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Canon no-show a show-stopper?

Reading reviews and comments on The Digital Show Facebook page, the extent of attendee’s anger at Canon, and to a lesser extend Sony and Panasonic, not participating is palpable.

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Variations of the opinion above were shared by many exhibitors and visitors to the show.

There are. of course, many positive, enthusiastic comments on the show. In fact, most of the negative comment focusses on Canon – and it wasn’t even there! Not only did Canon disappoint thousands of attending photo enthusiasts when it decided that it wouldn’t take part, it delivered The Digital Show, IDEA, and arguably the photographic industry, a body blow.

What leadership! What vision! What asinine arrogance!

It will be incredibly challenging to mount another consumer/professional focussed photographic show without Canon and the other camera companies that went AWOL, given the depth and breadth of negative reaction this year from both visitors and exhibitors.

Rob Gatto – who generously invested many hours organising the show on a voluntary basis when he could have more profitably been putting those hours into his own business – was upfront in expressing disappointment that Canon, formerly a leading member of IDEA, chose not to attend.

He said that APPA volunteers, wearing special Canon-branded APPA tops (for the last time when/if the rumours are confirmed), were being hounded by visitors who assumed there was a ‘secret’ Canon stand hidden away in the APPA judging area!

One disgruntled attendee suggested that the organiser, IDEA, should have given Canon exhibition space for free to get it along. Someone close to The Digital Show management, who were constantly harassed over the weekend with ‘where’s Canon?’ queries, responded thus: ‘So in your eyes, a not for profit association that’s primary cause is to promote the industry, educate and encourage new interest, should give away space to a multinational, mutli billion dollar company that CHOOSE not to support their customers by attending and educating their “fans” further. Surely the “free space” would be better served by encouraging and assisting up and coming players in the market, those that do care about the future of an industry that has dramatically changed in the past 10 years.

…Not happy Jan!

Rob Gatto also said Sony’s decision not to participate came quite late, which ‘left a hole in the floor space’ and that unsuccessful discussions with Panasonic, Samsung and Camera House (an IDEA member) were also unhelpful.

Here are some more of those Facebook comments and reviews:
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3 Comments

  1. Al-Pal Al-Pal November 5, 2015

    Will some-one knock on Canons door please looks like the Lights are on but no-ones home ..

    • Jeff Jeff November 10, 2015

      Why blame Canon? There were other big names missing and this event has got smaller and smaller over the years. Surely fingers must be pointed at the organisers? I mean, if a tradeshow is a success for any corporation, they’d continue the investment. If not, who can blame them for spending their money elsewhere.

  2. Astor Marascelli Astor Marascelli November 12, 2015

    I believe we should have PHOTOKINA CONVENTION over a week here in Melbourne. Without photography we wouldn’t really have a media, or anything else for that matter. Photography, no matter in what format, is used for advertising, science, journalism and many others which we nearly all take for granted. Educate, encourage and proliferate.

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