Starting a Photography Business: Part 25 – The Fun of the Fair

I’m just back from a trade show, Focus on Imaging; the biggest in Europe. My first time was last year when I pretty much just wandered around in a daze until I had an afternoon shot of espresso. My eyes were popping; cameras to play with – even if they were attached to the counter by a metal wire, lenses to fiddle with and gadgets and equipment to convince myself I needed to put on my wish list. Incidentally they are still on my wish list!

Everywhere I looked, another new toy or piece of information was waiting to grab my attention and fire my inspiration. I’ve been to shows like this before, well hmm, agricultural shows! So I’m a wise browser now, I only collect leaflets from a stand that I really need information on, or by the end of the day my arms are dragging the floor, weighed down with the bag full of brochures.

This year the equipment on display was just as fabulous. Though as it was year 2 for me, I used a bit of tactical knowledge.

10:20 am Arrive at show

10:30 am Sit down with espresso and browse the show guide and daily show newspaper to see who was exhibiting, where they were located and what seminars were available.

10:50 am Advance into the fray with purpose avoiding all people with arms outstretched holding out leaflets that I don’t really need.

Before leaving home I had made a list of a few companies that I wanted to visit, but one of my greatest finds about this years show were the free seminars. By 11:00 am I was sitting comfortably at a stand listening to landscape photographer, David Clapp, talking about his images, how he gets them, how sometimes he just gets lucky, like we all do and what inspires him. I picked up some great tips from him and returned for his following seminars on waterscapes, travel photography & post production.

I know, I admit it, I became a bit of a seminar junkie, however you can’t beat listening to fellow photographers for picking up tips, boosting confidence and getting some business ideas. My next seminar I accidentally wandered across, just as interesting though, a top man at Nikon talking about how important it is to build a community with your customers and potential customers on social networking pages and through their website. It was kind of uplifting to hear a big company acknowledging how important social media is. Oh and this is where I almost droop my head in shame, as I was having a play with the Nikon cameras, lenses almost the length of my entire body, the promotions staff did their thing and managed to convince me that ‘maybe’ Nikon is better than Canon.

I also took the opportunity to have a chat with the different companies running photography holidays to do some research and see if my plans are on the right track; for my future photography holidays, thankfully they seem to be. And in some ways it helped me to finalise ideas for them as well. Trade shows offer so much as a source of research or things that you have on your to do list but haven’t got around to, photography insurance, photography societies, quirky things like aerials that shoot 12ft or more into the sky with your camera on top.

I quite literally stumbled across a stand that was selling just the type of frame I want to introduce to my business, for people who have run out of space to hang photos on their wall. If you want some fun, see where and when your nearest trade shows is and go and play, though maybe leave your money at home, before shiny things that you never knew you needed until you saw them, make you leave the show with empty pockets and a big smile on your face.

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Comments

  1. @TrevorCurrent Thank you for posting the Photography Start-up Series: I’m finding them helpful. #photography

    • @pjswan That’s great I’m glad you’re enjoying the Starting a Photography Business series – Thanks to @iaminthemoment for her excellent work.

      • @iaminthemoment @TrevorCurrent @pjswan Thank you to you both for the message. I’m loving writing the articles & am touched by you thoughts.