Wednesday, October 15, 2008

InfoTrends State-of-the-Market Address

The digital photography market is approaching a crossroads. Imaging vendors and retailers are on the lookout for new opportunities that will inject renewed growth into the market. Do we continue straight ahead on the current traditional photography path? Do we turn right toward a world of connected experiences or do we turn left to explore the unknown? Decisions need to be made now that will affect the long-term future of the industry. This opening session will present InfoTrends’ view of the market and discuss potential future market directions, opportunities, and growth areas.

Speaker:
Ed Lee, Director, InfoTrends

Keynote Address: Creating Compelling Connected Experiences

Today, web services and ‘anywhere access’ are impacting the way people store, edit and share their digital photos. In this keynote, Doug Mack will discuss the needs of the connected consumer - and explore the value in providing solutions that deliver accessibility, portability and most of all, fun. Adobe has already made some inroads with new initiatives such as Photoshop Express. Learn how businesses should innovate and evolve to serve the needs of those who live life largely online.

Speaker:
Doug Mack, Vice President of Consumer and Hosted Solutions, Adobe

Session 1: Driving Growth in a Mature Digital Camera Market – Market Forecast and Consumer Usage Trends

2007 saw a surprising growth spurt in digital cameras driven largely by a healthy replacement market. 2008 heralds the emergence of a mature market where growth will be limited to single digits for the first time since digital cameras entered the consumer market in the late 1990s. Manufacturers continue to develop and implement new technology with the aim to grow volume sales and market share. New and relevant technology matched to photo active and photo interested consumer segments is likely to be a winning formula. InfoTrends will address some of the key user segments and compare and contrast their behaviors. Consumer data will be supplemented with forecast data to give a complete overview of the North American digital camera market in 2008 and beyond.

Speaker:
Mette Eriksen, Director, InfoTrends

Session 2: Linking the Parts in the Professional Photo Ecosystem

Digital photography has opened photography as a profession to many more people who would like to earn money from their photos. Part-time photographers are finding the web a valuable tool in their quest to gain visibility and ultimately cash from the photos that they take. At the same time, full-time professional photographers are bemoaning that their prices are under constant pressure from weekend-warriors, forcing them to sell at prices that make it more difficult to turn a profit. This session will consider the changing nature of the professional photography market and how new technology is facing photographers with new opportunities and also challenges.

Moderator:
Jerry Grossman, Editor in Chief, Photo Industry Report
Speakers:
Graham McFarland, Founder & CEO, Express Digital
Kevin Gilbert, CEO & Co-Founder, Blue Pixel
Carlton Osborne, CEO, Printroom.com

Hot Looks
Speaker: Hans Streng, CEO, Geotate

DI Showcase
Speakers:
Jean-Francois Rucine, VP North America, KIS USA
Mike Kaltschnee, VP Business Development, Flashfoto, Inc.

Session 3: Digital Photos Frames: Freeing Digital Photos from Electronic Shoeboxes

Interest in digital photos frames is on the rise. For many consumers, these devices free the photos that are trapped on their memory cards or hard disks (AKA Electronic Shoeboxes) and help bring them to life. Photo frames were a hot gift giving item last holiday season – will that momentum continue? In addition to addressing this question, this session will look at the current state of the market and the drivers and barriers to mainstream adoption.  It will consider how the emergence of digital HD, wireless technology and other viewing devices will affect the business.

Speakers:
Jon Finegold, Co-Founder/CEO, Frame Media
Frank Muscatello, VP of Sales, Pandigital

Session 4: Photo Books: Future Market Directions & Changing Industry Dynamics

The photo book segment of the merchandise market has the potential for strong growth and may become as ubiquitous as the traditional photo album as the market evolves. With a plethora of options available for page layout and design, binding, materials used and production methods, it is a challenge for vendors to make the right choices on products and services that will win customers and keep them coming back. Our panelists will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of various photo book solutions, as well as their views on how the photo book segment fits into an overall market that includes traditional prints and electronic viewing devices.

Speakers:
Jeff Housenbold, President & CEO, Shutterfly
John Lacagnina, Sr., President & CEO, Colorcentric Corporation
Nader Anvari, Chief Marketing Officer, Digilabs Inc
Michael Moore, CEO, Rocketlife

Session 5: What are Consumers Doing?

Over the years InfoTrends has conducted numerous surveys on how consumers are embracing digital photography. End user data helps InfoTrends analysts to better understand changing consumer behaviors and emerging consumer segments. This session will build up a picture of some of the most important photo active segments and discuss their behaviors relating to capture, share, and print.

Speakers:
David Haueter, Director, InfoTrends
Mette Eriksen, Director, InfoTrends

Hot Looks:
Speaker: Andy Patrick, CEO, Livebooks

Session 6: Exploring the Role of Video in Consumers’ Photo Universe

Point and shoot digital cameras have included video capability for many years. The emergence of YouTube combined with the ability to upload videos to online photo sharing sites has helped drive consumer interest in video. This session will explore emerging technology trends in the camcorder market and the likely impact that camcorders may have on the digital camera market. During the discussion we will also address the use of video on P&S cameras and how the imaging ecosystem is being developed for greater consumer interaction with video. InfoTrends will start the discussion by presenting findings from a recent consumer survey on video.

