Changes at Photokina

AgX · May 26, 2017

-) from the next fair on (2018) it will take place annually (so far bi-annually)

-) from Wed to Sat (so far Tue to Sun)

-) from 2019 on in May (so far in September)

AgX · May 26, 2017

Photokina started in 1950 in Cologne as a child of the association of the west-german photographic industry, with 340 stands and a duration of 9 days.
Non-professionals were only allowed on the two Sundays.
After 3 years the rhythm was changed into biannual, the duration successively reduced to 6 days.
The number of stands reached more than 1000, the number of visitors 250,000.
Cologne likely was chosen as the initiator was the CEO of Agfa-West, and in the British Occupational Zone only Cologne had respective halls.

In the begin not only the halls were still war struck, but great part of the city vanished. Thus Agfa advertised the fair even with a pre-war photograph of the city...

Also the fair from the start included an iconographic part, by means of several exhibitions within the halls.

Brady Eklund · May 26, 2017

I was there last year and it was quite the show. Not too much analog stuff on display though. Kodak had a little shelf in the corner of its booth with its film on display, and Alaris had some photopaper. I don't think Fuji had anything about film, but they might have had a frontier. Noritsu did have an RA-4 machine IIRC. Ilford was mostly about their other products(or was that a different Ilford spinoff?). On the other hand it seemed like everyone had new mirrorless cameras that looked like old rangefinders...

AgX · May 27, 2017

Photokina made sense when ALL attended. Or nearly all...

Recently even Harman (IlfordPhoto) stopped attending. So, will niche market manufacturers even attend annually? Or will they attend erratically?

RattyMouse · May 29, 2017

Brady Eklund said:
I was there last year and it was quite the show. Not too much analog stuff on display though. Kodak had a little shelf in the corner of its booth with its film on display, and Alaris had some photopaper. I don't think Fuji had anything about film, but they might have had a frontier. Noritsu did have an RA-4 machine IIRC. Ilford was mostly about their other products(or was that a different Ilford spinoff?). On the other hand it seemed like everyone had new mirrorless cameras that looked like old rangefinders...

Uh, Fujifilm had a massive Instax display.

AgX · Jun 2, 2017

The Fair will be added by "new core themes" as

-) Mobile
-) Analytics
-) VR/AR
-) Robotics
-) Imaging Lab

Also mentioned are:

Video and Audio
Security and Smart Home
Virtual and Augmented Reality
Cloud and Sharing
Video- und Image-Editing including Computer Generated Imaging

The German Photoindustry Association calls this in their press release an "ingenious linkage".

jernejk · Jun 2, 2017

Huh.... sounds like they could as well merge with Cebit.

Patrick Robert James · Jun 2, 2017

I got the impression when I read about this that they were starting the move away from photography. Can't blame them since digital cameras have for the most part reached a maturation level that has seen sales shrink precipitously. The consumer end has also practically disappeared with the increase in capable cameraphones. That makes for a very small market indeed. A couple decades from now you might be hard pressed to find more than one maker of professional cameras, if they even exist at all.

AgX · Aug 10, 2018

At the momement the number of manufacturers rises who state no longer to attend Photokina.
Several arguments are mentioned as not reaching their clientele any more, annual fairs being too costly. In other fields too the respective classic big european fair is loosing interest of manufacturers.

However... against the low of 2016 the number of exhibitors rose by 42% !

AgX · Dec 7, 2018

AgX said:
-) from the next fair on (2018) it will take place annually (so far bi-annually)

-) from Wed to Sat (so far Tue to Sun)

-) from 2019 on in May (so far in September)

Photokina announced that they have postponed the change over from biannual to an annual fair.
However, as planned the fair will be shifted from September to May. Thus the next fair will be in May 2020.

Last fair is decribed as that successful that the few months to the new spring date would be too short to createc again such "mood" as this year.

BrianShaw · Dec 7, 2018

Moving from the end of many companies fiscal year to earlier seems like a benefit!

AgX · Dec 7, 2018

The fair took place in September for decennia, thus that hardly is the reason.

We should not forget that many exhibitors we knew did not take part and that included even Zeiss. A company you least would expect that.

BrianShaw · Dec 7, 2018

That may be so, but don’t be quite so dismissive and ignore the reality that these days end-of-year funding gets tight. In most professional conferences I support/attend even a move from Sept to Oct ( beginning of FY) has made a significant difference... resolving the problem of diminishing participation.

