This week has been pretty incredible…it started with the electricity in the air at DWF’s convention.  Lots of energy, optimism, friendships and good solid education and finished with Imaging USA – for the first time that I can remember, an outstanding show, packed with people, old friends and again the energy of people coming together with a common goal – stopping the madness of 2009!

Last week CES (Consumer Electronic Show) also reported an increase in attendance and while I wasn’t there personally, everything I heard suggests a better show than last year.  CES, DWF, IUSA all leave me with a curious sense of optimism – are we coming out of the recession or just as good, are we tired of the doom and gloom reports and simply finding more people fighting to make a change?

Without question the first point of credit goes to Jeff, Tim and Mark for all the hard work behind the scenes making DWF so strong.  Even more important they gave their members great programming and an opportunity to leave Nashville with ideas to take back to their businesses to help “find new cheese”. 

Second point of credit goes to PPA – I’ve always been skeptical of the attendance figures reported, but there’s no question for 2010, my skepticism was way off base – it was an excellent show, great attendance and a great cross-section of vendors.  Everyone was just plain old pumped!

Third and most important of all, is credit to those of you who simply forced themselves to make the trip, to attend all the classes, to spend time with new friends and old ones and maintain the quest to prove the media wrong – 2010, at least for the photographic industry has started out RIGHT!  We’ve taken the first step to turning things around.  It won’t be easy, it won’t happen without a struggle and it won’t happen without patience, but the tools all the manufacturers, associations and instructors have provided are the very best in the almost 175 year history of photography.

I’m headed to the airport and home, but there’s lots more coming in blogs this week…stay tuned and focused, the answers to helping turn business around and return to a growth mode are out there.