The Photography and Video Show 2025 - Meet the team behind the show!

The Photography and Video Show is the UK's largest imaging exhibition and show. In this, the first of several episodes of The Photography Pod as part of the build up to the show, Steve and Nick's guests are Ruth Folkard, Event Director and Hazel Soper, Group Marketing Manager, of Future, the company behind the Photography and Video Show. 

Ruth and Hazel discuss with Nick and Steve:

• Why this year's show has moved to London ExCel
• The process for selecting the talks and speakers for the event
• The resurgence of analogue photography and showcasing film at the event
• What goes into planning and marketing such a major event
• The importance of community in the photography world

Nick announces his new photography training venture The Nick Church Academy, whilst Steve ventures north of the border for some photography and the occasional beer. 

Nick has two talks at this year's show; 

What matters to our clients? Spoiler, its not what you think! Monday March 10th 3pm

Photography business myth busters! Tuesday March 11th 11am. 

The Photography and Video Show (TPS) 2025 https://www.photographyshow.com/

Steve and Nick also review the entrants for this month's photo challenge, "Winter"

Nick Church and Steve Vaughan are professional wedding photographers based in the UK. They both use Sony Alpha cameras and lenses.

Nick's website : https://www.nickchurchphotography.co.uk/
Nick's Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/nickchurchphotography/

Steve's website : https://www.samandstevephotography.com/
Steve's Wedding Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/samandstevephotography/
Steve's personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stevevaughanphotography

Any technical information given by the presenters is based on their understanding and opinion at the time of recording

Transcript

Steve: [00:00:00] Hello again, and welcome to The Photography Pod, a photography podcast for both working professionals and enthusiast photographers alike. My name again is Steve Vaughan and I'm here once more with my good mate, Nick Church. Nick, how you doing? Very well, Steve, how are you? Good. I think now the heating's working.

Steve: I've been sitting here in a freezing cold house for the last three days. Something went wrong with our heating. I've had blankets and sweaters and coats and woody socks. You name it, curled up to the radiator. So it's not, Enchanting image. No, it's not. Believe me. Thankfully my wife's away. She's staying with my daughter and our grandson at the moment.

Steve: Otherwise she'd have been really unhappy, but thankfully it seems to be working now anyway. 

Nick: And what have you been up to Steve since the last report? 

Steve: I can't remember if we talked about this last time, up to Glasgow, actually. Do we mention that last time? I don't think we did. No, we didn't.

Steve: No. So I went to Glasgow really on a social event, really. So I went up to see some friends. So many years ago I was a research scientist and guys I worked with, we've kept in contact ever since. And one of them who lives in Glasgow, it was his 60th birthday. So it was excused to get together and drink way too much beer really, [00:01:00] and walk around.

Steve: And then on the day after I met up with Murray Macmillan and Lawrence Scott, who were Both subscribers to the show and both great wedding photographers in their own right up in Glasgow. And we had a bit of a walk around and we ended up in the biggest Celtic supporters bar the night of when the game, they were playing young boys.

Steve: So I felt very English in this bar, but to be fair, it was a really good crack, everybody was super friendly, a really good vibe in there and, you could have done one of your famous accents. You put one of your accents on. I can't do a Scottish accent. That could 

Nick: have ended in trouble.

Steve: They were playing my team in the week after Aston Villa. So they were asking me where, where to go and where to stay and all that kind of stuff. So it was all good fun. And then I had a bit of time the day after just to hang around and had a good walk around. And have you been to Glasgow?

Steve: Do you know Glasgow? 

Nick: I've 

Steve: been a 

Nick: couple of times. Yeah. Yeah. A little bit. Yeah. Isn't that beautiful? I really like it. 

Steve: It's great. There's a place they call the necropolis where all the rich merchants of Glasgow from the sort of Victorian times all got buried on top of a hill. And there's all these Gothic looking statues and things.

Steve: And it's in all the Batman movies and all that. So if ever you [00:02:00] go, it's worth a walk around. It's fascinating. 

Nick: It all gets a bit of a bad rap as Edinburgh less attractive cousin, doesn't it? And it's a really beautiful city. It is. Yeah. I really loved it. 

Steve: Yeah. All good. How about you anyway?

Steve: What are you up to? 

Nick: I've been getting stuck into the Nick Church Creative Academy, which is a new online training platform that I'm launching. It came from the, we've talked about before on this pod that I love doing the training. As well as the actual sort of photography and that balance of the two is very good for my mental health and balance in my life.

Nick: So yeah, and plus it means you're actually talking to other people as well. So you're not just sitting on your own like a prisoner. But that's been one to one traditionally. So one to one small group sessions. And the problem with one to one is because my time's limited means. I am really confident of the, my approach to training and it just means it's limited in how much, how many clients can come, and do that group sessions would be the obvious solution, but they're really hard to organize.

Nick: And I just don't have time to do that. And for the people that are starting out in photography. I can do a one to [00:03:00] one for them, but it just doesn't make sense. I've got to charge an amount that, you know, because it's a whole day, they can't justify it rightly. So it's more than their cameras. But, so the idea is to get a bunch of all new content and get that online.

Nick: So it's, it can be accessible by anybody. 

Nick: Plus, I'm really keen on the idea of a community where people can interact, collaborate, and just network without the distractions of social media, which at the moment, I'm just finding absolutely bewildering the amount of, you're trying to navigate a group and it's just impossible.

Nick: Yeah. So that's the plan and it's, it is, it's grown really well. So I've got a platform. Identify that I'm going to use to deliver everything and man, the choosing a training platform to deliver these training courses, because I looked at my doing it through Squarespace and I just don't think it's going to cut it for what I need.

Nick: So there's lots of, lots of. Built in, built software website development platforms built for training. So it's all the communities and stuff is all built in. 

