I spent 4 days in Las Vegas for the 2025 WPPI Expo. It was quite the experience for an introvert. I learned a lot, but mostly about what I would do differently if I were to attend another WPPI. If you’re considering attending WPPI Expo as a family photographer, I’ll give you some tips and insight to what this conference if all about so you can have a better first-time experience than I had. And if you’re not planning on attending this conference but curious about what photographers do when they aren’t photographing or editing, please enjoy my very candid sharing about my WPPI experience!
What is WPPI Expo?
Let’s start with what WPPI Expo is and why I attended. WPPI stands for Wedding & Portrait Photographers International. WPPI hosts a 5 day long conference every year for professionals in the industry to learn from industry leaders and vendors. I knew a few people who planned on attending and decided to see what the heck it was all about. I decided to purchase my ticket when they were running an early bird special. Then I convinced my local photographer friends to join me.
The WPPI Expo & How Photographers can Make the Most of the Epxerience
The 2025 WPPI Conference can be summed up into four parts: The Summit, the Seminars & Photo Walks, the Expo, and the Parties. Understanding how each of these work is essential to planning your WPPI experience.
The WPPI Summit
You can purchase a general admission ticket and get access to the Expo, a few speakers, and the parties, but if you want access to the top tier speakers covering specific topics, you need to purchase a ticket to the Summits. There were four summit topics: portrait, lighting, wedding, and boudoir.
The first day of WPPI was devoted to the Summit Seminars. If you’re unable to attend this portion, the only thing to do on that first day is to sign-in, pick up your badge, explore the space and attend a Happy Hour. The second day included the remaining Summit Seminars which took place at the same time as the general admission seminars.
As a family photographer who uses natural light, the Summit wasn’t the best fit for me so I didn’t attend any of these seminars.
The Speakers
For 2025, some of the speakers included Chloe Ramirez, my mentor Elena S Blair, Terri, Lindsay Adler, Megan Loeks, Sandra Coan, The Vendor Table, Sue Bryce, and Vanessa Joy to name a few. If you purchase your ticket during the early bird special, you may not know who will be speaking, but there will always be someone well known in the industry at WPPI.
I recommend waiting until the list is released (even if its not the full list) so you can decide if the speakers are people you are interested learning from or who you haven’t already heard speak at other conferences. For instance, my mentor is Elena and I’ve taken Chloe’s course so I’ve heard both of those women speak multiple times so it wasn’t that important to me to attend their seminars. I also recommend confirming whether the speakers you’re interested in are participating in the summit or general seminars so you can purchase the ticket that’ll give you the best experience.
The Expo
We spent most of our time at the Expo. In order to visit every booth, you need to devote a lot of time over the full three days. There were three rooms full of vendors, photo booths, camera gear, and more.
Here’s what you need to know about the Expo:
1) The Expo Pasport
To encourage attendees to visit vendors at the Expo, WPPI has a Passport. You would collect stickers from each vendor you spoke to, add it to your passport, and at the end of the week you could turn in your passport for the chance to win a raffle.
As an introvert who is overwhelmed by big crowds, this was extremely helpful for me. Without this, I would have visited maybe 10 booths. But instead, I stopped by at least 40 various booths. I didn’t reach the minimum required for the raffle (had to take too many breaks), but it was a great idea. And even if you only stopped by a booth for a sticker, it gave the vendors an opportunity to pitch their products.
2) There are Prizes Every Day
Vendors gave away a lot of prizes throughout the week but you had to be present to win. The only prize I knew about going into WPPI was Fuji’s. They were giving away cameras every hour! But other prizes and giveaways were timed. For instance, you had to be present at a certain presentation at one of the vendor booths at the expo to be entered to win a raffle or get the chance at winning something.
I’d only learn about those opportunities via the app’s notifications, sometimes an hour before the presentation would begin. By then it’d be too late (I may have already left the expo, was leaving for our flight, or just on the other end of the hotel eating lunch). My advice? Look up as much about the expo beforehand so you can be strategic about where you’re going and when during the expo. And stay for the last day of WPPI.
