PPA Charities announces the first ever full-day Charitable Marketing pre-conference class at PPA’s ImagingUSA national convention. An all-star line-up will share their best ideas on how to incorporate charitable marketing into your studio strategy. The class, which is scheduled from 9-5 on Saturday, January 9, 2010, will take place at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel.

Class moderator will be Mary Fisk-Taylor, PPA Charities president and nationally known speaker. Confirmed speakers to date are Jed & Vicki Taufer, Lori Nordstrom, Jeff & Julia Woods, Sarah Petty, Lori Craft and Tim & Beverly Walden. In addition, Ann Monteith and Angie Weedon, the administrators of Family Portrait Month and Operation Smile Studio programs, will present information on the 2010 programs and activities, as well as a host of ideas for raising funds for Operation Smile, PPACH’s charitable partner.

The class will include special guest speaker Margaret Moore, from Dublin, Ireland. Margaret will explain how the Irish Professional Photographers Association has used charitable marketing to elevate the profile of both the Association and its members through its annual Happy Faces Day promotion, which last year alone raised over $90,000 for its charitable partner. Recently Margaret was named as one of Ireland’s Top 100 Business Women by Irish Entrepreneur magazine. She and her husband, Barry, own and operate Photogenic, an upscale portrait/wedding business in Dalkey.

Finally, you will see and hear from Bert Behnke and Graham Wilson, who in the last quarter of 2009 documented heart-touching Operation Smile missions in Bolivia and Vietnam. In their own words and pictures you’ll understand just how powerful a tool charitable marketing can be, and how lives have been transformed because of professional photographers working on their behalf through Operation Smile.

This class will be offered for only $129! All speakers have agreed to donate their services for this amazing class to raise funds for PPA Charities, which will allow us to continue our support of Operation Smile and to provide opportunities for PPA members to do likewise.

For signup information click here.