It is always interesting to me to see who actively participates or supports industry conferences or trade shows and who doesn’t. The reasons are not necessarily intuitively apparent.

AgX · Dec 7, 2018

Interesting to learn
But not all conferences, fairs etc. could be packed in a financially interesting period. And the visitors must be regarded too.

In the long past Photokina was the place to be for anyone from this industry at least when aiming at the european market. This has changed, as our communication has changed.

BrianShaw · Dec 7, 2018

True... schedule congestion the “good months” happens and can be equally counterproductive in terms of attendance. In my area of engineering these conference schedule changes,indeed, have been almost entirely based on the “visitor funding problems”. Professionals often can’t make a case for their company to fund attendance mosltly just to learn what’s new and interesting, whereas those attending to actively participate - present a paper, demonstrate a product, or serve on a leadership committee - are more likely to get funded.

Similar with companies who are participating as exhibitors to solicit business, directly or indirectly, because marketing budgets are often tight and “value trades” like ROE need to be made... and that criteria is often much more stringent at end of year than earlier.

Unless there is a ton of available money in the budget to start, or those funds are managed exceptionally good... but that seems quite rare anymore. For anyone paying there own way out-of-pocket this is immaterial, of course. This funding contention is true even when there is only a nominal conference fee because the bulk of cost is travel, lodging and meals.

And your right about how communication has changed. That has had a huuuuge impact on conferences, trade shows or any other kind of face-to-face gathering!

BrianShaw · Dec 7, 2018

Oh... one more thought. We had to move a conference with decades at the same place in a resort town to a less glamorous location because attendance had plummeted. It was a lot easier for people to get funded to participate in a meeting in, say, who-knows-wher Alabama than Las Vegas or San Diego.

And, as expected, some regular attendees stoped attending because it seems their primary interest was location/sightseeing rather than the content of the conference.

AgX · Sep 24, 2019

Leica , Nikon and Olympus stated not to participate at next Photokina in May 2020.

Leica state to be pausing and to evaluate a possible attendance in 2021, but to strengthen their appearance at their own show-location in Wetzlar.
Nikon rejects the idea of an annually fair.
Olympus sees a lack of importance of such an event.

Zeiss after skipping one fair will be back in 2020.
Fuji are still contemplating.

benjiboy · Sep 24, 2019

The fact is that even digital equipment worldwide isn't selling in the volume that the manufacturers would need to be viable because the mass market is using their smartphones not buying cameras, and participating in Photokina for manufacurers is enormously expensive.

AgX · Mar 20, 2020

Photokina 2020, sheduled for May, has been cancelled. And postponed to May 2022.

Thus the pandemic was only the last drop (or excuse) for that change. It is stated by the provider of the fair, that due to changes in the photographic industry, in the fair world and general economic developments have tightened resources of mnanufacturers already last year.

The in 2017 announced change to an annual fair and the first annnual date in May 2019 already had been cancelled last year.

foc · Mar 20, 2020

The pandemic is affecting everything. We are living through a historic time and will only understand it fully when we can look back and reflect.

For sure, there will be major economic and social changed in the foreseeable future.

AgX · Mar 20, 2020

But you overlook that there was trouble at Photokina in the past already. The concept of "The" world-fair of the photoindustry was questioned, some firms staying off. The countering concept of a yearly fair seemingly even made it worse and was cancelled. And the obvious solution to postpone the fair now to next year was not chosen.

foc · Mar 20, 2020

I Understand about the trouble and the concept BUT all it needed was the Covid 19 to be used as an excuse to cancel.

AgX · Mar 20, 2020

Of course one can see my comments on this all as by a guy full of malice after "his" Photokina has stopped to exist years ago...

To me that all started when at one film manufactuer I was told that there were not data-sheets anymore, but one would have to look them up on the internet.

cmacd123 · Nov 27, 2020

story I saw today has it perhaps is suspended and may be canceled forever.

https://www.koelnmesse.com/news/for...&anzahl=10&channel=kmeigen&language=e&archiv=

AgX · Nov 27, 2020

Not "perhaps" suspended, but definitely for the "time being".
And their argumentation does not let one expect this trade fair to be resumed ever.

Changes at Photokina

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency