They're replacing the Focus show with.......

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epic

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Steve
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The Photography Show!! To be held at...The NEC...on 1-4 March 2014 (Sat-Tues).

Just had a heads up from mate of mine who's been a trader at the last 5 Focus shows and he just got his letter this morning.

Being organised by Future (publishing house?), similar sort of layout i.e. 2 halls but they're looking to bring in designated areas for things i.e. no more presentations being done on stands it seems, they're looking at some sort of Super Stage where they'll get people talking.

They do say they going Sat-Tues in order to give the amateurs/hobbyists more time to visit as opposed to cramming in on Sunday. Don't know if that is a good or bad thing. At least with only one clear day for them to attend you could avoid it. Having said that, most full time togs will probably be working Sat anyway.

If I can get a copy of the letter from him I'll put it up here but seems there is a phoenix from the ashes!!!
 
Great news can't wait
 
Future are a good company, big media house, based in Bath http://www.futureplc.com/what-we-do/portfolios/technology/

They have several photo magazines (including Digital Camera, N-Photo) and websites (TechRadar), and are strong in computing/gaming and toys for boys (T3).

So it looks like the new show will likely have a more general technology and lifestyle spin for consumers, and less of a professional photography angle.

Way to go IMHO, if they're not going to do anything more regional.
 
Should be good, having seen the amount of people this year I was surprise to hear it was closing.

The only slight thing that always annoys me about these sort of shows is that I often go with a shopping list, but either find not much for sale or drastically overpriced goods which is a real shame.

I remember looking at this Tamron bag. It was either being sold by Tamron themselves or a big reseller of theres, it was about £65 at the show and £25 on Amazon.
 
Intriguing, as Future are also behind the training event at Hammersmith in October, but as they recruited a well known name in the exhibition industry last year, not totally surprised they are going for it: Apparently the PMA and the RPS have put their name to the show
 
Are they going to have crowds of guys, with 1/2 a hundredweight of gear, drooling over models and getting in the way when you're having conversations with manufacturers.
 
connersz said:
Should be good, having seen the amount of people this year I was surprise to hear it was closing.

The only slight thing that always annoys me about these sort of shows is that I often go with a shopping list, but either find not much for sale or drastically overpriced goods which is a real shame.

I remember looking at this Tamron bag. It was either being sold by Tamron themselves or a big reseller of theres, it was about £65 at the show and £25 on Amazon.
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IMO, numbers were well down this year. It seems to me that numbers have been falling over the last several years, although the official reported numbers for previous years were always stated to be a new record.
Are they going to have crowds of guys, with 1/2 a hundredweight of gear, drooling over models and getting in the way when you're having conversations with manufacturers.
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Well, if there are going to be no demos on stands then that won't happen. I always found it strange that so many people snapped away during our demos, even though there was no way they could get our results without our lighting:)
 
At least these days most (although probably not all!...) the people gawking at the scantily clad young ladies will have some sort of recording medium in their cameras - not always (dare I say often?!) the case back in the days of film when you would see men wind through 100s of shots without a bulk back or reloading! (More often seen at motor shows!)
 
Details taken from the letter sent to the traders about what their plans entail;

Super Stage - featuring some of the biggest names in photography talking through specific images &/or sharing hints/tips on how to be better.

Live Stage - More pro togs appearing on a stage with opportunities for visitors to take photos. Themes include comic heroes, cars, bikes & models (Just go with the last one guys, you'll keep most of those who want to take photos at a trade show happy! (y))

Studio Suite - suite of studios for visitors wanting to get hands-on in a pro environment. Studios will feature specialties like light trails & macro photography as well as photo editing studios giving tutorials on processing images.

Gallery - Future will either invite a photography exhibition to be at the show or run a competition for the show gallery.

Wildflower Garden - this will be a feature at the show and specialist pro photographers will advise visitors how to take fantastic flower close ups.

All areas where visitors will be taking pictures will be draped to create the best environment.

If they add all this and get decent trade in there it may be a progression.
 
Garry Edwards said:
I always found it strange that so many people snapped away during our demos, even though there was no way they could get our results without our lighting:)
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Was you the guy shouting "if you don't do it with <these> settings you won't get the right results"?

