PMA Expo exhibitors reveal all in the public interest

More than 10,000 public visitors, a record number of professional photographers and a relatively smaller but dedicated bunch of retailers provided exhibitors at this year’s PMA Digital Life Expo with plenty to do over three days on the show floor.

PIN Online surveyed a cross-section of exhibitors to find out how it was for them:

Kodak retail program manager Shane Martin said the company was “very pleased” with the outcomes from the Melbourne show.

“The dealer numbers were steady – in fact, we saw quite a few dealers on the Sunday morning – but the consumers came in droves,” he said.

“We’re now asking ourselves – how can we improve the consumer experience next year,” he said.

“I think we have to do a better job of embracing the consumer. We need to have a different type of person on the Sunday dealing with the public to demonstrate our products and to get the benefit of that experience.”

He said the company’s software for printing images from Facebook (introduced at PMA Anaheim earlier this year) attracted a lot of attention.

Martin said he also received a lot of good feedback on the conference sessions ands was impressed by the number of pros in attendance.

Like other exhibitors, Martin found the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention a “much easier” venue to operate from than Sydney or Brsibane.

Australian Photo Supplies director Robert Dessmann said while the show was “very good” overall, he was disappointed at the turnout of retailers.

“It’s always a bit disappointing not to see more retailers,” he said. “It’s always the same people and I’d estimate that we would have only seen about 20% of our retailers.”

At the same time, he said there was a “great turnout by consumers” with “lots of people asking lots of questions.”

Dessman was full of praise for the venue, despite some “parking issues” associated with the concurrent Food & Wine Show.

“The Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre is a terrific venue,” he said. “Sydney is always a nightmare – getting in and out.”

Dessman said at this stage, APS was “certainly committed” to next year’s event.

Nikon Australia is “happy with the outcome” from this year’s PMA, according to the company’s below-the-line manager Georgia Way.

Way said Nikon received “really good feedback” from the event with all sales staff kept busy and the Nikon School attracting a lot of interest from enthusiasts.

She said that while the company did not launch anything at the event, a lot of interest was shown in the recently-launched D700 DSLR.

“I wasn’t at last year’s show but there was a lot of interactivity at the stand this year,” she said. “For most of the time, it was packed.”

Way said that while it seemed a “lot quieter for trade”, the company found some “time out” for individual retailers.

SanDisk’s Joss Velling said the show was “good overall” with visitors showing a lot of interest in the capacity and speed of flash storage cards, particularly for DSLR cameras.

“We had a lot of enquiries from people wanting know which card was the best for a particular camera,” he said. “Sunday was very busy and we had quite a few people who wanted to buy product so we referred them to retailers such as Ted’s.”

“This was the best show we’ve ever had,” according to Kayell Australia director Rob Gatto.

“It was well attended and we’ve learned a lot from the experience.”

Gatto felt there was a need to re-orientate the company’s stand on the Saturday following the large influx of public visitors.

“It (the show) completely flips from midday on Saturday,” he said.

Kayell’s stand featured demonstrations on Elinchrom studio and portable battery powered lighting, 

Gatto said the Orbis RingFlash attracted a lot of attention with the product’s inventor James Madelin conducting a series of live demonstrations.

Meantime, Kayell has been appointed Australian distributor for USA-based GigaPan Systems, inventors of the tripod mounted motorised device that turns “megapixel cameras into gigapixel image gatherers capable of stunning detail and sweeping panoramas.”

A “lack of dealers” was a concern for Haldex, according to a company spokesperson. “In reality, the timing is bad,” he said. “The show needs to be in September when we can sell-in for Christmas. Who buys in June?”

He said the cost of exhibiting at PMA (which PIN Online estimates to be between $30,000 and $40,000 for a company of Haldex’s size) has prompted the company to ask – “is it worth the effort?” 

Online photo competitions and promotions software provider Photoartgallery.com is now engaged in discussions with all but one of the major photo brands, according to managing direrctor Andrew Coppin.

“With so much of the focus at PMA on the impact that social media and the internet  are having on the imaging industry, I can certainly confirm that all the big name brands were ready and very willing to talk to us about our photo competitions and promotions platform and our newly coined term – ‘Social Imagery’”, he said. 

“We had some great meetings at PMA and all of the major brands with few exceptions ((Canon) are now engaged in discussions with us of some kind about how they can best leverage the opportunity to participate in this sphere,” he said.