Steve: So this is like what I call learning on demand, isn't it? Really? You access on when you want it. Yeah, 

Nick: exactly. Yeah. And you can like, it's built in with subscription and tiers and stuff that you can offer free [00:04:00] and everything.

Nick: So it's really good. But looking at brand new platform and I'm from a techie background and I do a lot of my website and my website Squarespace, I'm used to website builders, but I was. Flummox. I was looking at this platform and I got so furiated with it. I just did it by account and quit rage quit like a child playing a game I got so frustrated and then calm down and thought hang on, let me just take another look at it.

Nick: But then I couldn't get my, the domain I wanted because it thought that I'd already, it was already allocated. So I was like, that's all fixed now. So it's fine. So anyway, that's really exciting. It's just, having something new and yeah. So I'm really excited about that. It's a 

Steve: great idea, man.

Steve: Looking forward to finding out more. And I'm sure the listeners to the pod would like to know more. If listeners want 

Nick: to find out more, they just head to Nick church, photography. co. uk. There's a article which comes up on the top of the page, like a banner. So if they click that, they'll go to an article, which talks more about it.

Nick: And then sign up. Cause there's going to be. A free gift on, if you signed up, there's no commitment or anything, it would just keep people updated with news as it has, as we approach launch anyway. So moving on to today's episode, this is actually the first of a [00:05:00] mini set of interviews around the photography and video show.

Nick: So we've got a few guests lined up. They're speaking at the show and including you. Including me, I'll give you a, I'll give you a 10, I'll give you a virtual tenor. And the so photography show obviously is a really major point in most of our calendars. Last year I was looking up, we had 30, 000.

Nick: Visitors to the show for the 2024 show. And it's, we're really pleased to have today, Hazel and Ruth from the planning team. We're going to just chat to them in a moment and we'll, the next few episodes, obviously we'll have Hazel and Ruth today and then we're going to go through in the subsequent episodes, a few of the speakers that we're speaking to and talk about their talks and their background.

Nick: So Hazel and Ruth. Good afternoon. I was going to say good evening, but it's good afternoon because we're a bit earlier today. How are you both doing? 

Ruth: Yeah, good. Thank you. Yeah. That's as you can imagine, this time of year is quite quite busy, but [00:06:00] all good. 

Nick: This is the thing I can't, as I'll come on to the minute, I cannot imagine how you organize something like the photography show.

Nick: And by the way, I am going to either say TPS for the photography show. Or the photography show in full. And in every case, I do mean the photography and video show. So I'm not slating or just our video colleagues. Do you mind talking a little bit about your individual roles? I know you both work for Future Publishing Limited, who organizes the event, does a great job.

Nick: But if you talk about how, where your responsibilities are. 

Ruth: Yeah, sure. I'll start, I'm. The event director, technically. So I look after the event as a whole. So I sit in the middle of it and between operations, marketing and the commercial side. And I also program all the content for the show.

Ruth: Yeah, it's a, we have a big content program, as so that keeps me very busy. Yeah. 

Steve: And we should say for the listeners only that you're Ruth, by the way. 

Ruth: I'm Ruth. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah. I'm Ruth. And 

Nick: Hazel. So that was Ruth Fogart and we've got Hazel Soper as well. So Hazel, what about you? 

Hazel: So I am the marketing lead on the show.

Hazel: So I look after [00:07:00] getting visitors to the show and the visitor experience and lovely things like that. I've been, this is my 10th year of working on the show. So there's definitely something about the industry That keeps us engaged and loving it. 

Nick: And do you go from one event, like pretty much rolling straight into the next year?

Nick: Is it you both hundred percent allocated to the talking video show as projects? 

Ruth: Yes. Yeah. I think I probably spend about 85 to 90 percent of my workload on the photography and video show. So I do a few other bits as well, and I manage a small team of, um, working on the kind of operations on some of future's awards and conferences.

Ruth: But essentially, yeah, I'm. 

Nick: So Steve and I were chatting not long ago about just trying to organize. I was trying to organize a night out with a group of friends and a WhatsApp group. And we're looking at basically a six month lead time to try and find a date. We can all do. So it made us think, Steve and I were saying what must it be like to run something like the photography show?

Nick: [00:08:00] It must just must be horrific. What sort of things goes, how much. How complicated is it to do that? Have you got a huge team you're working with to, to organize everything? 

Ruth: No, it's really quite a small team. There's there's me, Hazel. We have some kind of part time marketing support as well.

Ruth: Don't we Hazel? And we have Richard who does all of the commercial sides. So he's doing all of the stand sales and sponsorship and stuff as well. And then my colleague Danielle helps out a bit from December onwards, helping out on all kind of my side of things. And then we've got a freelance operations manager who works she, she obviously does other shows as well.

Ruth: She's freelance, but she's solidly on the show about five or six months, would you say, Hazel? Something like that. Yeah. But yeah, so quite a small team, really. 

Nick: Yeah. That is much smaller than I imagined. 

Ruth: Yeah. And then there's our boss, Johnny as well, who, uh, doesn't do anything.

Nick: No, you're both you're both saying before we started recording, that was the case that they didn't, by the way, I'm just joking about it.

Nick: So in terms of [00:09:00] the show as a bit for a business point of view, it is. Where does the majority income come from? Is it the exhibitor spaces where that comes from? 

Ruth: Yeah, the majority of it is ex is exhibitor income. And then essentially the rest is visitor revenue. So we have, as well as obviously pros can get in free of charge, so subject to some validation criteria, and then the rest are consumer tickets.

Ruth: But yeah, essentially, but we also try to keep. Price is as reasonable as we can, we know we want people to come and spend what they can on, on, on kit and stuff in the hall, really. But yeah, so that's how it breaks down. I think 

Nick: it's reasonable. I think for the amount of content on offer that you don't pay extra for, I think is a great value ticket to go in.

