What are you using to present video at coffee shops?
 

I just bought an HP laptop because it plays Blu-Ray and is 17 inches viewable. Unfortunately it has a super-gloss screen that picks up every reflection imaginable. I wish I could go Apple, but I can't do Blu-Ray with it. Thoughts?

I don't show them our work in coffee shops. When we meet, we just talk about their wedding. 90% of them already saw our work on the blog. We also always ask them to watch our work when we're setting up our meeting via email. Try not to make the meeting about selling your product but instead, try to make it about getting to know each other a bit more. They are booking you as a person anyways.

Having said that, I do have my ipads all the time if I need to show some short examples e.g. ring shot, venues, decorations, etc etc.

hope that helps :)

I second Santo,

Also if you can have a personal phone conversation with them too before meeting them (you may find you'll book them without even meeting as I have) the meeting in face to face could almost be just a get to know each other meeting and getting them to warm to you so on the day you will have a better connection with the couple.

But if you do need to play HD video I would say iPad is the best option at the moment.

Dana, whatever you show them ought, in my view, be seen in the environment when they can best make a serious judgment about it. I wouldn't think a coffee shop, with the attendant distractions and noise would be that. We always encourage them to view the demo DVDs at home. Of course that might not be distraction-free but it's the best chance we've got.

We bring a laptop.

It's perfect because I can quickly update it with the latest videos, jump on the web if we need to (and have wifi), and I have my samples organized in folders (2010 highlights, love stories, trash the dresses, etc.).

Best of all, you can show full HD video and don't need to waste a blu ray :D

Ipad... Small, lightweight, and it still wows the client. They love playing with it.

I only do wedding photography now - They love flipping through the albums.

We've tried to get away from coffee shops. Our service area is pretty large, though, and even though we have a studio, most of our clients need to meet us within 20 minutes of where they live. I've also found that our clients expect us to show them something, and I would rather guide them through our Blu-Ray and highlight how utterly cool we are than send out a demo. Plus it gives us talking points along the way. I guess the downside is our meetings average 1 1/2 hours!

Aaron, what laptop do you use? I'm also curious how you present HD. I'm assuming it's Quicktime. I'm just nervous about playing something that labor intensive on a laptop without the threat of hiccups.

The iPad seems too small, although I guess a couple could hold it.

We are PC based and use VLC for playback of our videos. It's really light on resources and handles HD videos terrifically.

VideoLAN - VLC media player - Open Source Multimedia Framework and Player

The laptop is a dual core HP we got for $600-70. Nothing special except that it has those cool circle graphics on it.

When we meet at a noisy place, we usually have the audio barely on and we will talk throughout the video.

My thoughts: Go Apple and show them HD files in Quicktime. For burning the couple's Blu Ray discs, pick up a Lacie external Blu Ray writer.

I recently had a bride contact me and she didn't want to drive the hour to my studio. She asked if we could meet at a coffee shop. I said no. She drove to my studio and booked me.

On the flip side of Michael, it's great to say "I know other places make you run around to all their studios, would it work better for you if we met in your area when you have some free time?"

I use my laptop with 2 sets of a good quality head phone that has a mute button.

Personally, I think it sounds desperate and unprofessional meeting them somewhere. That's just my opinion.

It depends on the area. We live in Surprise, on the NW corner of Phoenix. When we get a call from a suburb on the opposite side of town, they generally have no problem driving a half hour to meet us in the middle. But then there is a wealthy suburb that generally expects to meet within a few blocks of their house, and won't drive any farther. So it totally depends on the client. Some would rather drive a little to see a professional studio, but it seems most just want to meet us.

I second that. You'll find that they would think that you're desperate rather than thinking that you're so kind. They would be more suspicious rather than respectful. Definitely get them to drive to your area.
If they are interested in you, they'll make the effort.

Never mind where you show your samples the iPad is a great piece of technology to showcase them. It still has a definite novelty factor & actually feels much more natural to hand over to like you would a photo instead of hunching over your laptop. The size is plenty big enough.

It just seems so dang small, but my wife and I are strongly looking into it, especially with how much we hate windows (Ugh!).

iPad iPad iPad! - I just switched from lugging around a laptop. The video quality on the iPad is amazing and the size is more than adequate. Clients can hold in their hand, adjust to a comfortable viewing position, adjust volume etc. I bring along a headphone out splitter and two lightweight sets of headphones. If you meet at Starbucks you can take advantage of the free WiFi and jump to your website for more samples. Only drawback so far is that I can't show what the DVD menu looks like.

Oooh, and then there's that. I guess I could make a demo video of how the menu functions.

I'm REALLY close to getting one. Really close!

Dana, I can well understand you wanting to buy a sexy iPad, they look great, but if the objective is to show DVDs and the iPad won't let you demonstrate the DVD menu, doesn't logic suggest that the best route is an un-sexy portable DVD player at about 25% of the price of the iPad? - or maybe with Christmas coming you could swing both?

I've tried iPad, but I can't stand fingerprints on the screen and that is inevitable with the one, plus when I meet my clients we just talk, and they never ask me for additional videos;
I have about 15 constanty updated videos on my website and when my potential clients contact me i reply with the template email that has all info and also links to SDEs, save the date and full wedding videos; most of the time my clients don't have time to watch all online content that i send them prior to our meeting, so 9 out of 10 just want to give me deposit and make sure that I got the date booked for them.

most people know how a DVD menu works so just a still shot of the menu should work fine. I also use to push the fact that my trailers and highlights can be downloaded and shown around on their own iPods/iPads.

With our current 19" laptop I can watch BR DVDs with the clients and point out things.

Portable 10" HD Player: $250
* Ability to show menu system
* Ability to show various menus
* Lower cost
* No fingerprints, though probably shiny and reflective

iPad 9.7" Mac $545
* Replace stupid PC laptop that I hate, offsetting the cost a bit
* Would serve as email hub for on-location reference
* Ability to show HD footage, though w/o menu system
* Cool calendar system
* No more Windows - we'd be all Mac
* WiFi

Question: How can a 256 ram/16gb 'laptop' play and HD movie without skipping? Also when you watch it with battery power, does the screen dim to save battery?

videos play smooth as butter - no skipping. The image is much brighter than my laptop. My rational for purchasing was for the other uses as well. It's a great e-Reader. My wife and I use it 80% of the time for that purpose.

I agree with you Dana, here in Phoenix since it comprises so many cities, Surprise, Glendale, Peoria, Scottsdale, Mesa, Tempe, Gilbert, and many more it is important to occasionally offer meeting half way and Starbucks is perfect for that.

My favorite Starbucks story is booking three weddings one night at one Starbucks, I booked the wedding I was showing and two couples who were engaged wandered over to view as well, within weeks I had booked all three. That never happens at the studio.

That's a great story Bill! Something similar happened at my last meeting, but I haven't booked her yet.

Looks like someone already beat me to it, but I would recommend the iPad. It's sexy and stylish and minimal and just all-around good in many ways. You might consider some external speakers or headphones (speakers would be best as not every bride will want to put on headphones).

Obviously the best thing to do is have them meet you at your studio, but if that's not always working for you, try the iPad. We have one and we love it, although we meet with couples in our studio for local weddings 99.999% of the time. d;-)