Notes from a Photoshop World Exhibitor
As most of you know by now I've moved over to the images side of the business doing community development for our micropayment stock site, Stockxpert.com.
This week Stockxpert exhibited at its first tradeshow—Photoshop World in Boston. This was also my first time as an exhibitor, and what a great experience it was!
Since I was in the booth both days, I didn't have an opportunity to visit the other exhibits or attend any of the seminars or classes. All my news came from many of the attendees who stopped by our booth. The biggest buzz seemed to be the new Canon Mark III, Adobe CS3, and of course our iPod giveaway. Wear the flare for a chance to win one of four iPods. If we spot an "I am Xpert." button on you at some random time, we hand you the iPod. By the end of the show we had about 1,000 attendees walking around with these buttons on!
Overall, the show was great for exposure. There were a lot of folks interested in stock photography, but still not many had heard of Stockxpert or even microstock photography. Now they have.
I think the biggest surprise to many of the visitors was the quality level of our images—photos, vectors and 3D renderings! No longer is microstock a place to try and sell your vacation snapshots. Our contributors are professionals and talented enthusiasts using top-of-the-line equipment.
Professionals are using the site as an additional source of revenue for many of their "leftovers" from other shoots. They're also using the site as a marketing vehicle for their services. As a client, if you like their stock you may consider hiring them for some custom shoots.
Enthusiasts use the site to make some extra money on the side with a hobby they love! Let me tell you, there are some incredible photographers and digital artists out there. I'm very jealous. :)
With 10s of thousands of new images uploaded weekly from a worldwide contributor base, our collection is always fresh and diverse. And at $1-$10 per image, you can't beat the price.
I look forward to doing more shows like these. I grew up in a mom-and-pop retail environment. My parents owned an ice cream shop and then a nautical gift store. I worked at the local hardware store during high school and summers in college. As much as I love and embrace online community, there nothing like meeting people face to face. It goes such a long way in establishing trust and literally putting a face on a product/service.
In the end, however, that product or service better deliver, or else you better be ready to listen—another thing tradeshows are really good for.
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