Steve: I was going to say actually, cause my background is in, before getting into photography, I was in B2B sales and I did lots of exhibitions in a sort of technical field, just like scientific equipment, a lot of equipment. And those seem to have died now. Nobody seems to go to them anymore. It seems that now your event seems to go from strength to strength.

Steve: [00:10:00] So what is that? Is it because it's, As a consumer element as well, of course, you guys are very good, of course. What do you attribute, what is the, what do you attribute to the success of this show too, and its longevity? 

Hazel: Blood, sweat and tears. I think there's a lot to be said for being passionate about what you do from our point of view, it's a great industry to work with.

Hazel: Everybody, there's the element of competition, of course, but generally everybody. is aiming for the same thing. And that's to keep photography and video out there really. So, there's the consumer element, obviously that goes, can go up and down dependent on which side of bed the consumer gets out of, or, what's going on with interest rates and everything else.

Hazel: And then the professionals tend to be slightly more reliable. That's an awful thing to say, isn't it? But they, because this is their. bread and butter. But I think we've got that. We have direct, say, we can, our exhibitors can sell directly. They can sell through the retailers at the show. And if you look at [00:11:00] the likes of Photokina, for example, which is sadly been shut down after many years of The problem there was the expense for the exhibitors and the fact that they couldn't make the sales on the show floor.

Hazel: Is it being that, So it was a 

Nick: tough choice that isn't it? Because if you're not generating profit then, and you don't go, then you're also losing the presence and then it starts to does it show weakness in the brand or the brand's in trouble or anything like that? So yeah, it's very difficult.

Nick: Are you oversubscribed from exhibitors or do you manage to get everybody that wants to attend a place? 

Ruth: If anybody who wasn't signed up still wants to come, I'm sure we will find a space. 

Steve: We can sneak you in somewhere. 

Ruth: But it's it's looking pretty it's looking pretty full at the moment. I think we're at last count, I think we have currently 34 more exhibitors than we were when we went on site in 2024.

Ruth: So it's really, it's looking really good. And the floor plan's looking really full, but we'll find a way somehow if somebody else wants. But generally what we managed to get. Everybody that wants to be [00:12:00] there, we managed to squeeze them a place. But I think it's just as I think Hazel, adding to what Hazel was saying, it's just testament to it being a creative industry, really.

Ruth: Everybody's really passionate about photography. You don't, I think if you're, I don't know, these sort of a B2B shows, I think if you're, if your job is making cardboard boxes and you're not going to be as passionate about going to a show about cardboard, whereas, everyone's really into the making stunning images really, aren't they?

Ruth: That's what if you've got Ruth, 

Nick: what have you got against cardboard as a

Ruth: it's a pleasure to work on this show and I'm glad I don't work in cardboard or concrete or something. 

Steve: I think that's an important point. And I think also as Nick was saying, the photography industry is quite a lonely job, really. And from our perspective as working photographers, it's something to coalesce around, we'll meet up and we'll have a catch up at the TPS.

Steve: And I'll see you on this stand and And I think from our point of view, you absolutely give us that sort of focal point, if you pardon the pun, for for working and creative photographers and videographers coalesce around really. Yeah, I think [00:13:00] that those 

Nick: B2B type shows, which I've done, in my previous career, a number of those, I think the reason there's a different vibe there is just much more competitive and cutthroat.

Nick: And it's because a lot of the attendees are working for companies that are competitors with those that are exhibiting or trying to get information. Or if they're interacting with other attendees. There's that undertone of competitiveness. And I think in photography, it's not because I'm not competing with Canon or light blue software or anything like that, because I'm a photographer and all photographers are, we've got lots of small businesses and there's market for everybody.

Nick: And I think that does generate a lot more of a collaborative. There's elements where it isn't, but I think in the main is pretty collaborative. Yeah, I 

Steve: totally agree. 

Nick: And in fact, not a topic, which brings together the whole photographic community, like no other topic seems to be where the photography show is going to be hosted.

Nick: So when, so last year when it was announced it was in Excel, I know there was a mixed bag of opinion on that. What generated the move from the NEC? To excel in London. 

Ruth: [00:14:00] Firstly, we should probably say that is going back to the NEC next year. The plan is alternating.

Ruth: We love the NEC, it's great, a central venue, big, in the middle of the country. It's brilliant. But we know that there's a pool of a real pool of creatives in London and the Southeast. Particularly on the pro side as well, and content creators which is also, a direction with.

Ruth: And we just didn't, looking at the data that we've got and things like that, we know that we weren't getting as many of them up to the Midlands show as we felt that we should be. There's always a drive to get new visitors as well as our kind of stalwarts. Some of them we even recognize year to year, but so we're always looking for new visitors and to bring our exhibitors new blood as well, new customers.

Ruth: So yeah, that really, it was a question of. bringing the show to that audience having tried for a number of years to try and bring some more of that audience to the show. I think there is a bit of a M25 bubble sometimes. And even though obviously we did get people up out of London, the [00:15:00] Southeast it's, if you, it there's, equally lots of people that I felt it was a bit too far to travel.

Ruth: I'm sure there's lots, we know there's people who are saying, Oh, I don't want to go to London. It's too far. For every one of those, there's someone saying I'm in London and Birmingham was too far, or I'm in Kent or whatever 

Nick: it is. London and now won't have to get their passport renewed or get some foreign currency.

Ruth: Yeah, sure. 

Nick: In planning my, planning a train to get there, it's from Bristol, it's probably quicker. To get a train to XL than it is to drive to the NEC park and then walk the 20 minutes to get to the 

Ruth: thing. Yeah. You're straight into Paddington right from Bristol, and and then on the Elizabeth line, we wouldn't have actually, the Elizabeth line is great.

