Introduction

@Wildmanrouse and Olympus UK Ltd are proud to announce their first joint online e-Conference on Sunday 9th August 2020 from 9am BST. In light of recent events the way that conferences are held in the near future will have to change and we are proud to bring you this inspiring event which you can enjoy from the safety of your own home. Sit back, watch, learn and enjoy as our Olympus photo gurus help you to maximise your knowledge of your Olympus kit. Feel part of our friendly Olympus Community and get useful tips and ideas you can use for your own photography. Here's the main exciting bits:

Inspiring Professional Photographers - the e-Conference will bring together 4 outstanding Olympus professional wildlife photographers to share their passion and vision with you, right from the comfort of your favourite arm chair! They will share their knowledge, their favourite images, and will give you killer hints and tips that you can use for your own photography. Their expertise ranges from the smallest creatures to the biggest, from far flung reaches of the planet to locally on their home patches during the recent lockdown. All talks will end with the photographer's favourite 5 images taken with their Olympus kit with the backstory too! Of course you get to ask questions after as well. It will be the first time Olympus have brought these photographers together for such an event.

Revealing Capture One demo - we are delighted to welcome the fabulous David Grover from Capture One who will give us a mind blowing demo on the power of this software to process your Olympus files. He's the most popular expert around and we're so happy to have him!

Olympus Community Session - A special community session with Andy Rouse and ever popular Olympus Guru Clare Harvey May, where we talk tech / news, help critique some of your images and judge a special competition too!

Competition - We are having a special competition for all delegates with great prizes including an Olympus camera kit. Details below.

Online session - The conference will be hosted on the popular Zoom platform, with regular breaks during the day, so you will get all this wonderful knowledge without leaving the comfort of your home!

Network and chat - Via the Zoom Chat function you can message and chat to other photographers in complete safety. 

This awesome online conference will be the photo highlight of the summer!

How it works

All presentations will be via the Zoom platform. You will need to install Zoom 5.0 on your laptop / computer...it's quick, seamless and free. 

Don't worry if you are a bit challenged technically, we will send full instructions to you as we are very experienced now at running these events (Andy Rouse has run three previous photography conferences and currently hosts a series of webinars and e-Talks). So don't worry you are in good hands!

The presentations will be spread out during the day so there will be plenty of time for breaks in between. During all presentations you will have your video switched off and will be muted. At the end of each presentation you will be un-muted by the host and can switch your video's back on to say hi and ask any pressing questions. We will also have a CHAT function to allow you to all interact.

On your screen you will see the photographer speaking in a window, together with the host Andy Rouse and of course their amazing images shown full screen. Andy is there to ask questions where needed and to give more of a personal conversational feel to the event. As a professional photographer for over 20 years he knows what questions to ask to get those vital tips explained so that you can use them in your own photography. 

Come and be inspired by their amazing images and push your Olympus photography forwards with their focussed hints & tips.

Presenter Line-up

Olympus Community Session

Ok here we have the dynamic duo session, great friends Andy Rouse and Olympus guru Clare Harvey May. This is an Olympus community session, which builds on the family feel that the company has with all of you. You know all about Andy by now, here's a little about Clare in case you haven't met her yet (although we know a lot of you will have and will love her like we do!):

The session will be split into several parts:

1) Olympus Update - Get the lowdown from Clare and Andy on the latest products from Olympus and get to ask her those kit questions directly!

2) Competition - Yep everyone loves a competition and we have a great one for you. All delegates will be invited to submit an image for our competition before the conference (details will be sent in plenty of time). Clare and Andy will then pick their favourite 10 images and give them each a positive critique during our Community Session. Everyone in the top 10 will also receive a signed tiger book from Andy Rouse, the runner up will receive a complimentary place on Andy's Working with Light webinar and the winner will receive a special gift from our friends at Olympus UK - an Olympus EM10 MK3 EZ Kit.

3) Expert Q&A - Ask Andy and Clare that pressing question that you've always wanted to ask about your kit, or about a project that you are trying to do for an award or just your photographic pleasure. They will do their best to answer!!

Day Plan

The day will be divided into sessions during which each talented photographer will inspire you with their images and give you great tips for your photography. Each photographer will talk for 45 minutes, with time after for questions. There will then be a break where you can end your Zoom session and go off to have a cuppa, or lunch during the longer break. You can then re-enter the waiting room for the next session and will be admitted before it starts. It's easy and we will manage every aspect of it so don't worry. 

Q&A

Here are the answers to the most frequent questions that we expect you to ask, if you have anything else just click here to contact us.

Q. How can I ask a question if we are all muted?

A. Ah that's why the CHAT function is there on Zoom. It's the Zoom equivalent of a messaging system

It will be disabled during the presentations but at all other times it will be enabled so you can ask questions. Andy will be monitoring this and when he sees a question he will find whoever asked it on his display and un-Mute you so that you can ask it in person and get a response. It's VITAL that we do this as otherwise Zoom meetings can descend into chaos!!

Q. Will the sessions be recorded?

A. The sessions will be recorded and available to stream to all registered delegates a week after the conference. Please note that only the presenter sessions and the Community session will be recorded, no user images or names will appear in the recordings to protect your intellectual rights. Personal recording is strictly forbidden, as is distribution of the videos of the presentations.

Q. What will you be looking for with images for the competition?

A. First and foremost they obviously must be taken on the Olympus system!! We ask that you retain the EXIF of the submitted images so that the camera details can be checked, this will help us talk about them if selected. Please choose an image that you are really proud of. It must feature wildlife of some degree, but this can also involve pets too!! Only pick images that stand out from the crowd, but please do enter. Full details will be sent a month before the conference, it's gonna be fun!!!

Q. Do I need a good broadband connection?

A. If you can watch videos on YouTube or the web then your internet is well good enough for Zoom. We will not be showing movies as in our experience this does cause broadband issues. Before signing up to this event please ensure that you have a broadband connection as specified, we are not able to give refunds for any poor connection issues during the day. If your web drops out during a session or something comes up then don't worry, you will be able to sign back into the next session and will of course have the movie to catchup on. 

Q. Can I access from my smartphone?

A. Of course but we don't recommend it. To get the full experience and see the images in all their glory you ideally need a laptop or better still connect the laptop to your TV! So please don't access the session by phone if you want the best experience.

Q. How safe and secure am I during the conference?

A. Your online security is of vital importance to us. All delegates will be required to authenticate their email address to Zoom before joining this conference. We will use a waiting room before entry. Our meeting address and password will be secret and only shared with registered delegates. During presentations all videos will be switched off and so will audio. When video is enabled before / after the session, our moderators will be monitoring all feeds and any inappropriate behaviour or language that they see will result in immediate removal of the user. So you will be as safe as we can make it and in any case, our Olympus community are a very friendly and polite bunch.