Guerilla Gear Thinking of Digital Video Expo

I was looking for upcoming video industry conferences and came across the Digital Video Expo in Pasadena, CA from September 19 – 21 at the Pasadena Convention Center. This expo has been going on for over ten years and offers opportunities to network with over 6,000 video industry professionals. The expo also offers a wide variety of conference sessions that cover pretty much any angle of creating HD digital content.

Now when I stumbled upon this convention, it had me very interested and immediately wanted to try and get Guerilla Gear entered into but I wanted to find some feedback from attendees as to what the expo is like. I found a couple of interesting articles that didn’t really paint it the glamorous event that it was made out to be.

The first one I found came from an individual named Radraven and was written in 2009. When she first starts talking about going to the DV Expo, she sounds excited to finally be getting back to her roots of video conventions. She goes on to say how the convention as a whole has dwindled in scale from what she remembered. It had been three years since she had last been there but the difference was noticeable.

The second article I found came from Fred Ginsburg and was a review of the DV Expo from 2011. He even talks about how much smaller the convention has become but despite that, there is still quality information and products that are there.

Both of these articles talk about how the convention circuit has been getting smaller and smaller each year but yet there are still companies out there that are willing to show at them. Even so, will there come a time when these conventions are no longer put on? Radraven says, and I have to agree with her, that there is no comparison with physically holding a product in your hand and looking it over with your very own eyes versus looking at numerous photos of something. Even if every angle was pictured.

Personally, I’d like to think that these conventions are invaluable. Who’s to say that the person you strike a conversation with doesn’t become your next biggest client/buyer/business investor/accountant? To me, the chance to network with so many professionals carries more value then the $1000 it costs to attend and around $4100 it costs have a vendors tent. Either way…you can write it all off come tax time.