This last week I went to Reno, NV for a few days to be at the Society of Photo Educators conference. My father’s business sets up with Kodak Alaris to talk about and promote Kodak Film. My father has been many times, but this year I came because there is a likely chance that I am going to be taking over the film side of the business sometime soon, and I needed to meet people and start to learn things.
I drove to Reno, and it was a fine drive of about 6.5 hours. There was a chance of snow along the way so I took the 4runner rather than our new car. I was a little disappointed about that, but I wanted to be safe. It ended up snowing a tiny bit along the way, but I easily could have driven the other car. Oh well.
Once there I waited for my parent to get in and we had dinner, then off to bed.
Friday I was up early and had a huge breakfast provided by the show. After that it was time to head to the exhibitor booth for Kodak. My father brought a couple cameras, and Tim (the Kodak guy) had all his Kodak stuff. We were in a room with a variety of exhibitors like: Ilford, Sony, Fujifilm (but only for digital cameras), Canson/Moab paper, Freestyle, SCAD, and more. It was like a very small comic con dealer area. The day started at 9 and went to 5 that day and I spent the day talking to students and teachers about film and cameras.
Tim was there with film to hand out, and people wanted it. He had 120 Gold 200 the first day, and so he called it, “Gold Day”. But the thing I learned was that you don’t just hand it out to anyone that would come up to the table. Most just wanted to walk up get film and walk off, but I learned from Tim that we had to engage with everyone. I was all down for this. It was like engaging with students in my classroom. I had to ask them things like: “What are you studying? (Photo, duh)” “What are you teaching?” “What school are you from?” “What film do you use?” “What camera are you using?” From there we would ask them if they were on social media, and if they were if they were following kodakprofessional on instagram or X. If so, then we would ask them to post a picture of the booth or with Tim, and the tag kodakprofessional and Tim. Then we would give them film. We would talk about the importance of tagging their work with the kodakprofessional tag along with what film they were using, and that kodak would see those things and the possibilities of what could happen from there.
I met a lot of people that day. There were a lot of people from New Mexico, Texas, Montana, and California; with others from around other parts of the USA as well. I was tired at the end of the day. It was a lot of talking. I learned that people know and love Tim. He almost always has a smile on his face and is pleasant to talk to. He always wants people to be informed about the product and to get the most out of what they are trying to do with the product.
On top of the film stuff I did get to talk to people about the cameras as well. There were a number of schools there that use Canham Cameras at their schools. When the students found out that I had assembled a lot of the cameras they were using in their classes they were very impressed.
That evening after dinner, a very nice steak dinner with my parents, I wandered around and talked with students a little. Then I went to the portfolio display and looked at student work. It was nice, but overall not my preference in style – a lot of modern and urban photos. I also saw they had a picture exchange that evening, and that looked really cool. It was like the Girl Scout “Swaps” that they do at camps. For those that don’t know this means everyone showed up with 25 or more prints of theirs and then they would go around and trade prints with each other. It looked like a lot of fun.
The next day was a lot of the same: big breakfast and talking from 9-2. This day was “Portra Day” and we were handing out Portra 400 (also in 120 rolls). It was another big day and we saw more people I think. A lot of the same people from the day before, but I felt like there were new ones as well. Again we asked them to keep posting about being at the SPE conference and seeing Kodak. But nothing too new this day.
At the end of the exhibitor time I was able to score a bunch of sample printer paper from the Canson/Arches table. He didn’t want to take any back with him so I took it all. I have plenty of 8.5×11 paper now to last me a bit. Then I wandered some more, nothing too exciting at the show for me the rest of the day. So, I went back to my room and graded papers for a while (oh what fun!). That evening my parents and I went to dinner with Tim. We went to an Italian restaurant and it was fine food. There was an old guy singing “standards” throughout our time there, and he wasn’t very good. At first we thought maybe it was a karaoke night, but realized, “Nope, just him singing to everyone.”
The next morning I met my parents for breakfast and then we all headed home. The drive back was again nothing special, but I was glad to be home.
Overall, I enjoyed myself. I liked my time there. It was fun talking to students and teachers about film, film availability, and cameras. I haven’t done a show like this since 2010 in Germany. I felt the engagement was really good. I am not sure how it affects K. B. Canham Cameras, Inc. directly for either camera or film sales, but the hope is that it does. I was able to make a face to face connection with Tim at Kodak and that was good. I hope I made a good impact. I think I did. So I may get to do it again next year and/or the years after that. I hope so.
And it was nice seeing and spending time with my parents. It was mostly in the evening at dinner, but it was good.