From February 29 to March 1, 2012, photokina will present the 3rd Business Forum Imaging Cologne in Koelnmesse’s Congress Center North. In the run-up to the world’s leading trade fair for photography and imaging, photokina 2012, the Business Forum Imaging Cologne will bring together manufacturers, providers of imaging services, and retailers to discuss the key trends on the imaging market. Imaging experts and top managers from all over the world will be on hand to share their ideas on marketing digital imaging products and to discuss new business models, products, and services.
The new slogan of the Business Forum Imaging Cologne 2012, “Memories are more…INTERACTIVE,” reflects the trend that more and more people are capturing their memories with a wide range of digital devices (including cameras, smartphones, multimedia cams, and camcorders) and sharing them instantly from practically any location in the world. The classic digital platforms, PCs and notebooks, are being joined by new communication devices such as smartphones, tablet computers, and even Internet-enabled HD TV sets. These trends are allowing companies to develop innovative products and imaging services that will be discussed at the Business Forum Imaging Cologne 2012 and presented in all their diversity at photokina 2012.
Independent experts will also once again have the opportunity to express their views at the conference. For example, the American social media specialist Alexandra Gebhardt will be presenting successful online applications, introducing innovative services, and addressing the question of how providers of image services and photographic dealers can profit from the fact that more and more consumers are using images to communicate in social networks.
In an additional presentation with the title “Friends and Features: New Opportunities through Photo Communities,” Mark Drasutis, Senior Director of EMEA Product Marketing at Yahoo!, will show the innovations through which flickr provides its members with new experiences and explain what opportunities this generates for imaging suppliers to market their products in a networked world.
The presentation of Dr. Hans-H. Graen, CEO of F&G Digitalspezialist GmbH, shows that turnover can be made not only with new digital images. His conclusion: Most image services providers focus on printed products and overlook other possible digital image services. The digitization of Super 8 and video films, as well as billions of analog pictures that are lying around in shoeboxes and albums, is not only a profitable business, but also creates new opportunities to transform the produced image data into lucrative image products such as photo books, calendars, and multimedia applications.
A special highlight awaits visitors on the second day of the fair, when the program will focus on concepts for the photographic trade and on consumer preferences. In a presentation titled “Meine Erinnerungen und ich” (My Memories and Me), 17-year-old Philipp Riederle will report on how the “Facebook generation” experiences images, captures important moments, and communicates by means of photos and videos. The podcast “Mein iPhone und ich” (My iPhone and Me), which this young “shooting star” has been producing for three years, is downloaded about a million times per year. He regularly tops the charts with his iTunes — frequently ahead of the offerings of the major media companies. Riederle, who has established his own company, Phipz Media, makes numerous presentations to the management boards of many major companies, in which he explains how young people are using the digital media today. At the Business Forum Imaging Cologne 2012, the young entrepreneur will also talk about the kinds of offerings his generation expects from the photographic trade and providers of imaging services.
The Business Forum Cologne 2012 will conclude with a panel discussion titled “How can the photographic trade become cool?” The panelists will address the question of where the photographic trade’s strengths lie with regard to the factors of trust, expertise, and personal contact with customers. After all, many young people like to consider themselves cool and don’t have much of a connection with traditional imaging services.
The panelists — leading specialist dealers, suppliers, and independent experts — will discuss all of these issues and try to come up with “cool” concepts for the photographic trade.
Partners supporting the event include the Photographic Industry Association and the market research firm GfK Retail and Technology. The conference is once again being organized by INTERNATIONAL CONTACT, the leading magazine for the global imaging business, and the US-based international information service Photo Imaging News, U.S.
You can find the complete preliminary program of the Business Forum Cologne 2012 on the following pages or online at www.bfi-photokina.de.
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