Ruth: It goes straight, straight into XL, which is fab. So that was as soon as we would probably wouldn't have done it. I had that not opened up to be quite honest, but yeah, I know it's definitely really easy transport wise now. 

Nick: Have you heard any horror stories from previous either planning show or on the actual show?

Nick: What's your, what's the thing that you wake up in a cold sweat about? [00:16:00] 

Hazel: And then we failed to catch up to plan before, before the podcast. I, they're not really, obviously there are some behind the scenes things that go on and I don't think we should publicize some of them because I think, they're not that bad, but it doesn't paint a very good picture.

Hazel: But I do remember one of our, one of our speakers sending us a picture. I think he put it on social media as well. It's got you might know him, Nick Rick Bronx. We the analog section was called the analog spotlight at one point. And he's managed to find an exact place in the NEC halls where a pillar blotted out the.

Hazel: So we had we had an anal spot in quite 

Nick: a popular feature. You didn't have that on your brainstorming. 

Hazel: No. No. I think 

Steve: of lots of things in my. B2B life. Like I remember doing an exhibition once in New [00:17:00] Orleans, way before Katrina. And the people running the exhibitions that were playing poker on the table.

Steve: So they got people walking on the stand, looking at their products and the sales guys were playing poker and ignoring them. I'd have fired them all on the spot if I'd have been their boss. 

Hazel: When I have to say our our commercial director, Richard's does we do some kind of training things and obviously the cannons and the Nikons of the world know exactly what they're doing.

Hazel: But we do always make a point of saying, if you don't engage with people, you won't make sales. And Richard will actually go round and say to people, You're looking at your phone. He loves a bit of teacher. 

Ruth: We were exhibiting at something together and we did, I took some photos of Hazel and Richard specifically doing things that you're not supposed, like deliberately doing things that you're not supposed to do on an exhibition stand so we could include the pictures in the presentation.

Nick: Rather than shaming somebody. Paul, random person 

Ruth: eating, picking, looking at your phone, all that sort of [00:18:00] stuff, but it was quite hard. 

Nick: Guess it towards having done these things before in an exhibiting sense that by the end of the show, you're pretty done in, and it's quite hard to keep active and, interested.

Nick: But as you say that then. To not interact with somebody coming to the stand is potentially a sail walking away and that's criminal from a business point of view. 

Steve: I do training for photographers on how to do wedding fairs, some much smaller events than you're doing, but the principles apply really.

Steve: It's exactly that. Yeah. Don't spend that looking at your phone, eating your burger on the stand. Looking bored and fed up because, that's your brand that you're destroying really in doing all those things. But as you say, you're working with big professional companies who completely understand this, of course, really.

Ruth: We, but we work with the whole range. There's, there's one man bands and then Canons and Adobes of the world, so it's it was the whole sort of breadth really of the industry. Yeah, sometimes people need reminding 

Hazel: and it's certainly not necessarily the smaller companies that get it wrong either.

Hazel: Yeah. Yeah. Definitely no 

Steve: names. [00:19:00] Yeah. 

Nick: I suppose often a lot of the smaller companies, it might be a company director or somebody that's on the stand or the high amount of the senior management team that they're working. And he or she is then like directly going to benefit from any sale that comes past and they might, that they may get.

Nick: Whereas somebody as an employee perhaps won't say much. 

Steve: I was flicking through Facebook today, as you do. And I noticed there's a photo that I put on there. Five years ago, I was heading to Paris to run a training course in my other life. And it was just as COVID was starting to come in. And I remember not trying to touch the doors and things and handles.

Steve: And then that was the last time I went anywhere in 18 months, like the rest of us, really. So I know you guys, a lot of the exhibitors tried to do like virtual events at the time through COVID. And I guess they weren't super successful, but with the rise of things like AI. And the technology moving on in the last five years, do you still, just still see there'll always be the need for a physical face to face exhibition, as opposed to something more virtual or more online.

Hazel: I think this is something that [00:20:00] I feel particularly strongly about. And I think Ruth's bored of hearing this. I'm really intrigued by AI not necessarily on photography from a photography perspective, but just generally overall. I really think that we're coming to a point where. we either all become totally isolated or isolate ourselves or what I'm thinking or hoping will happen is that face to face will become absolutely vital and therefore face to face events will become vital.

Hazel: We're actually seeing, we see Obviously, you've seen that a lot of companies run independent or single webinars, but the virtual events and exhibitions platforms have all but disappeared now, 

Hazel: Because people, in fairness are, we did two virtual events during lockdown. Both were very steep learning curves.

Hazel: I'd say they were great for. Brand presence for the speakers and the exhibitors. But of course you can't get the products into the visitor's hands. So it's really difficult to, you're [00:21:00] basically doing an online sales job. 

Yeah. 

Hazel: Virtual is not, it may come back if we.

Hazel: God forbid have another lockdown of any sort, but face to face from our perspective is incredibly important and the brands recognize that getting the visitors or, potential visitors to recognize that is, something we're really intent on doing. Yeah. 

Nick: I think people do know that.

Nick: Sorry, Ruth, go on. 

Ruth: No, I was just going to see when you see the kind of quality of some of the deep fake stuff that goes around, you think maybe face to face events is going to be the only, solid point and it's the 

Nick: only way you can guarantee that you're getting the expertise and the person that you're talking to.

Nick: And I think the use of AI in things like certainly in things like customer interaction, which you see a lot in being, I've delved a lot in training platforms where they'll, you can create a whole training platform with AI, but. What's the point of that? That means everybody is only going to create something as good as everybody else.

Nick: And the whole point is that you're trying to make yourself better in some way or unique in some way. And yeah, we'll, yeah, we'll see what, [00:22:00] what happens there. But 

Steve: I think the online stuff can work really well. We're, there's four of us talking to each other now on this podcast and we're all in four different corners of the UK, it's amazing technology, but people buy from people and.

