iPhones, and other smartphones, are becoming the de facto camera for many consumers.  How can retailers and photographers take advantage of the growing photo app ecosystem?

New this year, the PMA Photo App Pavilion makes its debut on the PMA 2010 trade show floor.

Glyn Evans, editor of the popular iPhoneography blog, will present the top photo apps available today. Special guests and application developers will be on-site to share new techniques and applications as well as answer questions throughout the PMA 2010 trade show.

Evans recently blogged about a tweet-up planned for PMA 2010:

Myself, Sion Fullana, Anton Kawasaki and Marty Yawnick will all be at the event, either presenting or as a visitor, and so I have decided to try and organize a meet-up.

If you are attending the show, or will be in the area during this time and would like to meet up with us, then please add your names here and I will organize something and post when and where the meet will be nearer the time.

Think Twitter is a waste of time? Many heavy Twitter users turn to the site first for breaking news. Some are even finding special deals.

If you follow @pma2010, you’ll find that you can get a free PMA 2010 trade show badge, insights into the upcoming event, and industry-related news.

Why should you join Twitter?

Well Guy Kawasaki is a big user, and he sat down with PMA Magazine to discuss how businesses can use Twitter:

PMA: Many business owners are skeptical about the value of being on Twitter. What’s your response?

Kawasaki: I can’t say I blame them, because the first time you look at Twitter, you think: “What is this crap? Why do I care if Lonely-Boy15’s cat rolled over?”

That is a very logical, understandable re-sponse indeed. If you don’t have that response, something is wrong with you.

The thing to do is to push beyond that. I think the scales come off your eyes when you start using searches. Let’s say I’m the vice president of marketing for Nikon. I would get on Twitter and immediately start doing dedicated searches for “Nikon,” plus “Canon” and all my other competitors. I would also search for the word “photography.” I would constantly monitor what people are saying about my brand, my competitors, and the general subject of photography.

My goal would be for my “@Nikon” Twitter account to be known as a source of information, not just about Nikon, but also about photography in general. The @Nikon account can be used just to push out coupons, promotions, and similar things – that’s a very legitimate use. If you want to go beyond that, you tweet about photography-related things you find on other websites, such as, “Check out this incredible collection of inauguration pic-tures from the Boston Globe,” and you include the link. Or, “Here is a link to some great portrait tips.” So your tweets are not just about the brand, but also about the utilization of cameras.

What will happen is Nikon will tweet that out to their thousands of followers. Their thousands of followers say: “Wow, this is really useful. I will retweet this to my thousands of followers.” Pretty soon, hundreds of thousands of people will see this thing that originated with a Nikon tweet. Many of those people will begin to follow Nikon, and it just gets better and better. That’s the way to use Twitter.

Guy Kawasaki will show PMA 2010 attendees how to use one of the most powerful tools on the internet, Twitter, to increase sales and customer loyalty at his Official Business Session on Feb. 23 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, Calif.

Lynn Goldsmith can honestly say she captured stars – Bruce Springsteen, Prince, Madonna, C3PO, and countless others. Her remarkable talent has taken her worldwide, and she will share her experiences as this year’ Evening with An Artist.

While other would be envious of Goldsmith’s subjects, she found herself not happy with her work. So, she began looking for inspiration elsewhere. In an interview with PMA Magazine, Goldsmith describes the need to find a new creative outlet as a photographer:

“I realized, while my photography pleased others, I was not reflecting on it and it no longer made me happy,” she writes in her introduction.

Goldsmith found a way to recapture that photographic magic by observing others, many times at the mall.

“In the past nine years, I have often gone out at midnight with a high-resolution digital camera, one black curtain, tripod, ladder, Windex, paper towels, and an assistant, and stayed up until dawn, photographing the display windows of New York City,” she wrote. “I chose to work digitally, as this technology has a nearly limitless capacity to blend fiction and fact. I can create a single image that is actually a combination of any number of photographs.”

Catch Lynn Goldsmith, the PIEA 2010 Evening With an Artist, Sunday, February 21, at 7:00 p.m., sponsored by Nikon.

With all this tall about Wall Street bonus packages, wouldn’t it be great if Main Street got one too?

Well, PMA decided to give a bonus package that makes PMA 2010 an affordable investment:

Get fantastic rates at the Hilton Anaheim and a free trade show badge! Hurry, though, this bonus package is good only through February 1.

In fact, there are two good deals for you to take advantage of:

1. Book four nights at the Hilton Anaheim, and get the fifth night FREE.
2. Book six nights or more, and we’ll lower your room rate to just $149 single/double per night. That’s a savings of $300 – more than enough money to pay for all the great educational sessions at PMA!

