We had a great first show day at PMA today, due in no small part to a tremendous curiousity about scrapbooking, particularly digital scrapbooking. For photo stores, digital scrapbooking is likely to be the point of entry in our business because these retailers are selling digital cameras and tend to be more comfortable with the technology rather than the craft angle.

Three people asked me what a scrapbook was. They had no idea. It was really fun to page through Memory Makers and Scrapbook Retailer and say "They use these products to make pages that look like this. "People there were extremely impressed by the artistry we take for granted.

There was some disappointment that more scrapbooking companies were not represented under the MemoryTrends umbrella. It appears that the The MemoryTrends exhibitors were folded into the PMA Show and this may have worked to their benefit as people who walked the aisles methodically didn't have to make a conscious decision to visit the scrapbook section- they just happened upon them.

Hot Trend: PHOTOBOOKS start with digital programs that people drop their digital photos into. Some pages have a bit of design, others just offer large edge to edge photos. If folks aren't going to print photos, maybe they will create a photobook.

I need to do some more legwork on this but there appears to be options where the retailer uploads the files to a backroom operation that prints and binds as well as the option where the retailer does it all inhouse. Quality and and prices cover a wide gamut from cheap and cheerful to polished and elegant.

Trend on the rise: More substrates (surfaces) for printing. Not just traditional gloss or matte papers but some textile products (canvas, linen) as well.

Products of interest.....

HP PhotoSmart Pro 8850 this is a scanner/printer for the Advanced Amatuer (somebody told me they were also calling this customer the Pro-sumer. )Prints poster-sized prints on a variety of substrates like canvas or linen. I can see retailers having this in the store and selling poster size prints or using it to scan pages-- the $549 retail price made it very attractive as a service vehicle.

ArcSoft had two CD products one for pages and scrapbooks and another for cards and calendar.

Fujifilm had a neat camera that you just held it up to their printer and the digital file transferred wirelessly (no cords are media cards) the photo printed out super quick.

FotoCommunity.com is a social networking site for photo enthusiasts. It's based in Germany and has a large international following.

Tomorrow I am on the lookout for more gifty items that you can easily transfer photos to- there's a fancy term for the dye transfer process but essentially you can put photos on mugs, tiles, mousepads and other surfaces. I'll let you know what looks good.

I'd have to say the thing that makes this show worth a visit is all the opportunities to identify new SERVICES to offer. Yes, they sell all kinds of camera accessories and papers. However, there was tremendous activity in booths that promoted technology that made it possible for retailers to offer new digital photo-related services. Make the investment in the equipment and make money. Excellent way to bring in traffic from non-traditional as well as tradtional scrapbook customers.

Oh and FYI if you read my entry yesterday...the magazines showed up. They were sitting on a pallet behind the booth next to us that was curtained off. Literally five feet behind our booth but miles away in terms of a visual and show traffic. Nobody could find them until a nice person said "Hey did you know there is a skid of boxes with your name back there? Good thing because we weren't getting anywhere with the discovery process. Ah well- all's well that ends well. Good night!-- Beth