"Meet the Communities" at photokina

"Photographs are more fun when you can share them with others." This is the reason for the huge success of photography clubs, associations, and online photography communities. photokina will offer these enthusiastic photographers and fans of online communication a very special attraction in 2010. Under the title "Meet the Communities at photokina," the fair 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. Above all, we want to give the representatives of online photography communities and social networks an opportunity to present themselves to their users and potential new customers. Thus 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. In this way photokina will bring two worlds together – the "analog" and the "digital" communities of photography fans.

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.

In this activity area, the topic of video filming won’t be neglected. 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. This will include, for instance, the daily photo shoots with the original Playboy bunnies. In addition, photokina 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.

The initial reactions from the Internet communities to what’s on offer at photokina are very positive. The organizers of "Meet the Communities" have attracted Internet users who are also interested in photography to visit photokina. For example, Internet users will be meeting on the exhibition grounds at a photokina BarCamp in order to discuss current issues and visit the fair. The Twitter community will also be coming to Cologne. On "Twitter Wednesday" the Twitter fans will be meeting in the community area to listen to presentations by professionals and share their ideas about photography with other users.

photokina will also attract visitors from beyond the digital world to Cologne. The Zingst photography festival will be presented for its fans, as will the Society of German Nature Photographers (Gesellschaft Deutscher Tierfotografen e.V. – GDT) The German Association for Photography (DVF) will also present itself at "Meet the Communities." Like all the other participants, the DVF will contribute to the varied stage program, which will include workshops, photo shoots, and discussion rounds. And whenever there’s talk about a shared passion for photography, one must not forget the KJF – Kinder- und Jugendfilmzentrum (Center for Films for Children and Young People) in Germany. At photokina the center will, among other things, present the winners of the German Young Photographer Prize 2010, which attracted a record number of entries with 36,000 submitted pictures.