Today we're starting a series of blog post dedicated to the recently glared with thousands of flashes, amazing photos, new technologies, and bright ideas Photokina 2016.
Our team visited the conference and came back stuffed as full of meat as an egg with interesting insights and protuberant impressions about the photo printing industry, about the market of personalized print products, and about the conference itself.
Mr. Dmitry Sevostyanov, the product manager of Customer's Canvas, and Mr. Fedor Skvortsov, the product manager of Graphics Mill, are here today to lift the curtain over the one of industry's most respectful event of the year.
Dmitry:
My first impression of Photokina 2016 was… disappointment. That's right: disappointment, but it was about 3 minutes 28 seconds before I entered the conference area and mainly had to do with my attempt to enter from the parking lot via back door. I got a tad lost in the empty hallways and for an instant believed with all of my heart that the industry is dead and buried and this is Photokina 2016.
Fortunately, 3 minutes 27 seconds later I found myself among hundreds of people, bright lights, exhibition pavilions, and the real future of the photo industry, which is much more optimistic than I thought before. And I'm not talking about "before in the abandoned corridors", but the entire "before".
Photokina always is a special place. Couple of months ago I had a chance to visit drupe, another respectful conference in the world of global print industry. That was a strict business meeting from start to finish. Photokina is a work of art. Yes, all the businessmen are here too, same as manufacturers, developers, and other artisans. But unlike drupa here you can also meet artists. You can feel the thick atmosphere of creativity on every step: outstanding photo exhibitions, pavilions and installations of any kind. It's just singing out loud: yes, we're here to make money, but the true reason after all is to create something inimitable.
During 3 sunny days in Cologne we met some of our loyal clients and potential ones, talked to our competitors, argue with our competitors, taught them and learned from them. We found out our strong and weak points, as well as a way to grow. We visited The Museum of Applied Art, tried scary Mettbrötchen (well, it's a raw pork sausage meat on a bun), and admired the magnificent Rhine after missing our river cruise boat…
Fedor:
That's right. But we're going to talk about this next time. Right away we off to pave the way for release of the brand new Customer's Canvas 4.0.