I B C, these initials like N A B mean a lot of walking, standing, long lines, long hours, planes, trains, buses, taxis, Uber, expensive food, Hotels, motels, AirBNB and a lot of cool stuff. These trade shows are where the manufacturers bring new stuff for the industry to see. There are always a lot of announcements and it would be impossible for one person to see them all. We have to pick and choose what we feel is important to our readers and viewers.

Panasonic Booth and new 8K organic sensor camera

I have been in the industry for 42 years and have seen a lot. I started by shooting tv news with 16mm film, then to video tape and now digital. Everything has changed except one thing - story telling. I hope we all want to tell good stories. These new or updated tools can help us do this.

World Traveler

This year I have done the most trade shows I have ever done. It started in January with CES in Las Vegas then back to Vegas for NAB in April. In June it was Hollywood and Paramount Studios for Cine Gear. August meant BIRTV in Beijing and now Amsterdam in September for IBC.

Let’s get back to the topic of today - IBC. It is a huge show spread over 15 exhibit halls over 5 days (the longest of exhibit hall shows). But don’t fret, some of the halls are close to each other and have covered walkways.

Wrong Train

Being in a foreign country adds to the puzzle. Amsterdam is a Dutch speaking city but a lot of people speak English and some signs are in English. You have to figure out how to get to the convention center from your hotel and in Amsterdam there are a lot of choices. I chose to stay near the airport as it was cheaper and convenient for arriving and going home. It turned out that this was a good decision in that my hotel had a shuttle to the airport every 30 minutes. At the airport there are high speed trains, local trains, trams and buses. The first day I choose the high speed train. Everything was great until I went past my stop as I was on the high speed train and all schedules and signs were in Dutch. I got off at the next stop and took the local back to the RAI convention center stop. After a nice walk there I was standing in line to pick up my badge. Now I can get in.

The first time I had gone to BIRTV in Beijing I was concerned if I would be able to communicate at the show. This proved unfounded as English is the international language of business and the media. The same was true at IBC.

Next challenge was find the best hall to start finding companies that I wanted to talk to. I had already used an IOS app to determine where I wanted to go and of course I went in the wrong hall so I needed to find the right one.

I must take a break here and say that this IBC was the first one that I have attended so I did not know where to go. At NAB, no problem, I have been attending since the late 1970’s off and on. I have now done Cine Gear and BIRTV three times so I know the layout. It is great that most shows have an app. Most of the time most companies are in the same spot.

Andrew Chan from SLRMagic and I

I have been doing these interviews long enough that a lot of companies already know me but at a show like NAB and now IBC, it is good to have appointments because there is so much media at these shows. Many times if I don’t have an appointment I would arrive at a booth and find that some other media is already there. This will delay me if I have a schedule already. Sometimes I just leave try to come back later because I like to get one hall done at one time. Out of the 15 halls I was in six of them over four days.

What is under the cover?

Sometimes at a booth I find out there is going to be an event that I would like to be at later and at this show this was true with Aputure, the lighting company. The event was going to be the next day so I needed to put that in my schedule and hope it does not interfere with something else.

Aputure Lightstorm 600d

At a lot of smaller booths a scheduled appointment is not necessary and they are happy to see me. Over the last few years I have made a lot of contacts so a good part of the time they already know me. This makes getting the interview done much quicker and easier.

On my way to the dinner in Amsterdam

In past shows I have been invited to special press events either before or right after the show hours. This year I was invited by Dan Chung for Atomos to a media dinner after the show closed at a local restaurant but they did not arrange transportation. For me this was going to be a challenge as I did not have a vehicle. The good news was that Amsterdam has a great Metro and street car system. The bad news was that it was in Dutch. Fortunately Amsterdam is an international city where a lot of people speak English and I was helped in my journey a long the way. First I took the Metro then the street car. I did realize I was going the wrong way on the street car seeing my position on my map app on my phone so I got off and went the other way. On that street car there was an information booth and I was told the right stop to get off. I had to walk a half block to get to the restaurant. Having these events are a great way to get to know the other media people from the other online review sites. They are my colleagues, not competition.

Attendees at the Atomos dinner

My next concern was how to get back to the hotel and that was solved by one of the people I knew was a local so he took me back in his car to my hotel.

How do I get back to my Hotel?

Another new thing for me at this show was that I went live on YouTube with a new product from Saramonic with one of their sales people.

After two days I realized there was a shuttle bus to and from the Convention so I took it. Another reason I like to take the bus is that I get to know people from other countries. I talked with people from India, Spain, Denmark, England and Sweden. This is one great reason I like to attend these international shows.

The show looking at the Aputure booth from Atomos

Overall these international shows are exciting, interesting and fun but long and tiring. One extra benefit is is I get to catch up on the movies I missed on the long plane flight.