3) There are Presentations at Different Booths
What I didn’t realize until we were at WPPI was that the expo consisted of more than just vendors displaying their goods and services. Multiple vendors had stages for presentations where photographers would teach different techniques from lighting to gear to settings to editing. Smaller booths had speakers do Q&As. Then there were booths set up for attendees to photograph models.
4) Big Four Camera Companies provide services, presentations, and camera gear.
You don’t need to bring a camera to WPPI, but there are opportunities to use your camera if you choose to bring it. For instance, aside from the photo walks and portrait booths at the expo, many of the camera companies have service centers on site. If you had a Canon Membership you could drop off your camera gear for a free cleaning. My friend got her Fuji camera cleaned for free and picked it up within a few hours.
You can opt to leave your camera at home and rent one during the expo. Or bring your camera body and rent a lens you’ve been wanting to try. And if you’ve been waiting to buy new gear, that was also an option from not just the camera companies but from stores such as B&H, Camera Exchange, and KEH Camera.
Each of the major companies had a stage or area for presentations throughout the expo, too.
5) Special Offerings – Come Prepared to Spend Money or Sign Up for New Services
Nearly every vendor at the Expo had a special offer for those signing up for their services during the expo. Most of those discounts and special offers only lasted during those 4 days and would no longer be available when WPPI was over. So, if you attend WPPI and plan on buying new gear, switching CRM platforms, want to try a new gallery delivery service, or add on selling albums to your clients, wait until you attend WPPI’s expo to take the plunge and make those purchases. It can save your hundreds of dollars.
The WPPI After Parties
WPPI has two parties: Welcome Party and Closing Party. Then there are the after-parties throughout the week. These are not official WPPI parties. Instead, WPPI recommends a bar/club along the strip for attendees to go to late at night. Since we only attended one on the last night, I can’t speak to whether or not there were any perks for attending these as WPPI members. There wasn’t anything special wait for us at Hakkasan.
The Closing party has a theme and this year’s theme was Masquerade. I recommend getting to these parties early if you want drink tickets and free merch. By the time we got to the closing party there were no more drink tickets and a beer or bottle of water will cost you about $8 at the bar. The Closing party was more fun than the welcome since people were able to relax (less people had to attend or speak at an 8:30 am seminar).
There were also photographers walking around taking photos and a step-n-repeat setup. They were vendors at WPPI promoting a very cool system for events. The software used facial recognition and your phone number (which you’d give to the photographer) to notify you every time you appeared in a photo at the event via text message and deliver the photo to you within minutes.
What I Did in Vegas When I Wasn’t Attending WPPI
The Art District
We spent our first afternoon exploring the Art District since we didn’t have tickets to the Summit Seminars. There were a lot of fun thrift stores, murals, and bars in this area. If we had more time we would have spent longer in this area, but we needed to get back for the welcome party. We managed to buy some great finds, though! If you’re looking to thrift while in Vegas, head to S Main St. and E Colorado Ave and walk around.
Fremont Street
On our last night in Vegas we explored Fremont Street so Jackie (Eyeronic Love) could get some fun branding photos for her upcoming rebrand. Fremont is where Vegas began. It still has the old-school lights and signs from the early days. One of the main attractions is the pedestrian mall known as the Fremont Street Experience. The ceiling is lit up with light displays and video. There was a live band playing the night we were there. After taking photos up and down the street, we headed back for WPPI’s closing masquerade party.
Red Rock Canyon
On our drive to the airport, we made a pit stop at the Red Rock Canyon Park. It was a very quick visit since we only had 15 minutes, but it was nice to see some nature and get an idea of how far it was from Vegas in case I ever return and want to do a photo session there in the future.
