The Imaging and Digital Entertainment Association’s (IDEA) Digital Show, successfully staged in September at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre, will move from being annual to a two-yearly cycle to reflect the demands of the market.
The September event drew a huge crowd of over 23,000 individual visitors, with educational workshops filled to capacity. The 2015 Digital Show will also be in Melbourne but for 2017, the completion of the new Darling Harbour Convention and Exhibition Centre should see the event back in Sydney.
 |
| Standing room only at one of the workshops at this year's show |
“The opening up of The Digital Show to all enthusiast photographers and image makers as well as professionals proved to be a big hit,” said James Murray, President of IDEA. “Technology, lifestyles and the human instinct to be creative have shifted the paradigms of high-end digital imaging to a point where a retired baby boomer, on his or her travels, might use the same equipment as a fully fledged professional photographer.”
“Digital technology is disruptive but at the same time expansionary,” continued Murray, “Take the music industry. More than ever, we have musical superstar professionals but we also have garage bands digitally recording and processing their sounds to share with the world via the internet. Photography is no different; equipment that was once purely in the domain of the professional, is now bought by a much larger audience of dedicated enthusiasts, sometimes called prosumers.”
The Digital Show has enjoyed the support of all the major imaging suppliers such as Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Pentax, Leica, Ricoh, Fujifilm, Epson, CR Kennedy, Kayell, Adeal, L&P Digital, Maxwell International and many others. It is also closely associated with the AIPP, featuring the Australian Professional Photographer Awards, staged concurrently.
James Murray reveals: “The prestigious APPA awards will remain annual, with the 2014 event set for September in Sydney. IDEA will shortly be announcing a joint event with the AIPP where the 2014 APPAs are staged together with a compact exhibition and a three day educational programme, under our banner of the Digital Playground, held this year in association with the Vivid festival.”
“It’s all about fueling creativity and self-expression; whether for the professional or prosumer community,” said Murray. “Photography is the world’s favourite medium for creative self-expression, be it a selfie or an elaborate landscape at dusk. We are hard-wired to make pictures. The 2015 Digital Show will be a celebration of this, and a roadmap for how to realize that creativity.”
The Imaging and Digital Entertainment Association’s (IDEA) Digital Show
www.ideaaustralia.com.au
www.thedigitalshow.com.au
