With Autumn in full swing and the summer months well behind, our team has been humming with activity (although this is always the case, the humming has been a few decibels louder indeed!). As many businesses experienced, the Fall presented a flood of tradeshows and events to attend. This year, we did not ease into the swing of things after the lull of Covid-19 over the past 2 years. We attended 6 tradeshows over the past 5 weeks, and our staff is inspired to create new developments for our technology and to forge new partnerships with industry shakers. We're excited to share a recap of our travels and their outcomes.

Three new tradeshows to kickstart our travels

🎶Do you remember...our first tradeshow in mid-September🎵 Sorry – that Earth, Wind & Fire song's tune just fits so many scenarios! Anyway, in mid-September, we started our business travel escapades closer to home – Toronto, Ontario. The National Pet Industry Show was an engaging gathering with pertinent information to stay in tune with what's happening in the industry. One thing that resonated with us is that memorial-related products and services are important to clients. We were thrilled to show businesses how our solution can empower them to serve their customers' desire to memorialize their pets in unique ways... Find out more about our offering for Pet Industry businesses .

Shortly after, team members were off to Mexico for FESPA . As first-time participants in a Latin American show, we were excited to see the potential of products in textiles and sublimation. We loved the Green Field approach and learned that our solution has the potential to create fruitful opportunities for businesses in this bustling region. We were also surprised to see that sustainability was already part of the conversation. As the next steps, we're continuing the conversation with many sector leaders to explore partnership opportunities with established channel service providers in Latin America.

Without much ado, Mediaclip was found next at the White Label Expo NY in New York City. The show was an excellent platform to introduce our offering to a new audience in the white-label space. Marie-Eve's session on how offering a personalized product connects businesses with millennials and all generations was very well received and spurred many follow-up conversations with our booth staff. We're excited to pursue some great partnership opportunities that arise from this show.

Our most anticipated event...The 10 ^th Annual Visual 1 ^st Conference

Before we knew it, we found ourselves boarding the planes to San Francisco, anticipating our involvement in the event we've been most excited about... Visual 1 ^st . We have been a part of this conference since its debut 10 years ago. We've come to know it well as an exciting platform for Imaging industry leaders to gather, share, and innovate together. This year, however, was off the charts! The conference agenda was stacked with knowledgeable keynotes, engaging demos and presentations, networking opportunities, and facilitated "fireside" chats on trending topics. It felt rejuvenating to be face-to-face with colleagues in the industry and discuss the latest imaging technology innovations and market trends.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) was a hot topic among attendees. It is a term that has been buzzing about the conference for a few years now, but this year it appeared to be more welcomed by the mainstream. For the imaging sector, Generative AI image creation was a particularly stimulating topic of discussion. Generative AI image creation is a technology that outputs original images from text prompts by a user. We witnessed WOW presentations from OpenAI's Dall-E and MidJourney that spurred a lot of discussion around the “original” output image, and concerns with copywrites. The generated images pull datasets from a plethora of existing images and artist styles and could pose ethical and legal problems. Some large players have already sidestepped these types of technologies. However, there are now ethical AI datasets (what the AI actually trains on), so the development of Generative AI's uptake is moving at lightning speeds.

Another buzzing topic was video – as TikTok videos, Instagram reels, and other "snackable" video content continue to blow up the internet, many photo-only apps are faced with the decision to add video tools to stay competitive. We came to know of Zingcam through all these video discussions. It is a cutting-edge AR technology that helps you "unfreeze" your favorite photo memories. So impressive, this technology won one of the technology awards at the conference.

After returning, the team went straight to the whiteboards to devise new developments and update our already notable roadmap! The face-to-face time at the conference also gave us time to solidify partnerships and form plans for new collaborations in the future.

But wait, there's more!

After a short few days back at home base, our next stop was Hamburg, Germany. Photopia curated an engaging event for the European market. We were fortunate to be there with our long-standing partner, Softec , with whom we made some first-rate connections with a few exciting partnerships and customer prospects. Although Photopia isn't (yet) a replacement for the type of event Photokina once was, it gave us an excellent avenue to connect with the European market and understand the pulse of the industry in the region. As the event evolves over the years, we look forward to seeing what it can bring in terms of industry knowledge and opportunities for our company.

Finally, we've just returned from Printing United Expo in Las Vegas. True to its description, it was a dynamic and comprehensive printing event. We were able to meet many of our Fulfillment partners and see their exciting new innovations first-hand. The advances in technology and workflow management were impressive, to say the least. Our partner Artsy Couture also received the "Unicorn of the Show" award (most innovative product) for their patented Canvas Click Frame - congratulations to the team! It was well-deserved. And of course, the event presented networking opportunities to meet new potential fulfillers to expand our network, continuing the journey to offer zero gaps between project creation, ordering and fulfillment.

All in all, it was a fruitful 5 weeks. We learned a ton, networked a lot, and most of all, have grown as a team that sees the common goal clearly and is motivated to achieve it with well-thought-out activities. We're feeding off the energetic pulse of our industry and are walking out of this eventful time with a heightened passion for creating the best experiences that bring products to life for our customers and their shoppers!