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May 14th was a busy day for footage professionals. One of the biggest footage exhibitions taking place in London. FootageMarketplace is an international show uniting the leading specialists in filming industry. This year our team attended the show and talked to Bob Prior – the organizer and sponsor of the event. Bob shared with us his impressions and thoughts about the show and its prospects.

Hi Bob, nice to meet you here at the show. Today was a busy and exciting day. How many visitors attended footageMarketplace this year?

Hi, nice to meet you too. This year we had around 30 participants exhibiting their footage. These were the leading specialists in the footage industry: Corbis Motion, Shutterstock, Getty Images, BBC Motion Gallery, Pond5 to name a few. And we had around 200 guests who visited the show during the day.

Is it more in comparison with the previous years?

Yes, it is. This year we saw an increase in visitor numbers of about 30%. I would explain this by the fact that video content is becoming more and more popular as the demand on quality visual content grows. New technology appears, new possibilities, more videographers polish their skills, come up with fresh ideas and present really professional footage.

And another reason why footageMarketplace is becoming more popular is that it gives a wonderful opportunity to present yourself, your footage, your company face-to-face. Virtual and web space gives lots of advantages to show your product to a great number of people but when it comes to sales and establishing contacts face-to-face communication is indispensable. FootageMarketplace is a great opportunity for networking and establishing live contacts with other industry professionals.

Who attended the exhibition this year?

Ohh, specialists from many different industries: television, film, documentary, advertising, graphics, publishing, web designers and professionals who use or plan to use footage in their visual content. Video production is what unites all of these companies. And at this point footageMarketplace is a unique event where all the best footage professionals are gathered in one place and you can go and talk to everyone. We had participants from all over Europe and the USA.

What was the main focus of interest for the guests?

All the guests basically come for relationship building. As I have already said face-to-face communication is essential to establish contacts. We are all in the same industry and we follow each other, we keep an eye on what is going on in the business. The web makes it possible. But here at the footageMarketplace companies experience a new level of communication when they meet personally. I know some companies who are already cooperating but it is only at the show that they first met each other :)

What was the atmosphere at the event?

For me it was very busy :) As for the visitors I can only judge on their comments. As they were leaving lots of the guests said it was exciting, intimate, busy and very positive. I was pleased to hear them say: “Great Event”, “Perfect Venue”, “Very good for networking. And I will come again next year.”

One of the footage library managers said: “It was my first time, I didn't know what to expect but it was better than anything I imagined.” And a publisher said: “Perfect number of exhibitors. So many events have too many exhibitors and one just feels inadequate for not being able to speak to them all.” Well, we kept the format for three years now so that it is possible to talk to most of the participants.

Are you satisfied with the event results?

Yes, absolutely. I was very pleased to hear all this positive feedback from the guests; it means we are on the right track. And it was also nice to meet and talk to so many footage professionals. Great opportunity to keep the business rolling.

Do you plan to render the same event next year? What format will it be?

Yes, definitely. We’ll have footageMarketplace next year and I hope to see more footage professionals exhibiting their product. I don’t think it will be something very different from the show we had this year. The only thing that will most likely change is the duration of the event. We are looking at extending into the evening - up to 8.30 - to meet the needs of those who are busy during the day but would like to enjoy a 'happy hour' drink and meet at the end of the day. But we’ll see. I still have to analyse all the feedback, all the comments and suggestions from the participants. We’ll work out the details closer to the date but in general we’ll stick to this format as it proved to be effective.

Check the photos from the event and join next year :)