For its organisers, the American Photo Marketing Association International through its Hockley, Birmingham, UK subsidiary, a trade show means more of a symposium and industry conference than just an exhibition for the punters.
Hence, throughout the duration of Photo & Imaging Expo 95, there's a string of talks from a variety of speakers. In my experience these will range from deadly to wonderful, and the deadly ones will be those where the organisers merely wanted merit by association - they think it necessary to have something on the economy, so they rope in someone from a bank to talk about it.
This also tends to extend to digital imaging, which produces some of the worst presentations around as it's almost impossible to dispose of vested interests or reduce discussion to the level of the audience.
Having said this, PMA make sure that the bewildering range of 'sessions' on offer is very much interactive. You don't just get talked at, you get a chance to participate and ask questions, under the moderation of a chairperson.
Secondly and more importantly, the sessions are restricted to a time-window between 8.30am and 10.45am, when the exhibition itself opens. This does two things; first, it excludes the regional rabble and casual non-trade visitors from the discussion/lectures unless they care to book hotel accommodation, and it ensures that the punters don't wander off during the opening time of the show itself. One of the major failings of some exhibitions has been the mass exodus to see a particularly well-known photographer in a vast lecture theatre. PMA, by keeping 'sessions' small in scale and outside show hours, will not disappoint those exhibitors who have no desire to behold empty aisles.
You can obtain the full colour brochure with all the details of the sessions, and the means to register and obtain tickets, from Photo Marketing Association International UK Ltd on +44 121 212 0299 or fax +44 121 212 0298, but registration is also possible on arrival.
The highlights of the morning sessions, as far as most of our readers are concerned, will be those which don't deal with photographic retailing, the so-called Advanced Photo System, photolab processing or how to become a Certified Photographic Consultant (which is just another word for a sales assistant who knows his R-6 from his Elmar).
This means, more or less, Monte Zucker on wedding photography, as Symposium B of the 'Super Wednesday' programme prior to the show's opening, from 2.00pm to 6.00pm, for �74 plus VAT; or... Monte Zucker on wedding photography, as sessions PRO107 on Thursday 26th at 8.30am and R402 at 9.15am on Sunday October 29th. The Thursday session is 1 hour 25 minutes, the Sunday one only 45 minutes. He's the best, by the way.
Apart from that, everything else is geared to the trade with the possible exceptions of the other professional photography 8.30-9.55am mini sessions. These are 'The Digital Photographic Market' on Friday presented by Phil Fennessy of Kodak; 'Key Issues of Today's Professional Photographer', speaker not announced (grammar not very good, either) in the catalogue; and 'The Changing Role of Photography' sponsored by Fuji, and sounding rather similar to the key issues, also anonymous but promising top agencies and exceptional work from leading photographers.
These are the lecture-discussion-presentations to go for - all, apart from Monte's afternoon marathon on the Wednesday which is the day before the show itself opens, starting at the early-bird hour of 8.30am. The exhibition itself looks much more promising for our readers, and is open from 10.45am to 6.00pm each day including the Sunday which is officially 'consumer' day. Having two days falling at the weekend is good, and having full days with no early wind-up is even better. The 10.45am daily start is civilized for anyone having to get to Olympia by train and tube or bus. We print here a list of exhibitors because despite the boring layout it's of far more value than lots of pre-show product plugs.
- David Kilpatrick