Steve: If I want to explore a new camera brand or a new lens and particularly the kind of costs that's involved, I want to pick one up. I want to hold it. And I also want to talk to the people that design these things if possible and who made these things and what's coming down the line. And you can only do that.

Steve: I think you're face to face. So 

Ruth: important. And I think like we were saying earlier as well, the kind of community aspect to events like this is, The getting together of people together. You can't, yes, we can all talk in a group like this, but it's no substitute for all being in the same place.

Ruth: Is it an experiencing something together as well? And just generally catching up. I don't know if you've ever tried to do a virtual drinks party, but it's a bit. 

Steve: When lockdown started, my wife and I, cause we worked together we knew lots of other photographers and we had this really cool thing called zoom, no, we'd ever heard of.

Steve: So we started this sort of virtual online pub and for about. [00:23:00] Nine to 10 weeks, every Friday night, it was the online pub. And then we had 30, 40 people at one stage joining us, but it would be far better to have them face to face in the pub and the real pub. 

Nick: Yeah. It is fine. But whenever I'm, if I'm doing meetings with photography clients and they're online, they always take it in person.

Nick: They're always pretty much hour and a half, but they're always about an hour. So it's just much more rapid, isn't it? And you don't sit and just let an environment sit for a bit and enjoy it. It's always. Better say something cause there's dead air otherwise. And you're just determined to say anything.

Nick: I can imagine if I was a drink party. online, it'd be the same thing. I'd just be necking my drinks. I wouldn't want to just sit there and chill for a bit. 

Steve: I did drink a bit of beer on those calls. I have to say, yeah, I 

Ruth: think we all did in lockdown. 

Steve: It's amazing to think it's five years ago, nearly. Where's that time gone?

Steve: Yeah. Thank God. I know. Yeah. 

Ruth: I sadly left Hazel to, to the virtual events because I was I had a baby in the early, early lockdown one. And yeah I was like, Okay. Bye.

Nick: That's great timing. Isn't it a lot and a lot of time with your baby as well. That's, 

[00:24:00] so 

Nick: if we just, can we just move on to this year's show, I should say it's the 8th to the 11th of March at XL London, what can visitors see at the show what, what stands out as something that you would recommend people check out.

Ruth: Do you want to go first, Hazel? No, I shall let you go first. Okay, bye! Okay, I'll talk about all the marvellous content first. Yeah, I mean we've got, essentially this year we decided to make everything, bar a few photo walks I will say, everything accessible on the show floor within the same ticket price.

Ruth: So we don't have separate stages or masterclasses that you have to pay for. It's all included. So it's a, I don't know if you've been to many shows at Excel, but lovely big square box to walk around, but we've filled it with stages and theaters in the corners. So we've got really some of the.

Ruth: Favorites that we like to bring back. So behind the lens is a really good one. We've got loads of lovely live demos on photo live as usual. We've got, we're bringing back the creator stage and our creator playground under kind of [00:25:00] what we call creator con umbrella. So the creator, creator playground is very kind of experiential thing.

Ruth: You can go in and create loads of fun content. What a new stage we've got is fundamentals, which Nick, I think is where you're doing your 

talks. 

Ruth: So that is covering lots of that. We've got beginner content on there from, very beginner. I've just picked up a camera kind of content to to the sort of turning pro and pro content, businessy content.

Ruth: That's what I'd class your stuff as Nick. And so we're really excited to see that. What else have we got? Analog dots. Not analog, but 

Nick: we've got no visible obstructions. 

Ruth: But there's loads of lovely analog content on stage and some really cool demos as well. So we've got a chap called Brendan Barry is coming to build some cardboard camera obscuras that you can literally walk inside 

Steve: cardboard again.

Steve: Yeah. 

Ruth: You can literally walk. them and there'll be live demos and there'll be everything on site. So I've probably missed loads of stuff, but shooting sets, there's all sorts of stuff going on. Are 

Nick: [00:26:00] you seeing the, that, that analog side are you seeing growth in the, in those areas over the last couple of years?

Ruth: Yeah, definitely. And we think particularly in London, it'll be a big thing as well. I think there'll be a lot of that analog audience there, but yeah, definitely it's had a resurgence and we're seeing, for example, Pentax back at the show for the first time in a few years, they've got a new analog, new film camera.

Ruth: And yeah, there's a real community behind it as well. So yeah, I definitely see growth with that. I should probably also talk about the video side of things. We've got loads of the cool video content on the InMotion stage and loads of stuff going on. And then, as I said, some photo walks too, which I think is, it's nice because we're It's a very different environment outside Excel to, to what it was at the NEC.

Ruth: There's a bit of different stuff to explore really. 

Nick: Like by the Thames barrier and those sorts of things. 

Ruth: Yeah, there's and I think it's just that semi industrial vibe with the river there and there's the big there's the footbridge isn't there? And is it? How do 

Nick: people start to sign up for that ahead of the show?

Nick: Or do they just join it when they get there? 

Ruth: We will be doing, we're putting it out for sign up before, before the show. [00:27:00] They're not live yet, but they will be shortly.

Ruth: But but hopefully there'll still be some spaces by the time the show comes around as well. So 

Steve: that's a really good idea. I'm a Midlander, but even I would struggle to promote the idea of a photo walk around the NEC really. I think it'd be strictly defined. Much to inspire really.

Ruth: And I guess that, To, to, on top of the content, there's, of course, all the brands that come and support the show. All of the big favorites, Canon, Sony, Nikon, Fujifilm, Manfrotto and all those, and lots more who have probably missed. I'm going to get angry emails.

Ruth: Adobe coming back again with some really, they're doing some really creative content on their stage this time and bringing in some big hitters too. So yeah, there's loads to look forward to. 

