24 Sep 2007 PhotoPlus Expo

In June I received an email from Photo District News (PDN) inviting me to participate on a panel about microstock at PhotoPlus Expo this October in New York. I was surprised too.

I immediately accepted, recognizing the opportunity to meet many of the people I’ve been reading and writing about, not to mention the opportunity to participate in what is billed as “the worlds largest photography exhibition”.

The panel will be chaired by PDN News Editor Daryl Lang.   The rest of the panel is made up of microstock celebrities: Ellen Boughn from Dreamstime; Adam Brotman representing SnapVillage; Kelly Thompson from iStockphoto; and Oleg Tscheltzoff from Fotolia.

The panel is titled, “Microstock: past, present, future”. I expect we’ll get to cover quite a bit of ground, from the evolution of the market to its current state, through to where the present market is taking us. The recent controversial price cuts at Getty and Alamy are sure to spark debate about the emerging midstock market and further evolution of stock photo pricing models. You can see more details about the panel at the PhotoPlus website, under the Seminars page (Thursday 1pm).

What makes this opportunity even more spectacular is the good people at StockXpert have sponsored my participation. Regular on-site readers will have already noticed an increased StockXpert presence around Microstock Diaries. This is part sponsorship agreement, part gratitude. StockXpert are exhibiting at PhotoPlus, so I’ll get the opportunity to meet community guru Steve Kapsinow and his colleagues.