Photokina, the mother of all imaging trade shows, has announced it will shift to an annual event from 2018, and from 2019 it will run in May – challenging other major trade shows like CP+.
The event, which takes place in Cologne, Germany, will broaden its scope and cover a larger range of imaging products, rather than core areas of photography. It will also be reduced to a four day event.
New areas like virtual and augmented reality, cloud computing, image recognition and holography, along with social media, smart phone apps, and computer generated imaging products and software, will be covered.
‘Repositioning’ to an annual event will ‘optimally reflect the fast-paced nature and the ever briefer innovation cycles of an increasingly digitalised industry’, the press release says.
Photokina’s previous calendar model allowed it to co-exist with CP+, Japan’s major annual imaging trade show which takes place in March. Brands have strategically scheduled products announcements around the two events.
But with less than two months between CP+ and Photokina, there’s not barely enough room for both events to hold onto major product announcements. It seems likely one event will eventually fold.
‘The digital transformation of the imaging industry is advancing, and thus opening up new perspectives and value creation potential. The new date and the annual cycle should in future make Photokina even more attractive to all providers of the imaging ecosystem,’ said Rainer Führes, chairman of the boar of the Photography Industry Association, which runs Photokina. ‘In this way, we show the specialised trade, the media and our users an even broader bandwidth of state-of-the-art products, applications and services in Cologne which especially suits the young imaging culture.’
Photokina 2018 will run in September 26 – 29, and will then run in May, 2019.
Be First to Comment