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Eastern Pennsylvania Business Journal -
Business Berks - FOCUS
By PAMELA ROHLAND
Business Journal Correspondent
Shareholders meeting leads
to marriage, merger
 It was arguably
one of the most romantic episodes ever to occur at a Meridian Bank shareholders
meeting.
In April 1989, Virginia Frederick, a peppy
independent producer of corporate videos, was filming the meeting, while
Craig Dodge, an independent supplier of audio-visual equipment, was working
the sound and lighting. During the meeting, a Meridian exec asked
Virginia if she was single because Craig was, too. Embarrassed but
nonetheless intrigued by Craig’s ”take charge” attitude, Virginia admitted
that she was unmarried.
Before long, the two were sharing reuben sandwiches
in a corner of the room; at the end of the meeting, they demonstrated their
mutual interest in the way that end-of-the-millennium romantics did – by
exchanging business cards.
The couple took wedding vows entwining their
lives in May 1993. It took awhile longer for them to take the plunge and
wed their businesses, but in January 1996 they incorporated as VA Productions.
Based in the couple’s Reading home, the company provides a complete
range of video production services to businesses and nonprofits nationally
and internationally, including Sovereign Bank, Agere Systems, Arrow International,
FMC Corp., GMAC Mortgage, the YMCA of the USA, and a company in Sweden.
Virginia, 35, and Craig, 41, provide script-to-screen
services from idea development to delivery of the final product for videos
on training, sales and marketing, workplace safety, company history, shareholders
meetings and more.
"Because of my background, I understand all
aspects of production,” Dodge says. ”I can give very specific suggestions
when, for example, clients say something doesn’t look quite right to them.
Our businesses serve our clients better because we work together.
There are a lot of video production companies and a lot of audio-visual
companies, but there aren’t many like us. We provide strengths in
both areas.”
Virginia, a native of Spring City in Chester
County, once dreamed of becoming a broadcaster. While studying communications
at West Chester University, she took a job working with a friend videotaping
weddings, even though she had never held a video camera before. The
experience exposed her to the idea that working behind a camera could be
at least as much fun as working in front of one.
At 19, while still a college student, Virginia started her own wedding
video business using rented equipment. But it was while working at
a video production company in Conshohocken, both before and after
her graduation in 1987, where she truly learned the business.
”I started on the ground floor and eventually
worked my way up to production assistant, shooting live sports events,
TV commercials and live spots, and corporate events,” Virginia recalls.
”It was the best experience in the world.”
In 1993, Virginia moved to a West Chester
production company, where she served as a writer and full producer.
When the company downsized not long afterward, Virginia, then 28 years
old, was shocked when clients said that if she started her own production
company, they would follow. And they kept their word.
”Those clients began referring other clients.
I never had a grand master plan; my clients were the ones who told me where
I was going to go (professionally),” Virginia says. ”I felt that
I couldn’t let them down.”
Virginia’s business was going full throttle
when she met Craig, a Berks County lad studying psychology and biology
at Albright College, while also running his audio-visual business.
Despite initial reluctance to become a business duo, the couple realized
that merging their companies made good business sense when clients began
hiring them for the same jobs.
Since 1994, the company has experienced a
growth rate of about 25 percent each year; this year, VA Productions expects
to log $750,000 in sales, mostly from word of mouth advertising and their
Web site (www.vapro.com). The rate of growth has tapered off a bit because
of the dicey economy.
”Some of our clients are going through changes,
which will affect us,” Virginia admits. ”People are being more hesitant
about the way they spend their dollars,”
What has not waned is their clients’ wholehearted
enthusiasm for Virginia and Craig.
”They are very creative with projects that
could easily become ho-hum,” says Alice M. Sawyer, a national membership
development consultant for the YMCA of the USA, based at an office in King
of Prussia. ”Virginia always gives things an interesting twist, which makes
it fun.”
Borrowing some tricks from television newsmagazines,
Virginia used a ”hidden” camera to expose the great services that the ”Y”
performs and adopted a ”Hard Copy”-style anchor desk on another project.
Sawyer says that Virginia’s skill at interviewing
allows people to relax and appear at their unrehearsed best while talking
on camera. And she put a special effort into a poignant production
on the challenges of the Jerusalem YMCA.
”Our YMCAs love her tapes, and they really
use them,” Sawyer says.
David Schoellkopf, an IST technology engineer
at Carpenter Technology in Reading, worked with Craig and Virginia on a
video recording of CEO Robert Cardy’s retirement bash.
”They’re very good at what they do,” Schoellkopf
says. ”They let the you be involved as much or as little as you want. They’re
very flexible and will bend over backwards to meet all of your requirements.
”Some (video producers) are harder to work
with because they take the point of view of an artist and make demands,
Virginia and Craig have an attitude of serving the customer,” he says.
In the future, the couple hopes to focus on
growing the multi-media side of their business, including the creation
of interactive CDs and DVDs. In the meantime, they seem to enjoy the actual
”doing” as much as the ”becoming.”
”My biggest joy,” Virginia says, ”is being
in business with my husband and developing close, long-lasting relationships
with clients.”
copyright 2001 EASTERN PENNSYLVANIA BUSINESS JOURNAL
– Reprinted with permission of the Eastern Pennsylvania Business Journal
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As
I write this I think I am still in shock, like most Americans, over the
terror that was wrought upon so many innocent lives last week in the early
morning hours of Tuesday, September 11th. They were senseless acts
causing pain and sorrow to anyone with a heart, not just here in America,
but around the world. I myself felt helpless. I just wanted
to be there at ground zero in New York City or DC physically helping.
It was the first time I regretted my career choice. I lamented that
I was not a fireman or a doctor who could volunteer to help with the rescue
effort. While I’m a business owner, I wished that I were a supplier
of heavy equipment or gloves or boots who could donate goods to aid the
rescuers. My video and audio/visual equipment wasn't going to save
lives or console loved ones mourning the loss of someone dear. My
skills as a producer weren't going to help find survivors. In the
scheme of things, my job seemed so very insignificant. These thoughts
continued for days following the attacks.
