The Media Innovation Awards celebrate fresh thinking and entrepreneurial spirit in media and publishing. Future join the 2014 shortlist for the launch of The Photography Show.
Matthew Pierce, Head of the Photography Group at Future, takes up the story…
Future launched their most ambitious event ever, The Photography Show, at Birmingham's NEC (March 1st-4th, 2014). Attracting more than 30,000 visitors, it has already established itself as the UK's leading annual photography event for both consumers and the trade
The vision for The Photography Show was for a dynamic, contemporary event that gave photography enthusiasts of all skill levels a variety of learning opportunities, interactive exhibits, and the ability to buy cameras and kit at great prices.
For the imaging industry, the aim was to deliver a fresh take on a photography show, and one that attracted a significant audience of photography enthusiasts and members of the trade.
Future's credentials in the photography sector are unrivalled, publishing the market-leading print title, Digital Camera and the best-selling weekly digital title, Photography Week. Online too, Future's TechRadar.com and Digitalcameraworld.com serve millions of enthusiasts monthly with camera buying advice, tips and video tutorials.
However, a four day event at the NEC, still required tireless work from the events and editorial teams to get the imaging industry behind the inaugural show, as well as to market it to a target audience of 30,000. And all this with only a slim eight month lead time.
The strategy involved planning a raft of innovative new features to attract both visitors and exhibitors to sign-up.
In order to deliver a show format that delivered something the UK hadn't seen before, the decision was made early on to offer a huge number of ways that visitors could get involved at the show - interactive exhibits that let them learn from some of the world's biggest names in photography, gave them the opportunity to shoot unusual subjects, and also gave them access to new kit direct from the manufacturers.
With more than 400 interactive elements across the show's four days, the approach was a hit. The show featured exhibits as diverse as an entire area planted as a garden for people to try their hand at photographing flowers, to live stages where experts demonstrated how to shoot subjects as diverse as fire eaters, karate black belts, and even Star Wars' Darth Vader and Storm Troopers! Alongside seminars in which image editing and photographic techniques were taught, and workshops for people to build cameras, there was always something for visitors to do.
Hugely popular was the 'Super-stage' area which played host to some of the world's best photographers. Celebrity photographer Rankin and living legends Joe McNally and Steve McCurry, played to packed out audiences.
The website and social media channels were amplified by the exhibitors themselves - with the likes of Canon, Olympus, Panasonic and Nikon spreading the message of the show via their own databases. Meanwhile, an official Photography Show iOS app was available free for visitors to plan their day out and was downloaded more than 10,000 times.
The results spoke for themselves. As well as achieving in excess of 30,000 visitors in its launch year (subject to audit), the feedback from visitors and exhibitors has been almost overwhelmingly positive, with rebooks at the show of 86%.
See video highlights of the show here.
The Media Innovation Awards are designed to recognise innovation and entrepreneurial spirit in publishing and media businesses, both large and small. Launched in 2010 as the Media Pioneer Awards, and supported by InPublishing, they celebrate new ideas and experimentation across print, web, mobile and events.
Read about the rest of the shortlist here.
Winners will be announced and awards presented at the Digital Media Innovation Conference on 8 April.
