The CP+ show which was cancelled last year due to the pandemic returns this year as an online event. All of the major companies will be participating in the show, including Canon.
The CP+ show is held in Yokohama, Japan and tends to be a major product announcement show, but this year could obviously be different. For the moment I haven't heard any major products being announced from Canon, though I'm sure there is going to be something beyond just the Canon PowerShot AI.
Pre-registration begins tomorrow here.
Press Release
The Camera & Imaging Products Association (CIPA) (president: Masaya Maeda; address: MA Shibaura Bldg. 3-8-10, Shibaura, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan) will hold CP+2021 ONLINE, a comprehensive camera and imaging exhibition, from Thursday, February 25 to Sunday, February 28, 2021. The archives will be on public view until Wednesday, March 31.
CP+2021 was shifted to an online-only event but features an abundance of content, such as organizer events, exhibitor events, and various seminars. CP+2021 also has its own official channel for streaming organizer events and the attractive content of exhibitors.
The organizer events include the live streaming of the keynote speech, a panel discussion by top engineers, and a digital camera market seminar by the CIPA, along with the exhibition of the works of the ZOOMS JAPAN 2021 winners.
Additionally, CP+2021 ONLINE is newly collaborating with Camera Grand Prix, which is an awards event organized by the Camera Journal Press Club. With this collaboration, CP+ 2021 ONLINE visitors can vote for a Readers Award, picked by general users.
Pre-registration for CP+2021 ONLINE begins on Wednesday, January 20, at 1 p.m., via the CP+ official website (https://www.cpplus.jp/).
The idea of exibitons is to actualy touch the new product and talk to experts right there...
I understand that the organisators of exibitions are obviously trying to earn anyhthing during covid, but I just dont see any appeal in that...
basically it's one place for people to see all the new stuff in the industry rather than having to actively search for it. As a Minolta/Sony user I'm still interested in Canon, Olympus/JIP, Hasselblad, Fujifilm and so on though I will only actively keep an eye on a select few of these to see what's happening. Also, the seminars.
The idea of exhibitions is to get your attention, for brands to show they exist and have interesting products. You can touch the gear you find interesting when it hits the stores and then you can bug the salespeople there. The most interesting stuff tends to be protected behind glass anyway.
Then there's the single signon experience, unified layout,...
But having a livestream is no problem for video-photo-stuff companies. A youtube livefeed can be literaly hosted by small childs =)
I agree about the ONE outlet thing.
Though for me the most important thing about exhibitions are allways the products I can touch and the actual discussions I can have with professionals working for the companies. Best experience was for the Synology booth - they had their real engineers and programmers standing there and I learnt a lot about my diskstation. Worst booth was Samsung at photokina :-D All the guys standing there where nothing but hostesses who knew NOTHING about the cameras. Not even the names of the products.
Trying out the future tools is the greatest fun. Many stores here dont have any professional gear to test out. And especialy not the newest high end or specialized stuff. If I would ask in my local camera store about a Ninja V they would look at me confused :-D
Having attended the CES this year 'virtually', and having attended many in Vegas in the past, I found the virtual approach superior.
It is actually possible to 'visit' all the vendors that interest you, and you can find everything available without effort. They had real time discussions on line via Teams and Zoom, so you could get all your questions answered. And I got the impression that they 'reached back' to their staff at the home office, so you got to interact with folks who would never otherwise be let out of the house.
I learned a great deal more, and also actually got to 'attend' a large number of the presentations, which I have never been able to do before, since they inevitably overlap and take time away from walking the show floor.
I've never gotten to attend CP+ (could never justify flying to Japan), so this will be a thrill.
Other than not getting to touch the gear, this new approach is great.