Steve: Oh, I can't wait. I can't wait. How do you do Nick? I'm not having a dig at yourself here, but how do you choose people?

Steve: To give talks, why Nick? Nick's great, but why Nick? What, how did you find people? [00:28:00] I don't know why Nick never, what, yeah what's the process, for people who, if anybody wanted to be given a seat, by the way, 

Ruth: There's a process that we go through and actually we are, we were quite.

Ruth: over subscribed this year in terms of people wanting to talk and it's my great shame I probably haven't spoken to all of the ones that didn't get chosen yet. But yeah, there's we open a call for speakers in kind of August time, usually. That's our kind of first step in the process. And so we tend to put that out to anybody that's requested to receive it or anybody that's spoken before.

Ruth: It also exhibitors so they can put forward ambassador speakers as well. And then. We see what comes in, we choose those that we think fit best and that we, that we think will be really appealing, put up on the schedule, play around with them a bit, speak to, again, speak to the brands and see who they've got that they might, or who, which ambassador speakers they, they might not have thought of bringing, and that sort of thing.

Ruth: But we also do some research into some of, some names that we want to bring in. [00:29:00] outside of what might be suggested. Don't feel like I've explained that very well. Yeah, we do independent research, but we also have a lot of speakers contacted by the court speakers. And looking at the 

Steve: list of people you've got, there's some really well known speakers.

Steve: There are people that are, I'll definitely be interested in going to speak to. I can only go on the last day, unfortunately, because of family commitments. But so when are you talking, Nick? 

Nick: On the Monday and Tuesday. 

Steve: Oh, I can come and heckle you. 

Nick: Yes. Yeah. I'd expect nothing less. Start your rotting.

Nick: Start your tomatoes decomposing now and then you can 

Steve: run up. What's the future for the show? Where would you see the show being say in 10 years time? 

Hazel: That's a really good question. I feel like given the last 10 years things have changed very quickly at times. We've branched out into the video area.

Hazel: We've got the opportunity to go a bit further in that and in content creation, but while Photography is our traditional and really at the heart of what we do. Other elements come and go, don't [00:30:00] they? So I'd say politicians responses, we'll have to see. 

Nick: I'll tell you one thing I've noticed in the last few years since I, when I first visited, I think back in 2015 or something, I've noticed a real improvement in the diversity Of just walking around walk around the show.

Nick: So the demographic is definitely widening. Now, is that something that's been an intentional improvement from your side? 

Ruth: Yeah very much. We. Yeah. As you say, it's definitely, the demographic is definitely widened both I think on the visitor front, but also on the speaker front really is, it is key.

Ruth: We've really made an effort to ensure we're being more balanced in, in, in terms of the speakers on the programs. I think last year we were very high 40, I think 48, 49 percent female speakers on the program. Yeah. I 

Nick: noticed that last year as well. Really good. Yeah. 

Ruth: Yeah. So we should be. Similar this year, it might, vary within a couple of percent, but it's it's important to us to be representing as [00:31:00] many as broader demographic as possible.

Ruth: And definitely we're seeing more, shall I say, non white middle aged male speaking to white middle aged males. I should have preempted 

Steve: That's the stereotype of a photographer, I think, isn't it? Yeah. 

Nick: I did think about prefacing that question with, okay, coming from a white middle aged man. But there's definitely fewer than the first year when there's just fewer, that there's more diversity in the models.

Nick: So it's not just, young women in the modeling and walking around the show has gone away from people like me, which is great. And there's younger people and people are the other ethnicities as well. And I think that's just great to see because it's super important. Yeah. I think otherwise what happens is if anyone does go, they're not going to come back because they see that a very narrow demographic and so it's really moving the right way, I think.

Ruth: We, we've pursued a number of partnerships, with various sort of communities and groups and things as well. So we work a lot with SheClicks and with we've worked with UKBF TOG and lots of different organizations like that, but, we also put in some model guidance for our exhibitors and just brought it back to their attention as well, because sometimes people just don't think about [00:32:00] it, and, the last thing we want to see at the show is just scantily clad. Yes. We don't want it to be sleazy. 

Steve: I think that's the sort of, the image of the camera club, 20 years ago was late middle old men pointing their cameras at scantily clad women really. And that, that, that's gone thankfully from the camera club world.

Steve: And and of course from, professional events like yourself. More power to what you've done there, really. I think it's really important. 

Ruth: Expanding into content creation and more video as well brings a broader set of people too. So I think helps and also brings a younger demographic, which tends to be more diverse.

Ruth: So I 

think, 

Ruth: That, that's helpful too. And 

Hazel: the brands are very The brands are all very supportive of the the younger demographic and that's us trying to bring younger people in. So we have, I run a specific standalone campaign, which to reach out to students, to get them to come along.

Hazel: And it's really nice. I've worked in a lot of B2B industries where sadly students are hard. Not welcome shows, but this is very different. The big brands do [00:33:00] respect the fact that this is the next generation. 

Nick: I think they've got more aware and more intelligent about thinking, but these are our customers of the future.

Nick: They may not have the purchasing power right now to chuck 15 grand in kit, but they will be in five, five years. And that's going to be much, a much longer term. investment for the, for the brands to be able to talk properly to those people. And you've 

Steve: also got to look in the products they bring out, look at Sony, how many vlogging cameras have they brought out in the last two years?

Steve: It's that's where the future is. That's where the market's going really. So yeah. It's been fascinating talking to both ladies. Is there anything that we haven't asked you that we should have asked you or any key points that you'd like to get across that we've not managed to discuss up to now?

Ruth: I don't know I can't think of anything off the top of my head, but just say we're really excited about the show and and we know that we're lucky to work on it as well. Cause it's such a, it's such a fun show to work on. 

Steve: And that comes across actually, it feels. fun, yeah, it really does.