My Honest Opinion on WPPI
Overall, I like the idea of WPPI but I don’t think it’s the right conference for me, at least not right now. I’ll likely skip the 2026 WPPI, but may consider attending again in the future. I left this conference with more opinions on what needed to be done differently than opinions on what I enjoyed about my experience.
What I Wish Was Different About WPPI
(1) Variety of Course Materials
The content is focused heavily on Wedding education and not a lot of focus on Portrait photography. The courses that related to portrait photography revolved mostly around fashion, artificial lighting, posing, and retouching images. Since I am a lifestyle family photographer who focuses more on natural interactions, natural lighting, and very minimal editing, the courses didn’t speak to me and my business.
(2) Communication, Organization, and Scheduling
I felt lost as to what was happening when during the conference. The event seemed unorganized to me, at least when it came to communicating to attendees what was happening when and where during the convention. There was an app, which didn’t become available to download until a week or two prior to the event. Within the app you could look up the conference map and the schedule of event but some events weren’t listed until WPPI started. For example, the schedule for who was presenting at different stations during the Expo wasn’t included until we were there in Vegas. The after-parties weren’t included until the start of WPPI.
A lot of the times, I only knew what was going on or what to expect because I had friends attending who had been to previous WPPIs. They also had insider knowledge beause they were speakers or participating at endor tables at the Expo. Without their knowledge and help navigating the convention, I wouldn’t have known that the closing party was Masquerade themed.
(3) Location
It can be difficult to find a nice location that meets all of your needs at a reasonable price, so I can understand how WPPI chose the Rio as their venue. But, I wish it had been somewhere else; somewhere closer to the Strip; somewhere that had larger gathering spaces (the bars were too small, the restaurants too few, the seating areas were lacking).
Aside from an area outdoors with tables and chairs setup for people to eat lunch at, there was no where to sit. If you wanted to take a break from walking around the expo hall, you had to sit on the floor or go to a restaurant/bar/food hall to find seating.
What I Would Have Done Differently at WPPI
(1) Pay for the Summit
The first day of the Conference consited of all the Summit Classes. If you don’t pay for this ticket, there’s not a lot for you to do on Day 1 other than register, get a feel for the space, and attend the Welcome Party. If you can benefit from one of the four Summit topics, definitely consider purchasing this ticket.
(2) Stay at the Hotel where the Conference is Located
I do not regret staying somewhere different than the Rio. If the Rio had been renovated or if the WPPI was located at a nicer hotel along the strip, then I would have stayed on site. Since seminars started at 8:30 am it would have been easier to attend these early morning seminars if all I had to do was take an elevator downstairs. Networking with other attendees would have been easier, too, since we would have spent more time in the hotel at the bars or restaurants after hours.
But, instead, I used hotel points for this trip to save money. I also wanted to stay along the strip to be closer to other attractions, restaurants, and stores. The Rio still allows smoking inside the hotel, whereas the Hilton Elara, where I stayed, does not allow smoking. That was a bigplus for me.
(3) Understand the Expo Schedule & Take Advatange of the Giveaways
The expo hall and schedule can be overwhelming because there is so much going on and a lot to see and do. Now that I understand how it works, if I were to go back, I’d look at the vendor list ahead of time and see which ones I want to visit for special deals and offers that I can take advantage of. Then I’d look to see if there are any I’ve heard of and want to learn more about. Then I’d review the map, if it’s availble, to get a lay of the land and know where I can expect to find my favorite vendors.
I’d also look for the expo schedule in the days leading up to the event so I can plan out when I would visit different booths so I could take advantage of any giveaways happening during presentations.
WPPI Expo 2025 was definitely an experience—some parts were worth it, others not so much. If I attend again, I’ll approach it differently, and I hope sharing my experience helps you decide if it’s the right fit for you. Whether you go for the education, the networking, or just to see what it’s all about, having a plan will make all the difference.
Have questions about my experience? Email me at ohtannenbaumphotos@gmail.com
