Adventures at the World Show!

It has already been a wild ride at the 2011 AjPHA Youth World Championship Paint Horse Show in Fort Worth, Texas.

As you might imagine, I hit the ground running in late May when I joined the APHA Marketing Team. Marketing duties at the World Show include preparing daily videos, ads, and a newsletter, which involves taking photos and writing short features.

Fortunately, I am finally finding the time to do a little bit of blogging about the show. We moved in a week ago today, and time has absolutely flown. Already seven days in and three to go, things are starting to get really crazy.

I have already written two mini-features for the Around the World newsletter, a daily publication that goes out every morning at 8 o’clock.

I am also in charge of daily updates to the AjPHA Twitter and Facebook pages, as well as daily photography assignments of Youth activities, such as the Ice Cream Social and Arena Games.

Youth at the AjPHA World Show participate in "Horseless Egg & Spoon."

My first few days at the World Show were spent getting ready for the days ahead, and trying my best to get the hang of working in a new office. I took most of Thursday last week to take candids of the move-in and get used to shooting with such a heavy camera!

Though the editorial department has three cameras (rightfully so!), the marketing department only has one to keep track of, the Nikon D200.  They have two lenses for the camera, a 50mm and a 70-200mm—and they are a blast! I have never been trusted with such an expensive piece of equipment, so it is certainly exciting.

Though the basic settings are very similar to my own camera, I have so many bells and whistles to work with, I almost don’t know what to do! I hope I can get some great shots for my portfolio.

Aside from getting used to the cameras, everyone has been settling right in to their new desks. On Wednesday, we packed everything we would need from our desks at the office, put it in our cars, and headed down to the Will Rogers Memorial Center. In our makeshift office, there are 11 desks, one for each of the members of the editorial and marketing departments.

It can get pretty loud, and a little crazy, but somehow we are able to get our jobs done. I enjoy the camaraderie that comes from working together on everything from planned events to unplanned catastrophes. Though we haven’t had many, it really takes a team to make everything work.

As the next three days unfold, I’m sure we will continue to be quite busy. The marketing department is in charge of making recap videos for each of the four high-point winners. Though that may seem like a fairly simple task, thousands of pictures are sifted through, and picture selection and collection continues throughout the week. Since results of the high-points aren’t finalized until minutes before they are announced, marketing prepares two or three videos for each high-point contender, which means many more hours of preparation.

I can say that my experience at the World Show has been exciting so far, and I’m sure the remainder won’t be dull, either!

If you would like to learn more about the Youth World Show or APHA, check out our many Twitter pages: @worldshow, @paintjournal, @ajpha and @aphanews. You can also comment on the World Show using #YouthWorldShow.

Check back for more updates, follow me on Twitter (@janellmb) or check out my personal blog.

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