Steve: I've been to some, waste water exhibitions in Telford, tumbleweed blowing through the aisles, Better than 

Hazel: waste water, to be 

Steve: [00:34:00] fair. True. The whole event always feels, it's got a hum about it. There's always a queue of people trying to get the best deals and things, of course.

Steve: And it's, yeah it's, and, from our point of view, it's always a good place to meet up and hang up and go have a beer or two afterwards. I'm certainly very 

Ruth: lucky that it's a very visual industry. So we get to make it look pretty. 

Hazel: As the one driving the visitor side of things, can I just remind everyone that pro photographers get in free, I know we mentioned it earlier.

Hazel: You just need to apply for a pass to get in as pro or trade. We do have a criteria that we follow to assess your qualification for that. 

Steve: And it's very reasonable. I've done mine and it's just websites, proof you're insured and proof that you've got a company listing and that's, it's not a big deal really for any business really.

Hazel: Yeah. And then consumer tickets are on sale if, there's plenty of discounts out there. Discounts at the moment single day ticket for 14. 95. Pretty good. And but make sure you get your tickets before you come to the show because [00:35:00] everybody is required to pay the onsite prices as of Friday the 7th.

Hazel: So that's worth 

Steve: knowing. And what's the onsite price going to be? 

Hazel: It's 24 for a standard adult entry and that 

Steve: applies to 

Hazel: professionals as well. 

Steve: Oh yeah. Good point. Yeah. Good point. Oh, and 

Ruth: there is something else that I haven't mentioned, and that is Saturday, the 8th of March, the first day of our show is actually International Women's Day as well.

Ruth: So we are going big on female speakers. And so if you are, if you want, if you're female and you want to come and celebrate, not looking at you to celebrate your fellow female photographers, or if you're male and you want to come and support female female photographers and creatives and video makers and so on, then please do come along on the Saturday.

Ruth: Great shots. 

Steve: Great shots. Super important point. And we've actually got a, I've actually recorded a special podcast, particularly around that particular theme as well, but more on that. Nearer the time. Hazel Ruth, thank you so much for joining us today. It's been fascinating finding out more about behind the scenes for the photography show.

Steve: [00:36:00] Nick and I will probably have another five minutes chat on a few things, but please hang around and please chip in as you see fit as well. Once again, thank you so much for being with us today. Really appreciate it. 

Nick: Thank you guys. Thanks, 

Steve: Nick. We announced a competition in the Facebook group a couple of weeks ago, and it's probably about time we did something with it.

Nick: We did. Because it was a photo competition which is, it's a new idea. I don't think anyone's done one before, but we did one on the theme of winter and we had some fantastic pictures. I'm going to, I'm going to share my share these pictures if technology works, but there's always something that goes wrong during this thing.

Nick: I just tried it. And the. When you also advance a slide deck, it seems that the, even though I put one second, it seems that it's one millisecond because it just, it's like a, a frantic thing. Can you share it? I'm going to manually do it. Not 

Steve: as a presentation. Can you just share it as a I'm just going to manually, 

Nick: Okay.

Nick: Fit through them. Okay. Let me check. It's not my tax return again. Cause I don't want to do that 

Steve: twice. Yes. Ladies. Nick's actually did share his [00:37:00] tax return on the call. Yeah. I think he's legal. Yeah. 

Nick: Yeah. Yeah. I didn't get any complaints from HMRC about that. So, I don't know if that, yeah, we can see it.

Nick: So there's Northern 

Steve: Lights one from Fiona. 

Nick: So we've got a lovely one here. Now we've got our own sort of favorites on here and but they've, they're all fantastic. This was one that you really liked Steve. 

Steve: I did. Yeah. And because I've never seen the Northern Lights. We had a holiday in Orkney last year and everybody in the UK was seeing the Northern Lights at that time, apart from us, would you believe?

Steve: So 

Nick: it's actually quite hard. I've not not, this is not from experience from but I know it's quite. Challenging to capture Northern lights because you'd have thought that just a tripod and just a slow exposure, but then you don't get those ribbony tight, this sort of curtains with, it just blurs it all out, which, but this is fantastic.

Nick: I love that one. These ones from so that was from Fiona Mack Dale Stephens has sent in a couple of very street oriented selfie shots. So I love this. I think that's in Oxford. 

Steve: Yeah. 

Nick: Yeah. I think that's great. I'm just guessing it's winter. It was taken in winter but we said that you don't view too tight to the theme.

Nick: And I think this, the inclusion of this one sort [00:38:00] of backs that up that we're not too strict on whether it's brilliant. There's another one. This is from Helen Parkinson. We've got a free from Helen. Just love the tones in this one. Helen did one of my courses So she loves traveling and going on Arctic cruises and on Antarctic cruises.

Nick: And so she did my course because she wanted to be able to take some lovely photos. And she's done a really good job. Christian Walter, I love that. That's some great timing in that shot and getting exposure, and again, 

Steve: so I know Christian well, he's a, he's an associate of mine, a long time friend in Switzerland.

Steve: I think he took her with his phone. 

Nick: Oh, it's a phone photo. Yeah, it's fantastic, isn't it? That's great. It's another one from Helen. So that's a lovely one as well. Another one from Dale. So another street. That's an interesting character. 

Steve: Just go back to that photo a second. When I saw that photo, it reminded me of what was the doctor's name?

Steve: The Stockport or somewhere. Can you 

Nick: see it? Can you see what I mean? I can see what you mean now, yeah. I can't remember his name now, 

Steve: yeah. Anyway, sure it wasn't him. Yeah. It's a great photo though. 

Nick: Yeah. 

Steve: Shipman. Shipman. Harold Shipman. Thank you. Yeah. Sorry, Dale. Dale's a mate as well. So you won't mind me saying that.[00:39:00] 

Nick: And this person might be a friend of his. And we're not at all suggesting that he's pals with serial killers. Although if he is, then, everyone needs a friend. So that's a lovely one that, that I do apologize for that bit there. The the added graphic, that's just a vertical portrait that's PowerPoint.

