The annual Photo Marketing Association (PMA) in Las Vegas is only a day away, but all the new stuff has already been announced...or has it?
It used to be that most photo-product announcements were timed to coincide with the first day of a major trade show like PMA, but that was so last century! Now all of us in editorial land get tons of information on new products beamed to us via email several days, or even weeks before shows like PMA or CES. I guess the idea behind pre-disclosing and pre-launching new products is to give serious journalists time to think up serious questions to ask the serious company representatives and engineers we meet at the show.
No, seriously–the real reason is to give all of the print press and Web teams time to write the majority of their new product coverage before the show so they can get down to the real nitty-gritty in Las Vegas--schmoozing! Let’s face it, if we all had to go to every PMA press event in order to get information at the show, there wouldn’t be standing room (just like at CES!), and none of us would have time to sit around the pool, spend the day on Lake Mead photographing models, check out the awesome suspension bridge under construction near the Hoover Dam, watch the sunrise at Red Rock Canyon, fly a helicopter over the Vegas strip at sunset, marvel at the Cirque de Solei, dine like kings on a private island, or pig out at dozens of lavish dinners in the most exotic restaurants in the USA. (Sound like I have an active imagination? Most of these events are on my itinerary or are being attended by other POP staff members.)
Now, during normal working hours, lets say from 10am to 4pm, we’ll stop and visit dozens of companies and scour the show floors for new stuff. So over the next few days on this site I and other staff members will make sure you have lots of photo-related items to ponder, plenty of pod casts to peruse, and a plethora of posted pictures. But expect the unexpected as well, since I’m bringing my camera with me (or at least a 3MP camera phone) as my personal antidote to “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.”
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