The Voiceover Unconference known as FaffCon was held in Charlotte, NC in late September. FaffCon is a participant-driven professional development event for working voiceover industry pros. Its highly-interactive, peer-to-peer learning environment is consistently credited with helping establish VO-industry pros take their careers to the next level. Prospective participants must meet certain criteria and apply to attend. FaffCon sells out very fast, every time.
Because the education and networking is so impactful, attendance to the event is capped and because every voiceover applicant is vetted to be sure they are a working voiceover professional, only folks who are among the best in the business can get in to FaffCon.
Four members of MVO: The Voice-Over Guys were in attendance at FaffCon 9, networking with fellow pros, sharing their insights and learning new performance and business concepts that will help each Voice-Over Guy build their business and serve their customers. Enjoying their time with voiceover peers in Charlotte, NC was GEORGE WASHINGTON, III, TOM TEST, SEAN CALDWELL and PETER K. O’CONNELL.
Oh well yes, a great deal of fun was had along the way too.
ABOUT SEAN CALDWELL
Sean Caldwell is an award-winning voice over talent recording in Tampa, Florida and Atlanta, Georgia. Today Sean serves over 100 clients each month in diverse industries around the world. His work has won awards from NAB, Promax / BDA, The Marconi award, and two Telly awards.
ABOUT TOM TEST
Tom has been one of the top voice-over talents in the Midwest since 1989. He started my studio “Voices On” in 2003, and has since voiced hundreds of projects from web-based Flash animation to national TV spots to college-level textbook narrations to Corporate Video narrations. He has voiced quite a few Telly (and other) award-winning spots in my career, and has also been a much-in-demand voice-over coach and demo producer.
Tom can provide 24 hour or less turnaround and voice over file delivery service via MP3, WAV, AIFF, or whatever you require. His partial list of clients include: USAA, Shell, Accenture, 1-800-CONTACTS, Mercury Marine, United Airlines, Kraft, Samsung, Snapper/Simplicity Mowers, Eli Lilly, ITT, World Book Encyclopedia, Discover Card, International Trucks, Brightstar, Walgreen’s, Morgan Stanley, Allstate, Cox Cable, Kawasaki, and MANY more!
As a voice-over talent, Tom’s specialties include his warm yet authoritative read, which has been especially popular with health-care clients, with whom he has voiced several award-winning campaigns. Tom is NOT a radio announcer – he sounds like a REAL person, talking to you, telling you a true story.
He has a broadcast-quality recording studio, equipped with Source Connect and ipDTL for remote recording. He also has access to several low-cost ISDN studios in Chicago.
As an on-camera talent, Tom’s ear-prompter ability is what separates him from his competition. His first read is spot-on from the get-go, and he works extremely quickly.
ABOUT GEORGE WASHINGTON, III
In 2003, I began voicing with a trip to a local recording studio to do some narration bits for a First Union National Bank industrial. The gig stirred my imagination, and I began the research and practice to make my first demos. Working with sources both local and national, new opportunities came over time, and I started working on projects as small as phone messaging to as large as national ad campaigns.
Since that time, I have provided voice over services in documentaries, video games, radio and television commercials, in store announcements, marketing on hold, websites and web ads, virtually every aspect of the voice-over industry. My voice has represented companies like McDonalds, Courtyard by Marriott, Whole Foods, Big Lots, Time Warner Cable, and Lowe’s Home Improvement. My home studio is giving me the opportunity to build on my voicing successes, and I am looking to keep growing with new clients and outlets for years to come.
I have called Charlotte home since 1998 with my daughters Grace, Naomi and Ella, and my son Jordan.
ABOUT PETER K. O’CONNELL
Hi, I’m Peter.
That was my “short” biography.
Now, if you like, here’s the slightly longer version…
Before Madonna sang about her virginity, when making a phone call from the road meant plunking twenty five cents into a phone booth and back when getting “on-line” meant waiting to check-out at the grocery store, I began my career as a male voiceover talent and live announcer.
I am currently celebrating my 35th year as a professional male voice-over talent.
As America’s friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent, my versatile vocal skills allow me to share many voice acting styles with my clients, who range from Fortune 500 Companies to companies who think $500 is a fortune. From conversational everyman voice to hard sell straight announcer performances, my natural voice over abilities are favored by clients for commercials, narrations, e-learning, documentary, TV promo, radio imaging and live announcing.
People have told me I am a natural born storyteller. I’ve even won some awards for my voiceover work.
In my voice-over career, I have been fortunate enough to work with brands including General Electric, Kraft Foods, PBS (Public Broadcasting Service), Shell Oil, Pitney Bowes, Duracell Batteries, U.S. Army, Starz Cable Channel, Bacardi, SunSetter Awnings, Deloitte, Time Warner Cable, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), Bonefish Grill, First Financial Bank, N.A., Western Union, BlueCross Blue Shield, Darien Lake Theme Park, J. Walter Thompson Advertising, Cleveland Browns of the National Football League, Harlequin Enterprises and Pathmark Supermarkets.
My voice-over recordings have been heard globally including London, England; Seoul, Korea; the Caribbean; Sydney, Australia; Toronto, Canada; Delhi, India and Buenos Aires, Argentina. Nationally across the United States, my voice has been heard in all major markets including but not limited to New York City; Los Angeles, California; Chicago, Illinois, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Dallas, Texas; Dayton, Ohio and Buffalo, New York.
OK you’re right, if you’re scoring at home, Dayton, Ohio and Buffalo, New York aren’t really major markets but I have spent so much time there, I felt they deserved a shout-out. A native of Buffalo, NY, I grew up in the Nickel City – I even worked in radio there at WLVL, for, like a week. I truly developed his broadcasting and voice-over skills in Dayton at WVUD-FM as a top rated disc jockey and then as a commercial producer for the station.
I produce my voice projects through my audio production company, audio’connell Voice Over Talent which is a division of O’Connell Communications, LLC. In addition to my voice over work, which represents a majority of the company’s production schedule, audio’connell also provides casting services for clients looking for professional female voiceover and audio production services for national and international clients. The voice over needs of foreign language clients are served through another O’Connell-owned company, International Voice Talents.
Yes, I am also the guy that wrote that voiceover e-book entitled The Voice Over Entrance Exam. The book examines the business and performance realities of becoming a voice-over talent and maintaining a career among a spirited field of established voiceover professionals. Sometimes, when I am feeling very “authory”, I wear an ascot around my house – it’s very obnoxious.
After years of giving away my hard earned knowledge about everything voice over, I decided I should be getting PAID for it so I started audio’connell’s Voice Over Workshop. In private one-on-one voiceover sessions in my studio or via Skype, I teach new and experienced voice talents what I’ve learned after nearly 30 years in the voice over business and critical stuff voice actors need to know to get paid voice jobs.
I received my Bachelor of Arts degree in Radio and Television Communication from the University of Dayton (OH) – no one is quite sure how – nonetheless the official diploma can be found somewhere in my Cary, North Carolina home (just outside of Raleigh, North Carolina) where I live with my wife and children.
Thank you for reading all the way to this point in this overly wordy biography but now you really need to get away from the screen and go do something more productive – even basket weaving would have been a better use of your time, as opposed to reading all the way down to here, but thanks anyway.