Nick: Put that in. You thought that's what I would want to have. That's AI 

Steve: view. That's great. That is. Yeah. Yeah. 

Nick: Yeah. I love this one from Helen as well. No, this one really reminds me of a guy called Herbert Ponting that did all the photography in the Antarctic exploration. So like the discovery and the Terra Nova exhibition where Scott got to the Antarctic South Pole and didn't make it back, but he had a very loads of very similarly framed photos.

Nick: No, Helen's the same genre of that sort of photography as I am. So I suspect that's the, 

Steve: I like that because it's something like nine tenths of the iceberg is under the water. So that kind of gives that image, doesn't it? Really? That's just the tip of the iceberg to pardon the use of the pun.

Steve: Yeah quite. Yeah. Yeah. And what was the one, wasn't the one we've missed? Wasn't the one on the canal or something? 

Nick: Oh, yes. That one. Can you see that? Can you see it now? [00:40:00] I might just share it again because, Oh, this is Oh, this is so unprofessional. We're never going to get a Netflix series.

Nick: Anyway, 

Steve: it doesn't matter. I think, there we go. 

Nick: Is that showing now? That's Murray's as well. 

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. 

Nick: That's Murray's. I think that's lovely. I really love the kind of, that sort of letterbox that you're looking through. Great crop that is. 

Steve: Murray lives in a fantastic place called Guruk, which is on the Clyde Estuary.

Steve: And his house is on a hill and you overlook, go to his bay, his studio and you look out the window. He's got a fantastic view of the c cloud history every morning. Oh, they jealous. 

Nick: Yeah. Yeah. I'm 

Steve: jealous 

Nick: of that. This, these are really nice. We got a I wonder if Dennis thought that there was a limit to how many photos He thought I was just gonna cram six into one

Nick: Yeah. I think these are really interesting. I really love, and I know you're, you really like that one at the bottom as well. 

Steve: I do, because I like the, um, the sort of mix of the industrial side of things and the obvious winter image. Dennis, we will get on the podcast. I know, but Dennis is a great photographer in the States, but he he's been working on a project for a long time now with a company that's been building, um, windmills, like turbine windmills and things.

Steve: So he's probably where he's took [00:41:00] these, but no, they're great images. Skates on 

Nick: and finish that. Projects and then he can come on the pod. Connie, this is a very talented young photographer from the Southwest. I don't like that one at all. No, it's terrible. Oh, and this one I love as well.

Nick: And you, and yeah, this is your favorite. I think, wasn't it as well. 

Steve: I just like that because it, to me, that's winter in a nutshell, really. It's the dead trees. It's just, it's this foggy, misty look at the picture. It's an isolated bloke walking along the canal towpath. Probably, coming back from Sainsbury's or something like that, really.

Steve: And to me, that's just reminds me, because that's the kind of place I grew up, where exactly that kind of environment. So to me, that just reminds me of winter. I don't know what, how are we going to judge? What's the process we're going to go through? We're going to 

Nick: pick two. Okay. And we will put it in the Facebook group.

Nick: So people listening do join the Facebook group. If you haven't already, we will put in there the two we selected and they're going to get a treat from my corner of doom. Yeah. We'll cover it. It's not a cup anymore. It's just in the corner, but it doesn't matter 

Steve: That information 

Nick: wasn't important, but it's [00:42:00] okay.

Nick: So that's our photo competition. So let's start. Yeah. So thank you for sending those in. We got a bunch of great photos there. We'll do another one. Yeah, we'll do another one. We'll have to think of a theme for next time. Again, we'll put that in the group and get people to send in. Obviously we're a bit tied now to be going to have to do a spring at some point.

Nick: And summer and autumn. Yeah. But we'll get money before then. Yeah. 

Steve: Brilliant. Thanks for sharing those Nick. And so I don't think we've got any industry news, particularly apart from what we've obviously just heard from Ruth and Hazel. So that's a whole show on industry news.

Steve: Absolutely. 

Nick: No, I think industry wise photography show around the corner is pretty much the most major thing we can talk about. So I can't wait for that. And as Ruth, Ruth mentioned that the always Hazel can't remember about the fact that. International women's day is on the first day of the show.

Nick: Do go along to that. Because it's just such an important thing. I know Steve and I feel really important about it. And we've got a couple of women that are presenting at the show coming up on next episodes coming along soon as well. So yeah, thank you again for downloading this episode. We really appreciate.

Nick: That and do look at the YouTube channel as [00:43:00] well. The YouTube channel you search photography pod, you'll start to see these episodes dripping into there. And it's put a ton of 

Steve: work into those dear listeners. So make sure you go and check them out. They're really good. Yeah. 

Nick: Yeah. For goodness sake. Yeah.

Nick: Just shit and share it for, we need the numbers up to make it more, but it's, yeah that, that is really good to have that as well. And of course you can carry on listening to it, the pod page. That we linked to in the group with all of the episodes with more details in, so we'll put links to the show where you can get tickets, the photography show.

Nick: This is, so put that into the pod page, those that the YouTube. Videos are also in there as well. So you can listen to it on the page or go and look at the YouTube channel. 

Steve: And if you do listen to us on Apple or Spotify, do give us a five star review, folks, it does help us in lots of mysterious ways. So Nick and I'll be back in a couple of weeks time with another show themed around the photography show in the meantime, Ruth Hazel, thank you once more for coming on the show, lovely to meet you both, hopefully we'll get a chance to meet you when we are actually at the show face to face as well.

Steve: And and of course, don't forget Nick's talking on the Tuesday there as well. See you in a couple of weeks time folks. Thanks for joining us.