{"id":9178,"date":"2025-06-23T22:55:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T22:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/9178\/"},"modified":"2025-06-23T22:55:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T22:55:10","slug":"the-popularity-of-the-2025-bild-expo-vastly-exceeded-my-expectations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/9178\/","title":{"rendered":"The Popularity of the 2025 Bild Expo Vastly Exceeded My Expectations"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/p>\n

Last week, B&H hosted its second Bild Expo<\/a> at the Javits Center in New York City. After years of attending the Photo Plus expo and seeing its rapid decline, I had questions about the viability of a show in New York City. Whatever expectations I might have had, they were absolutely shattered by what I saw there. <\/p>\n

Bild wasn\u2019t meant to be more than a one-time thing. The first Bild in 2023<\/a> was meant to celebrate B&H Photo\u2019s 50th anniversary and its \u201ccommitment to supporting visual and audio artistry.\u201d But it went so well and the response was so positive that B&H decided to do it again. <\/p>\n

\"Large<\/p>\n

While I\u2019m not sure if the intention is to do this show annually or even every two years (and B&H probably isn\u2019t sure about that yet either), the number of attendees this year shows that there certainly is demand for a show like this in New York and while COVID certainly played a role, Emerald Expo \u2014 the company behind Photo Plus<\/a> and the attempted Create NYC follow-up that failed<\/a> \u2014 somehow fumbled an enormous bag by leaving a vacuum for Bild to fill. <\/p>\n

Astounding Attendance <\/p>\n

I had attended three major expos in 2025 before arriving at Bild (NAB in Las Vegas, CP+ in Tokyo, and CineGear in Los Angeles), so I thought I had a good grasp of what to expect. I was wrong. As I walked up to the front door of the Javits Center\u2019s northernmost hall, I was greeted by an enormous line to get in. <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s odd,\u201d I thought to myself. There weren\u2019t ever more than a dozen people in front of me trying to get into any of these other shows I\u2019d been to. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

When I got into the building, my awe only magnified. That line wasn\u2019t the front of the crowd, it was somewhere near the middle. The show floor was already teeming with visitors and the registration area was packed to the gills with attendees picking up their badges, and the show had only been open for a few minutes. As the day progressed, I became even more shocked at how many people showed up.<\/p>\n

While B&H has not released official attendance numbers, I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if we saw north of 50,000 people attend the two-day expo. Given that the show took place on a Tuesday and Wednesday at the start of Summer, that number should sound even more impressive; people had to take off from work to come to this thing. <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

And come they did. Not only were brands and manufacturers overwhelmed on the expo floor, the next floor up was reserved for speakers and was divided into multiple rooms, each operating simultaneously for two straight days. Every single speaker was greeted by lines out the door and standing room only. <\/p>\n

\"AThe speakers and educators who were at Bild drew such a crowd that every seat was filled for every presentation, with many resorting to sitting on the floor. <\/p>\n

Folks even turned up to see Chris Niccolls, Jordan Drake, and me host a live PetaPixel Podcast<\/a>, where for 40 minutes we chatted about the state of the gear industry \u2014 and not a single chair was available. <\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

There were even<\/a> product launches<\/a> at this show<\/a>, which a US-based expo hasn\u2019t seen for years. Bild really had everything, and the response to it was overwhelmingly positive. <\/p>\n

In the photos here, I need to make something abundantly clear: these weren\u2019t designed to make it appear as though there are a lot of people in the shot. There is no clever framing or underhanded lens work; this is what it was actually like to be there. This show was popping and did so for two solid days. <\/p>\n

\"AChris Niccolls and Jordan Drake surrounded by fans at Bild during a scheduled meet-and-greet on Wednesday afternoon.
\n New York Needed This <\/p>\n

After seeing the lack of enthusiasm at NAB earlier this year, this turnout totally shocked me. In March, I wrote about how the CP+ show in Japan had effectively replaced the now-defunct Photokina<\/a> as far as industry significance is concerned and while I still stand by that, if B&H continues the Bild Expo into an annual event, we\u2019ll have a duo of exceptionally healthy trade shows in two of the globe\u2019s biggest city centers drawing significant crowds. That\u2019s a good thing for the photo industry which, until recently, felt like it was in substantial decline. Looking at the success of Bild and CP+ this year<\/a>, there is no way that\u2019s true now. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The United States has for a long time been a hugely important region for camera manufacturers. There are a lot of artists and professionals here and it tends to be the biggest single country for sales. That\u2019s why it felt so strange to see expos and trade shows seemingly dwindle in popularity to the point that they basically lost wider industry relevance. What B&H showed is that it\u2019s not expos that aren\u2019t popular, it\u2019s how they\u2019re run or what they offer that wasn\u2019t resonating with photographers. <\/p>\n

Clearly, when they\u2019re done right, they can be wildly successful.<\/p>\n

Image credits:<\/strong> Photos by Dana Glidden<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last week, B&H hosted its second Bild Expo at the Javits Center in New York City. After years…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[648,1032,10250,10251,10252,10253,1033,4691,171,10254,5225,1269,10255,10256,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-9178","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-bhbildexpo","11":"tag-bhphoto","12":"tag-bild","13":"tag-bildexpo","14":"tag-design","15":"tag-editorial","16":"tag-entertainment","17":"tag-expo","18":"tag-newyorkcity","19":"tag-opinion","20":"tag-photographyshow","21":"tag-tradeshow","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114735149033983323","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}