Photo retailers attend The Big Photo Show Reception at PMA@CES

[PPFA NEWS LINE]

Erin Manning made thousands of dollars selling her DVDs for $20 each at The Big Photo Show

At The Big Photo Show Reception held during 2014 PMA@CES on Tuesday, dozens of attendees learned about the inaugural Big Photo Show held in Los Angeles last May, and the upcoming 2014 Big Photo Show events in Los Angeles and Chicago.
Several people who exhibited and attended the first event shared their experiences. PMA immediate Past President Allen Showalter presented a video of the event and mentioned that the 16,000-plus attendees spent more than $600,000 over the two days of the show.
Another presenter, Bill McCurry, started with a confession: “I have to admit I thought The Big Photo Show was going to be a failure. I was wrong.”
Bill showed slides of attendees he spoke with on the show floor, who were all excited to be there, hungry to learn more about photography, and *eager to spend money on their passion. One slide featured an enthusiast who brought a friend with her. “That plus-one, her friend, was just tagging along – but she was also getting excited about photography for the first time, just from being there. She said she wants to start taking fashion photos.”
Another attendee Bill spoke with was a photo buff who’d lived in Southern California for 10 years – yet had never before heard of Samy’s Camera. “After discovering Samy’s at The Big Photo Show, now he’s a customer. Because they took such good care of him at The Big Photo Show, he will be in the stores from now on.”
Patty Sullivan of Acratech told the attendees, “We didn’t know what to expect for The Big Photo Show. Honestly, we didn’t think it was going to be a big success, but it really, really was.
“The attendees were exactly the kind of people we want to be interacting with, and they were so interested in our products. These are people who are either really passionate about photography and our exact target market, or they are people who are just starting to get into photography and they are getting to know Acratech early in the process of becoming a photo enthusiast,” she added. “Our sales were fantastic at the show, and the chance to meet face-to-face with the people who will be our future customers was invaluable. The booth was so busy. We had three people staffing it and we could really have used 5 or 6. We have already signed up to exhibit again next year.”
Pro photographer and instructor Erin Manning taught education sessions at The Big Photo Show, and had a booth where she was displaying her educational resources. “The people were so happy to have the opportunity to learn more about taking better pictures. The need for education is huge among photo enthusiasts,” she said.
Although Erin had brought along a couple friends to sell her educational DVDs right in the education theater, it was worth having the booth space as well, because sales at the booth were just as brisk. “I made thousands of dollars at The Big Photo Show, right then and there, selling my DVDs for $20 apiece,” Erin said.
Bill McCurry pointed out all the retailers at the event sold so much stock, they had to return to their stores to get more.
David Dimont of Samy’s Camera said sales at his store’s booth were through the roof. “It was just so much more than we expected. We brought 20 employees, and every one of them came back from The Big Photo Show exhausted, but also totally energized by the enthusiasm of all the attendees and the chance to make so many new customers who had never been in the store.* We signed up again for next year right away, with bigger space.”
Mike Kahn of Sony said interacting with so many passionate photo hobbyists gave Sony the chance to turn them into Sony customers. “We were introducing these excited photo consumers to Sony products, getting them interested in Sony equipment, and then sending them down the aisle to the retailers, where they purchased the items we were showing them,” Mike said. “Manufacturers need to be embracing this opportunity. Fujifilm will be at The Big Photo Show in May, and others need to join in. Sony will be at The Big Photo Show again, of course – this time, in a booth more than twice the size of last year’s. This is simply an opportunity people in the imaging industry can’t afford to miss.”

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