Having just recouped from three days of attending the PDN PhotoPlus Expo (www.photoplusexpo.com), held at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in NYC, I thought I’d share my impressions of the show. PhotoPlus is designed for professionals in the photographic and imaging industries, and showcases the latest in photography. October 22-24, 2009 marked the 26th consecutive year of the show.  This year there were a number of companies that chose not to exhibit, including Fujifilm, Pentax, The MAC Group, Calumet, and Adobe. However I didn’t feel that made a big difference in attendance. There were also a number of new companies to the industry showing product for the first time.

Although no registration figures have been released yet—I felt the show was well attended. You see, for someone who has attended dozens of tradeshows over the last 10 years, I judge the attendance on the tradeshow floor by how easily one can navigate through the aisles. If you’ve got to weave among other attendees and stop often to wait for others to let you through, then its pretty crowded. If you can easily and quickly walk the show, then its not that crowded. Well, I’m pleased to say that even though we’re in the middle of a recession, PhotoPlus Expo 2009 was well attended—all three days. Normally the show which is held Thursday through Saturday is more well attended on the weekdays than on the Saturday, however this year there were just as many folks walking the tradeshow floor on Saturday as there were earlier.

In addition to the hundreds of exhibiting companies, over 100 special events, seminars and hands-on workshops were held over the three days of the show. Topics ran the gamut from portrait/wedding, commercial/editorial, lighting, marketing and business, Photoshop and color management, and more.

Stay tuned to the Picture Soup blog for more from PhotoPlus Expo 2009.

[By the way, if you want to put next year's dates in your calendar now, PhotoPlus Expo 2010 will be held Thursday, October 28 - Saturday, October 30, 2010.]

— Diane Berkenfeld