And even if you book at the normal Hilton Anaheim $199 single/double rate per night, you still receive:

• Double Hilton Honors Points
• Free Internet
• Free PMA 2010 Trade Show Badge (use Coupon Code: TWEET*HILTON, the reference code will be your Hilton Anaheim Reservation Number)

Remember, offer is only good through February 1. Make your PMA 2010 plans today.

PMA 2010 Official Business Session Keynote speaker Peter Sheahan, author of the new book, “Flip: How to Turn Everything You Know on Its Head – and Succeed Beyond Your Wildest Imaginings,” will interview a panel of industry leaders on the important issues facing the photo imaging business.

Sheahan recently shared some insights with PMA Magazine on how to “flip” what you know to succeed in the current environment.

PMA: What is the basic idea behind “flipping what you know,” and how can it put businesses on the path to success?

Sheahan: The book is about being willing to consider counterintuitive approaches to your business. I don’t just mean counterintuitive approaches to marketing; I mean going right to the heart of the business model itself, and being willing to question how we make money.

Every business leader needs to ask, “In the next five years, where will we find new economic value?” Not how do we maintain the status quo; but how do we find new opportunities for growth, new opportunities for profitability.

They need to ask this question in two ways: first, from the perspective of finding and extracting value in their existing business models; and second, in terms of exploring new business models. That’s the essence of flip.

PMA: What are the “four forces of change,” and what do business leaders need to do in response?

Sheahan: The “four forces of change”  include:

Compression – It’s the idea we are, ultimately, com-pressing our concepts of how long things should take, the impact our geography should have in our ability to engage in an activity, and the amount of effort we expect to expend to get our results. In other words, we want it faster and easier; and we want it wherever we want, whenever we want. That’s not a new concept. What’s essential to understand in business is the concept of compression – that force of change – is omnipresent. It’s always, always there.

Accountability – you are increasingly being kept accountable by your customers for what you say you can deliver. They have the ability to keep you accountable if you don’t deliver on your promise, if you’re not creating mind-blowing customer experiences. It’s just so easy to logout and go somewhere else.

Transparency – people cannot only keep you more ac-countable, but find it so much easier to discover what else is available to them. This is obviously driven heavily by the web. Many businesses have built their competitive ad-vantage on having access to equipment or knowledge and information that is hard to get. That’s increasingly difficult to do be-cause of the quality of equipment we all have access to now and because of the in-formation explosion.

The fourth, and most obvious, is a satisfied need no longer motivates. In other words, expectations continue to rise. What is good enough today is never good enough tomorrow. If you bring that together with compression, accountability, and transparency – and there are obviously numerous subtrends that sit below that, you now have some understanding as a business leader of how to answer that first question: Where are you going to find new value? That question can’t be answered based on what the world looks like today. You need to answer that based on what you think the world might look tomorrow.

Be sure to attend the PMA 2010 Official Business Session featuring Peter Sheahan on Feb. 21 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, Calif.

What does it mean to be a retail superstar?

PMA 2010 Official Business Session speaker George Whalin, author of “Retail Superstars: Inside the 25 Best Independent Stores in America,” tells the story of 25 stores redefining what independent retailers can do in a highly competitive environment.

Whalin talks with PMA Magazine and shares some insights he gleaned while writing his book.

PMA: What underlying attitudes or practices are consistent among standout independent retailers?

Whalin: The consistent things are not terribly surprising. The people who own and run these stores are the hardest working people I’ve ever met in my life. For example, there is a guy by the name of Jim McIngvale. He’s known in Houston, Texas, as “Mattress Mack.” He owns Gallery Furniture, a hugely successful independent furniture store. They typically do about $150 million a year from a single store. If you go there at 7:30 in the morning, he’ll be there. If you go there at 8:00 at night, he’ll be there. All these retailers work very, very hard.

The other thing consistent among them is a passion for their businesses. Many stores in my book have been around a long time, but the passion of the owners has never faded.

They are also highly responsive to the customer, the community, and to changes in the environment and the economy. Many big companies are just now reacting to the recession; but these stores were able to react to the recession a year and a half ago.

One other thing they have in common – and something that surprised me – is they really don’t pay much attention to the competition. They pay attention to what they are doing internally in their businesses to get better every day.

PMA: What’s one of your favorite stories highlighted in your book?

Whalin: One of my favorite stories is certainly Jungle Jim’s International Market in Fairfield, Ohio. It’s a food store unlike any other. It started out as a fruit stand, and today is a 300,000 square-foot food emporium. The average Wal-Mart Supercenter is 187,000 square feet, so Jungle Jim’s store is 60 percent larger than that.

