Photokina, the leading European specialist imaging trade show, has announced that, as from the 2018 event, the event will take place once every year from thereon

Traditionally taking place every two years, Photokina will repeat 12 months after the 2018 event, in an attempt to ‘reflect the fast-paced nature and the ever briefer innovation cycles of an increasingly digitalised industry’.

The new annual presence will also come with a new slot in the annual event calendar. Photokina ordinarily takes place in September at Koelnmesse in Cologne, Germany, but from the 2019 event, will take place in May in the same venue.

Photokina has, in recent years, had a feeling of being a little rudderless and has gradually reduced in scale since its heydey, when it occupied the entirety of the Koelnmesse and positioned itself, primarily, as a ‘trade-only’ event. It’s true to say that, whilst the core imaging brands have continued to excite, with significant product launches being announced during the event; driving crowds from across Europe, the inevitable shift in consumer imaging appetites, technologies and trends, has left the organisers with a need to diversify the show’s offering and target audience. The new focus for Photokina promises that ‘In addition to innovations from the core areas of the imaging workflow, the entire range of products, applications and services of relevance for imaging’ will now be demonstrated during the event.

Rainer Führes, chairman of the board of the photography industry association [PIV] told PhotoBite: “the transformation process begun in 2016 and shall be consistently continued: under the umbrella of ‘Imaging Unlimited’. Photokina last year inspired both exhibitors and visitors and accessed new target groups for the industry”

He continued: “The digital transformation of the imaging industry is advancing, and thus opening up new perspectives and value creation potential. The new date and the annual cycle should in future make Photokina even more attractive to all providers of the imaging ecosystem. In this way, we will show the specialised trade, the media and our users an even broader bandwidth of state-of-the-art products, applications and services in Cologne which especially suits the young imaging culture.”

The imaging ecosystem today includes, in addition to the core areas from the imaging workflow, trends such as virtual and augmented reality, cloud computing, as well as image recognition technology and holography. The growing flood of images and videos has to be processed and administered, so that archiving and content management, social media and communities are coming increasingly into focus for the organisers. Apps and software solutions have become indispensable both for the professional use and for the consumer. Smart home applications and computer-generated imaging are once again increasing in importance.

Photokina 2018, will take place over a fewer number of days and will take place on Wednesday, 26.09. to Saturday, 29.09, promising a more compact, more intensive trade fair experience.