2018 Fireside Chat Sessions 

LARS PERKINS:
PHOTO INDUSTRY ENTREPRENEUR, INVESTOR, AND ADVISOR

From Picasa to Google to Relive to WeMark – photography has been at the roots of Lars Perkins’ impressive career. What’s more, Lars is never shy about sharing his views on where the photo industry is heading – or should be heading.

Among many activities outside the photo industry, Lars was CEO of photo management software Picasa, which he sold to Google in 2004 where he became Director of Product Management. He founded his own photo print app company, Relive, out of pure frustration with the photo print apps then on the market, advised Dropbox and Evite on their photo strategies, and is currently venture partner at 3Rodeo and advisor of imaging blockchain startup, WeMark.  We look forward to hearing his perspectives on the future of the photo industry!

WHAT’S NEXT FOR CAMERAS:
FLAT-LENS, LENS-LESS AND BEYOND

What if future cameras were designed to be used more by machines than by humans?  And what if, instead of continuing to tweak a 102-year-old design, we engineered cameras from scratch to leverage today’s – and tomorrow’s – nanotechnology, optics, and computational graphics processing power?  

To give us a glimpse of these cameras of the future and how they will be used, we look forward to hearing the perspective of prof. Rajesh Menon who heads the Laboratory for Optical Nanotechnologies at the University of Utah, and is founder of Oblate Optics and Lumos Imaging.

INSTASIZE: HOW A TOP-RANKING PHOTO APP PIVOTED FROM A SINGLE-PURPOSE TO A FULL-FLEDGED IMAGING APP

Pivoting to the 9th degree: What if the grass on the other side really is greener?

…Or you have great technology and a super-charged team that feels it could do more than the initial use case you were set to address?  Aymeric Vigneras, CEO of Sharalike, will tell you all about it.  

From a once-click tool to create animated slideshows, to an innovative 360 video editing app, v360 (winner of last year’s Best Technology Award), to an end-to-end solution for the real estate market, it’s been one successful pivot after another.

But wait, there’s more:  At Visual 1st Aymeric will announce his company’s latest move: Into the world of cameras.  Stay tuned!

2018 Keynote

HANS’ STATE OF THE CONSUMER PHOTO & VIDEO INDUSTRY

From imaging business and technology trends to emerging shifts in consumer behavior, Hans Hartman will describe the fundamentals driving our industry forward, and also what’s changing right under our feet. 

He’ll then outline how various industry players can capitalize on both the short and long-term trends. 

2018 Visual interlude

ALEXIS’ SECRET PHOTO PROJECT REVEALED

2018 Panel Discussions

THE EXPLODING MIX OF IMAGE CAPTURE OPTIONS: SMARTPHONES, DIGITAL CAMERAS, AND THE LONG TAIL OF CAMERAS

Today’s consumers enjoy the broadest set of options ever available in photo/video capture tools: from smartphones and digital cameras to pet cameras and no-viewfinder AI-powered devices. Image capture remains the bedrock of the visual ecosystem, therefore it’s vital to not only understand the use cases behind these various cameras, but also to explore how the imagery these devices capture can be integrated with solutions for innovative visual enhancement, sharing, memory preservation, and printing.

Speakers:

• Mikkel Aaland, Photographer and Author (moderator)

• Juston Payne, Product Lead for Google Clips, Google

• Michael Shabun, Marketing Director, North America, Insta360

• Michael Bulbenko, Professional Markets Training Manager, Fujifilm

• Mike Chang, Sr. Director, Cameras & Imaging USA R&D, Huawei

EMERGING MONETIZATION MODELS FOR THE PHOTO AND VIDEO ECOSYSTEM

Today’s unprecedented levels of photo and video engagement have given a major boost to established photo monetization models such as advertising, subscriptions, photo print products, and imaging hardware or app sales.  While we’ve covered those in detail, and will continue to do so, this panel will focus on currently emerging alternative models to monetize today’s consumer visual engagement trends.

Speakers:

• Champ Bennett, Co-Founder, HYPNO

• Rob Mauldin, Strategic Advisor, CaptureLife

• Kain Jones, COO, Pixsy

• Eduardo Llach, CEO, Krome Photos

THE NEW WORLD OF PHODEO: PHOTOS + VIDEOS + ANYTHING IN BETWEEN

We’re still living with a historical distinction between “photo” and “video” that dates back to when each required different technology and product platforms. That is no longer true, and today’s consumers are increasingly free to choose whatever works at any given moment to best capture, retain, share or view their visual impressions – whether these visuals are photos, long or short form videos, or intermediate visual files, such as GIFs, Live Photos, or Boomerang clips. Rather than discussing photos and videos separately, we’ll approach them as a continuum (hence, our term “phodeo”).

What does this continuum mean for providers of consumer imaging solutions? How should your offerings adapt to give customers the flexibility they increasingly demand? Get ready for a deep dive into what is not only trending now, but also what we could expect to see disrupted in the years ahead.

Speakers:

• Cesar Kuriyama, Principal/Founder, 1 Second Everyday

• Julia Enthoven, Founder, Kapwing

• Eli Lubitch, President, Beamr

• Michael Segal, CEO, Skylight Frame

MONETIZING PHOTOS THROUGH PRINT:
WINNING TACTICS IN A RAPIDLY EVOLVING ENVIRONMENT

It used to be simple: photo products meant 4x6 prints from digital camera images; and photo product ordering platforms meant either kiosks, websites, or desktop software. The current spectrum of photo print products, cameras and print product ordering platforms is both broader and more diverse. Capture devices, while dominated by smartphones, also include digital cameras and various long tail cameras. Ordering platforms include apps, mobile websites, APIs, progressive web apps, chatbots, and a new generation of smartphone-focused kiosks. Where are the remaining bottlenecks? What’s driving innovation in this space? And where are the breakout opportunities?

Speakers:

• Philipp Muehlbauer, Co-founder & Managing Director, Picanova

• Phil Bowman, President Consumer Digital Printing, Circle Graphics

• Terence Swee, Founder, photobook.ai

• Qian Lin, Distinguished Technologist, HP

2018 Show & Tell Judges

• Andy Kelm, Managing Director, Palmarés Advisors

• Robert Blumberg, Managing Director, Soquel Group

• Marcel van der Heijden, Partner, Speedinvest

• Gary Pageau, Editor, The Dead Pixels Society

2018 Show-and-Tell Presenters

• ADVA Soft, Maksym Davydov

• Beamr, Will Cole

• CaptureLife, Scott DeFusco

• di support, Ralph Naruhn

• Embody Digital, Ari Shapiro

• Explorest, Justin Myers

• Framen, Dimitri Gärtner

• Fujfilm, Ryan Moore

• HP, Qian Lin

• Insta360, Michael Shabun

• InstaSize, Natasha Ponomaroff

• journi, Andreas Roettl

• Kodak Moments, Christina Teng

• Krome Photos, Teri Llach

• Kwilt, Marc-Antoine Benglia

• Let’s Enhance, Sofi Shvets

• LuvPics, Jaclyn Moran

• Mimeo Photos, Sean Doherty

• MyPostcard, Oliver Kray

• photobook.ai, Terence Swee

• Photomyne, Omer Shoor

• PixelDrive, Francis Doumet

• Pixsy, Kain Jones

• Prodibi, Oliver Hamel

• SanDisk, Don Kadish

• Skylight Frame, Michael Segal

• Storyo, Manuel Costa

• Streetography, Mike Lanza

• Yours.co, Stephanie Randle

• Zyl, Mathieu Spiry