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Thumbs up from Imaging & Entertainment exhibitors

June 30, 2011: The Imaging & Entertainment exhibition at Darling Harbour last week was given a thumbs up – both from a consumer and trade attendance point of view – from exhibitors Photo Counter spoke to this week,

PMA has issued a press release predicting attendance figures for the event will be more than 20,000, which will break the previous show record set in Melbourne last year.

Verified figures won’t be available this year for another two weeks.

‘We are absolutely delighted with both the attendance and the air of positive energy and enthusiasm shown at the show,’ said Peter Rose, PMA.

‘This is in marked contrast to the scene at some recent European and US shows. Australia is definitely on the up.’

He said that plans for next year’s show are well under way and dates and other details will be announced within a few weeks.

Potential for growth in printers

It has been proposed that next year’s show should be even more consumer-focussed, which should please leading exhibitor Canon:

‘The show was an invaluable opportunity to engage directly with thousands of consumers over the weekend, and it reinforced to us just how important quality imaging has become in the Australian lifestyle,’ said Andrew Giles, pubic relations manager, Canon Consumer Imaging.

‘People flocked to our stands from morning to night to take advantage of the expertise and full product range that was available, and we fully expect this to translate in to sales following the show.

‘Seeing is believing, and people were stunned by the quality results achievable from our range across capture and output. The potential for printer category growth was clearly evident from the massive resurgence of interest we saw in high-end photo printing, from the advanced Pixma multifunctionals to the Pixma Pro A3+ range.

‘Digital Video also proved incredibly popular with people immediately recognising just how easy our revolutionary in-camera editing makes producing awesome Full HD movies that are ready to enjoy,’ said Mr Giles.

‘The passion for creative imaging was evident from the swarm around the EF lens counter and the constant lines to register on the World of EOS experience stand.

‘The show highlights that there is still so much potential to satisfy consumers’ demand for high-quality imaging…As an industry, the road to future growth starts with understanding consumers’ objectives and then enhancing the value equation by showing them what they can achieve with quality products up the range.’

Consumer focus pays off

Adeal also used the show specifically to focus on the consumer, and was pleased with the outcome.

‘For Adeal it was a very good show in that we where set up only as a consumer stand, to show our new products from Leica cameras and binos, Kata bags and Manfrotto tripods, in addition to the new bags and LED lighting from Manfrotto to be released soon,’ said Adeal business director, Mark Cummins.

‘The reaction from the consumers and from our dealer partners was great,’ he said.

‘We showed at lot of new products from all the brands and learnt a lot from the consumers that will help both Adeal and our dealers moving forward.

He said that from a trade perspective, the show provided a great opportunity to show Adeal’s dealer partners ways of effectively presenting Manfrotto tripods and bags, and the Kata bag range in their stores.

Broad range garners broad interest

Tasco had a separate stand for its GE camera range for the first time and also ran another stand for Ricoh, and yet another stand for its broader accessory range.

Tasco’s Stewart Pickerskill was ‘overall extremely positive’ about the experience.

‘It seemed to be really well-attended, and there was a very positive attitude among attendees,’ he said.

‘We had a big day on Friday and the trade was very positive.’

He said the opportunity to highlight the GE products on their own stand – with three new models on ‘world premiere’ at the show – was particularly valuable.

And because the Tasco range crosses both leading brand cameras and a plethora of accessories, the company welcomed both trade and consumer interest.

‘We are so diverse. From an accessory point of view there’s probably little value at all in showing to consumers, but for our major brands there was probably more value in consumers than showing to the trade.’

‘All in all, we had a pretty good feeling from the show,’ concluded Mr Pickerskill.

More action on Friday for IPS

IPS, whose focus is sharply on photo specialists, was also pleased with what it achieved at Imaging & Entertainment.

‘It was good – we were really happy with the interest generated,’ said IPS national sales and marketing manager, Bruno Polito.

He said dealers were excited, and keen to know more about IPS assuming a distributorship relationship with Kodak for photo specialists. .

‘In order, the things people wanted to speak with us about were Kodak, the new pro gallery and cloud computing features of Dakis online software, and our new partnership in Australian and New Zealand with the IPI group.

‘And we also had a lot of interest in the new Noritsu dry minilab [Noritsu D1005].’

He said that numbers seemed to be down, and that ‘certainly trade was down as the exhibition is becoming more of a CE event.’

‘We were more pleased with Friday, when we had a lot of serious retailer activity on the stand. There was a little on Saturday afternoon, but the only people on Sunday were those with follow-up questions – but they had our full attention!’

IPS hosted around 200 existing and potential new customers on a luxury harbour cruise on Saturday evening, in part to mark the new Kodak relationship

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