Under the title “Meet the Communities at photokina,” the 2010 photokina, held in Cologne, Germany from Sept. 21-26, will provide a central platform in Hall 5.1 where fans of photography clubs, competitions, and photography festivals can come together and meet each other as well as the fans of Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, and other social networks.
“Meet the Communities” has also been conceived as a marketplace where the organizers of photography festivals, as well as publishers and associations catering to nonprofessional end consumers and amateur photographers can present themselves. Show organizers explain that the “Meet the Communities” area will serve as a meeting point where people can get to know each other and a place for gathering information, sharing ideas, and engaging in discussions — and it will be open to members of traditional photography clubs and fans of Web 2.0 alike.
Around a centrally located activity area, service providers, community operators, and event organizers will have a opportunity to engage in direct dialogue with the people who use their platforms to exchange, present, and discuss millions of photos and videos every single day.
“Never before has the imaging sector had a presentation and meeting area like this one for Web 2.0 fans. And parallel to the communication opportunities there will also be plenty of information available. Workshops and presentations on the topics that users are excited about will round off the offerings of the event,” show organizers explained in a released statement.
Video will play a role in the “Meet the Communities” area as well. The official video partners at photokina — the Cologne-based company make.tv and Germany's biggest video community, MyVideo — will make sure of that. On-site production will be taken care of by make.tv, which will also broadcast the stage program live on the Internet. Users who miss out on the live event will also be able to access the videos after photokina. The show also will cooperate with MyVideo to organize special events on the topic of film and video in the run-up to photokina and will present them at the fair.
What's more, users from around the world can participate in the activities on stage by means of a Twitter wall and ask questions during the discussion. TV productions on the topic of photography will be shot on site in the glassed-in studio of FotoTV, the official photokina TV partner. FotoTV, the world's largest Web TV provider for photography, will be presenting the latest innovations and trends on every day of the fair and presenting live reports so that every visitor can participate in the activities. Furthermore, fotocommunity — one of Europe's largest online communities for the topic of photography — will present itself in this hall and will also organize a user meeting for its members in the special area.
You can find further information on the individual topic areas in the press section of the photokina website.
