Ever notice how many people you know in the industry, but never get a chance to really spend some time with and actually have a conversation?  Meet Mark Lutz, who while we’ve sort of known each other for years, it wasn’t until the DWF convention in Nashville in January that we actually had a chance to talk.

There are a handful of movers and shakers in this industry and Mark is one of them.   Working closely with Jeff Caplan and Tim Uhl at the Digital Wedding Forum he’s actually got the lofty title of  “Tech Ops Director” – since I’m the most low-tech guy on the planet, I have no idea what that really means, except he’s the go-to guy and simply gets stuff done.  Not sure how and not even sure when – it’s sort of like not wanting to know what really goes into a hot dog!  You just know they’re good!

I can’t believe I’m taking one of the guys I respect most in this industry and totally screwing with his job description – but here’s the bottom line.  Mark is on top of technology.  He’s a great photographer and the only thing more impressive than his understanding of so much of the new technologies is his passion for photography and our industry.  I begged him to do a guest post and he came through with flying colors – so much so that I think I need to dump my new Blackberry!

As I sat here a couple of weeks ago reading Skip’s “13 Tips on Getting the MOST Out of a Convention” I found myself mentally expanding upon my personal favorite #6. NETWORK, NETWORK, NETWORK aka how to maximize your partying networking

Please forgive the gratuitous use of my favorite Blazing Saddles quote and “Excuse me while I whip this iPhone out…”! Show me a photographer without a smartphone and I’ll show you one that needs to get one. These amazing little personal portfolio devices, as my accountant likes to call them can now, pull double duty as a “Network Growing Device” by using a simple little application or two.

At any convention these days you’re bound to see photographers “Bumping” with one another. Don’t be all shocked at once just because I dared to say it out loud and fellas don’t go home and tell your wives that… “Mark Lutz said it was OK to BUMP whomever I wanted while I was in Vegas!”

The Bump I’m referring to is an amazing little FREE application that allows users to share their contact information simply and easily by, as the name implies, bumping one phone with another.

“Bump is a quick and easy way to connect two phones by simply bumping them together. Exchange your phone number, photos, or compare friends with just a bump.”

At the recent DWF Convention in Nashville this nifty little app allowed me to collect contacts swiftly and easily even integrating itself with my Facebook account so I could continue my networking once I made it back home. I swear my net(work)worth grew by leaps and bounds in a single evening. I love my iPhone!

Follow me, follow me… I know where I’m going! Famous last words right? Well with the exponential growth of Twitter use amongst photographers there has never been a better excuse to jump on the “Follow Me” bandwagon. There are some awesome resources out there that can help you network with the best of them. Follow your favorite album company, vendor, organization or individual and you’ll be privy all of their goings on. All around the twittersphere helpful networking accounts are popping up left and right. @WPPI_2010 is the offical feed of the WPPI 2010 convention. @WPPIparties is Candice Cunningham’s party location twitter feed. @DWF_events is where you’ll find DWF action at industry events and the list goes on and on. From Kevin Kubota playing a game of twitter TAG with his followers to Pay It Forward photo blog planning a random twitter meet up.

You get the idea… people are going to be networking via twitter.