Speakers:
Denise MacDonell, Director, Product Management, Corel Corporation
William Heuer, Senior Vice President, Casio
C. Teo Balbach, Principal, Mercury Capital Partners

Session 7: Rich Internet Applications – Changing the Way that Consumers Work with Pictures

Managing, editing and printing digital photos used to require desktop application software that sold for $50-$100 or more. Now, Rich Internet Applications provide most of those capabilities from a web browser on any platform, combining multimedia content stored in multiple locations into collections than can be shared, viewed and downloaded from almost anywhere. This session will examine some of the new web services that enable consumers to do more with their pictures, and the business models that allow these sites to provide such powerful tools for free.

Speakers:
Jonathan Sposato, CEO, Picnik
Geoff Baum, Director, Digital Imaging, Adobe

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Session 8: Digital Photo Printing: Present & Future

Photo prints continue to generate billions of dollars in revenue and play a strategic role in the digital imaging ecosystem. This session will give a detailed look into the state of the digital photo printing market, including market size and forecast data as well as insight into the roles that retail, online and home printing will play in the overall market. Key findings from InfoTrends' consumer surveys will also be presented, which give insight into the changing consumer behaviors that may impact the photo printing market over the next several years.

Speaker:
David Haueter, Director, InfoTrends

Session 9: Balancing Risk & Reward in the Retail Photo Market

Retail is becoming the center of the digital photo output universe and opportunities abound for growth, but the right decisions need to be made on marketing and product strategy. Retailers in the photo output market today are juggling more products and services than ever, including digital and film prints, as well as a plethora of merchandise products that consumers may or may not embrace. They also have a variety of technologies to choose from in an age where “going green” has become increasingly important.  In this session, our panelists will discuss the issues affecting the retail photo market on a daily basis, as well as the thought process behind deciding which merchandise items to offer in order to maximize profit.

Speakers:
Brent Bowyer, Executive Director, IPI
Jean-Francois Rucine, Vice President, KIS USA
Kalle Marsal, Director, HP
Joellyn Gray, Director of Marketing, Fujifilm

Hot Looks:
Speaker: Bryan Calkins, Chief Executive Officer, Cognisign

Session 10: Targeting the Right Markets

The imaging market has broken up into heterogeneous consumer segments. Imaging vendors have discovered that the one size fits all concept no longer works. To succeed, they will need to tailor their products and marketing communications for the right target audiences. This session will look at specific consumer segments and discuss their needs and attitudes and how to break through the information clutter that they are bombarded with every day.

Speakers:
Maria Bailey, Marketing to Moms, BSM Media
Tanguy Leborgne, Vice President of Worldwide Marketing, Pinnacle Systems

DI Showcase
Speaker: Carlos Garcia, CEO, Scrapblog, Inc.

Session 11: Just How Valuable are those Photos?

For years now, InfoTrends has used its bully pulpit to publicize the need for easy to use and affordable archiving and backup solutions for consumers. The journey has been slow, but there are signs of progress. New services and solutions have been introduced. Efforts to educate consumers are ongoing. Questions still remain, such as: Are consumers willing to pay for these services and solutions? Does long term retrieval of photos really matter to consumers? During this session, leading vendors will discuss the value that consumers place on their photos and what will compel them to take the next steps forward to ensuring that they are available for generations to come.

Speakers:
Mike Bevans, Swiss Picture Bank
Mitch Goldstone, President & CEO, ScanMyPhotos.com
Jef Holove, CEO, Eye-Fi, Inc.
Lisa Walker, President, I3A

Session 12: The Changing Face of Online Photo Sharing

The pioneers of the industry are no longer at the top of most lists of popular online photo sharing sites. Find out which sites consumers are using and why, as InfoTrends presents highlights from recent research on the use of online photo services, our forecast for future activity, and a look at the migration of sharing activity from traditional photo sites to social networks, communities, and other less print-centric destinations.

Speaker:
Alan Bullock, Associate Director, InfoTrends

Session 13: Social Networks, Online Communities, and Personal Imaging Content

Families, friends, co-workers, and even strangers are connecting through the phenomena of social networks and online communities. That interaction happens not only on PCs, but increasingly on mobile phones, personal media players and other devices.  This session will examine the new breed of online sites that consumers are using to share the digital stories of their lives, including photos and video clips.  We'll discuss public vs. private sharing, changes in behavior among various demographic segments, and the impact of these activities on the rest of the photo industry.

Speakers:
Erik Weitzman, Director of Product Strategy, Shutterfly
Peter Pezaris, Founder and CEO, Multiply
Carlos Garcia, Founder and CEO, Scrapblog

*agenda subject to change without notice

 © 2008 InfoTrends, Inc.