PMA puts retailers in the bigger picture

Well that’s it! PMA USA is over for another year. What a conference and trade show it has been.

The DIMA Conference was exceptionally good with a great range of interesting speakers and some great lessons learned. Adding a few new ideas to your business by sitting in on sessions is a great way to justify attending the conference and not just the trade show.

Not only are the networking opportunities fantastic it is a great way to learn what is working in stores all over the world. Of course, it is a great opportunity to catch up with old friends and an even better opportunity to make new ones.

Talking to attendees it seems PMA and DIMA got the mix of topics and sessions just about spot on this year and there was plenty for everyone to get interested in.

The trade show itself saw the usual myriad of small companies offering all manner of interesting titbits to add value to retail businesses and photographers. One notable change in events on the trade show floor was the inclusion of the PMA Photo App Pavilion – a section devoted to applications used in mobile phones to improve the imaging experience.

If you have not seen the huge take-up of these fun apps for phones then jump on to iTunes and check a few out.

Compact camera manufacturers would do well to see which applications the public are buying and find ways to incorporate some of these features into their cameras. PMA once again ran it’s highly successful ‘Hot Picks’ session on the trade floor.

During the course of the show retail and pro photographer ‘spies’ hunt through the show looking for the product that catches their eye the most.

These ‘spies’ then present the product during the session for everyone to see what is hot. This is a great initiative that gives you some peace of mind that while you may miss something there are others out there on the look out for you.

The full list of ‘Hot Picks’ will be posted on the DIMACast but a couple of stand outs are Topaz plug ins, R Straps, Hoodman Loupes & frames from retailers and Hahnmuhle canvas wraps, ToCad mini projector and Perfectly Clear software from the pros.

Google them up and check them out to see if they are right for you.

With none of the majors actually releasing any new DSLR models there was slightly less buzz on the major stands than usual but innovative products such as Samsung’s NX10, Olympus’s latest PEN camera and the Panasonic MFT cameras were all gaining a lot of attention.

Olympus PENs in competition

Olympus very cleverly ran a display of their PEN cameras with lenses from EVERY manufacturer on them (via adaptors).

The marketing concept is simple – revitalise your old 35mm systems with Olympus… that’s a pretty powerful temptation to all those consumers with gear sitting in a bag in the cupboard.

The big take-away

I guess the big take-away from this PMA show, and every one I attend for that matter, is that no matter how much you think you know about this industry, and the products and services we have available for our customers, listening to the speakers and checking out the stands really shows just how many opportunities there are for us to really add to our operations that we would not have known existed without attending.

With that in mind it should be time to book your hotels for PMA Melbourne in June. Can you afford NOT to attend?

Regards Glynn