed.

Getting in contact with people at all sorts of media 'companies' such as radio, TV (even if only local) but ALSO the internet is a great idea. You don't have to limit yourself to promoting your workshop on your own site. I'm sure there are plenty of website owners focusing on related topics that would be happy to inform their readers about your workshop. If your product is of quality and value informing their readers is providing value to them.

Well, people care but I haven't figured out why some posts get more feedback then others even if there is not much difference in the way the thread was posted (apart from the topic) myself. But I'd be interested to hear about how your plans work out.

Best of luck,
PhilK