If so I got a pretty good result without the lighting :)
 
connersz said:
Was you the guy shouting "if you don't do it with <these> settings you won't get the right results"?

If so I got a pretty good result without the lighting :)
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No, not me. I just ignore the idiots:LOL:
 
st599 said:
Are they going to have crowds of guys, with 1/2 a hundredweight of gear, drooling over models and getting in the way when you're having conversations with manufacturers.
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I do hope so, or it just won't be the same.... ;)
 
Super stage with the 'big names' doing workshops and demos and seminars (for a fee of course) - of course this is the way for it to go. Trot up some of the 'rockstars' who make a living doing workshops while pretending to be successful working photographers, charge a small fortune to attend their truly fascinating seminars about how to light meter wrong, pose a bride and groom cheesily, how to use the latest speedlight plastic accessory and hark on at length about how it's revolutionised their photography career in two pieces of Tupperware, or a 'fashion' workshop where depraved letches will snap furiously away at a nonprofessional model smiling awkwardly as an instructor talks them through a truly complicated single umbrella lighting setup - and of course the show can mark all of these seminars up several million times...


Definitely the way for the show organisers to go, there's certainly demand for a big bonanza of seminars from the big names in the photo workshop world :)


Meanwhile, everyone who wants to actually see some stuff from genuine working commercial advertising guys will go and sit down at the half empty phase one stand for a bit :)
 
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If it turns out to have a lot of retail opportunities, having the choice of Sat or Sun to go on weekend will be great. Didn't fancy travelling up to London for that seminar thing for £200 for the weekend....
 
itsdavedotnet said:
Super stage with the 'big names' doing workshops and demos and seminars (for a fee of course) - of course this is the way for it to go. Trot up some of the 'rockstars' who make a living doing workshops while pretending to be successful working photographers, charge a small fortune to attend their truly fascinating seminars about how to light meter wrong, pose a bride and groom cheesily, how to use the latest speedlight plastic accessory and hark on at length about how it's revolutionised their photography career in two pieces of Tupperware, or a 'fashion' workshop where depraved letches will snap furiously away at a nonprofessional model smiling awkwardly as an instructor talks them through a truly complicated single umbrella lighting setup - and of course the show can mark all of these seminars up several million times...


Definitely the way for the show organisers to go, there's certainly demand for a big bonanza of seminars from the big names in the photo workshop world :)


Meanwhile, everyone who wants to actually see some stuff from genuine working commercial advertising guys will go and sit down at the half empty phase one stand for a bit :)
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Hammer, nail, head.

But unfortunately the public are incredibly gullible. Presentation trumps content, gear trumps knowledge, bull **** trumps brains, software trumps technique, price trumps value and sleight of hand trumps honesty.
 
Garry Edwards said:
Hammer, nail, head.

But unfortunately the public are incredibly gullible. Presentation trumps content, gear trumps knowledge, bull **** trumps brains, software trumps technique, price trumps value and sleight of hand trumps honesty.
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Yorkshireman's guide to marketing :D
 
Garry Edwards said:
Hammer, nail, head.

But unfortunately the public are incredibly gullible. Presentation trumps content, gear trumps knowledge, bull **** trumps brains, software trumps technique, price trumps value and sleight of hand trumps honesty.
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Gary, with mantras and a way with words like that... Have you thought about doing workshops? ;)


I want to start a workshop workshop...
 
Welshman's guide to marketing.
 
itsdavedotnet said:
Meanwhile, everyone who wants to actually see some stuff from genuine working commercial advertising guys will go and sit down at the half empty phase one stand for a bit :)
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(y) definitely has the best selection of speakers, there are a few others that were definitely worth going out of your way to see; for example Drew Gardener's lighting stuff is always top notch.

My main concern with most speakers is that they are always pushing their own next workshop, ebook or whatever rather than focusing on the purely education aspect (I will accept pushing manufacturers products will always happen to some degree, they pay the speakers at the end of the day).

Other talks seem to just be 'hey look at my nice pictures, yeah I won an award for this', no real explanation on how it was made/lit etc but my biggest gripe is the stands that put on a pretty model and a good public speaker who is just an average photographer (they are always the most watched as well for some reason :thinking: ).
 
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