This one is hot off the presses at the Photo Publishing Summit, thanks to my good buddy, Glen Clark from the Chilcote Company.  He’s there right now and sent me the following last night…

Tuesday September 15, 2009  . . .

This week I am attending InfoTrends’ PhotoPublishing Summit in Burlingame, California.  This event is designed to explore how consumer, corporate, and on demand publishing markets are converging to create new photo imaging opportunities.

In her keynote address opening the Summit, Sheri Martin – PhotoPublishing Business Development Manager, Hewlett Packard, addressed how Photo and Publishing are coming together.  She began by saying, “We are witnessing the convergence of Consumer, Professional, and Commercial content into a Photo Publishing market that is on track to grow from a $682 million market in 2007 to a forecasted $1.2 billion market in 2009.”  She then outlined several specific business cases that illustrated her point and painted a very vivid picture of what’s likely to be on the horizon in Photo Publishing.

The day continuted to be filled with good and insightful information.  One of my favorite moments of the day came during a presentation by Jeff Hayes, InfoTrends President.  In his presentation he chronicled his version of the various photo “Eras” that have existed so far.  His Photo Era list included:

Era of Scarcity (1830’s to 1890’s) –   Production Difficult, Limited distribution, Value = workmanship 

Era of Plenty (1900 to 1980’s) –         Production Easy, Mass distribution, More sharing, Value = distribution network

Era of Excess (1990 to 2008) –          Production Trivial, Virtual Distribution/ubiquitous, Value = right content in the right context

Mr. Hayes also referred to the current era the “Green Eggs and Ham Era.”  My moment of the day came when he went on to describe the era something like this . . .  (Read the following in your best Dr. Seuss rhyming tones):

The Green Eggs and Ham Photo Era

Take a Picture with my Phone,

Print a Photo in my Home,

Make it Here,

Put it There,

Send it almost Anywhere!

 This wonderful moment was followed with the explanation that the next Era will be:

Era of Optimum (2010 ~ ?) –   Production is seamless, Relevant Distribution, Personal Sharing, Value = personal experience, expression

For now, I’m sticking with the Green Eggs & Ham Era, but the future sure looks bright!