They sell food from around the world, and they carry the products customers have asked for. They have the most unusual selection you can imagine. They have hogs heads. I didn’t even know people ate hogs heads; but if you go in there today, you’ll find a selection of a dozen hogs heads. They have chicken feet and duck feet. They have 1,200 different varieties of hot sauce.

The owner, Jim Bonaminio – better known as “Jungle Jim” – built a display with an old fire truck, a real one, sitting on top of the hot sauce. There is a real boat in the fish depart-ment. The store is fun. They’re innovative. They don’t do the same things as everybody else.

PMA: What will you discuss at your PMA 2010 session? What do you want attendees to take from it?

Whalin: I am going to talk about how to build a business in this environment, and what to do to be better at it. In many businesses, retail or otherwise, the problems are self-inflicted. They don’t pay attention to the customers. They don’t distinguish themselves from everybody else. They don’t find a way to make their businesses better than the competition.

I’ll discuss how to stand out and how to grow, no matter what the environment is, no matter what the economy is. There are opportunities out there for every single business – no matter what’s going on around you.

Be sure to attend George Whalin’s Official Business Session at PMA 2010. It will be held Feb. 22 at the Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim, Calif.

You know how some people always seem to be on the forefront of, well…, everything! The Digital Imaging Marketing Association (DIMA) is a bit like that in the photo industry.

These guys (and quite a few savvy gals) are almost always first to try “the next big thing.” If you’re heading to PMA 2010, why not join these early adopters to see what’s new and what’s next in photo imaging.

Chad Munce, guru for all things DIMA-related, offers a video highlight of what’s happening at DIMA 2010:

Keep track of what the DIMA crew is doing by becoming a Facebook fan of DIMA and of DIMA 2010. You can also follow them on Twitter @dimainfo.

One of the best parts about PMA 2010 is meeting the people. A simple conversation can lead to new ideas or even a new friendship.

So, you are coming to PMA 2010 with no formal dinner plans?  Prefer not to eat alone?

Enjoy the company of other fellow PMA attendees at a Dutch Treat dinner on Saturday, February 20 at 6:15 p.m. and/or Sunday, February 21 at 7:15 p.m. Dinner will take place at the Mix Restaurant located in the Hilton Hotel which is located about 100 yards from the main entrance of the Anaheim Convention Center.

Here is how it works:

1. Email the night and the number of people in your party to Pat McNerney at pmcnerney@pmai.org.
2. Then just show up at the Mix Restaurant at the appointed time and join new friends for dinner.

There is no charge other then you must pay for your own dinner (including tax & gratuity). You may also sign up on site at the PMA Registration desk, but space may be limited at that time.

It’s that time of year again. No, I’m not referring to the holiday season.

Nope, I’m talking about the rumors that get started in the weeks leading up to PMA. And, the rumor mill is getting started about the new products you might see.

Nikon Rumors expects to see eight new Nikkor lenses in 2010:

The first batch of new lenses is expected to be released in February-March of 2010 (probably February for PMA) and it will include the 24mm f/1.4 which was initially scheduled for October, 2009 and then postponed till Q1 of 2010. A new 85mm f/1.4 and maybe a 35mm f/1.4 are also expected, although I got one report denying the 35mm f/1.4 option (meaning only a new 24mm f/1.4 and 85mm  f/1.4 in Q1 of 2010). The 24mm f/1.4 and 85mm f/1.4 lenses are supposedly already in Nikon internal systems/databases.

Are you hearing any interesting rumors? What are you most looking forward to at PMA 2010?

Let us know in the comment section.

There’s no doubt the economy today is a hefty business challenge with “let’s do more with less” thinking in place. You can get more ideas and inspiration for pursuing new business opportunities at PMA 2010 for a lot less than you think.

Registration Specials
Save $100 off the price of the All Conference Connection Pass when registering by January 15.*

Great Hotels
For a limited time, save at the Hyatt Regency or take advantage of new incentives at the Hilton Anaheim and Sheraton Park. Check out the other great hotel deals.

Travel Deals
Check out the airfare rates for John Wayne/Santa Ana and Long Beach airports.

Maximize Your Investment

1. Write down the 3-5 most important strategies or issues in your company right now.
2. Think about your contribution to those strategies. Make a list of “personal contributions to strategy.”
3. Search for sessions related to your list of personal contributions.
4. Search for exhibitors with products and services that best fit your customers’ needs.

So, what are you waiting for? Why not make plans now?