The theme and talk of the Memory Trends Scrapbooking show was digital! In its first year as a combined show with PMA (Photo Marketing Association), technology was everywhere and photo books and photo gift kiosks, software, and websites were popular.   Even though there were more “suits” in attendance than I could count, women now outrank men in the purchase of digital cameras and this too is impacting the industry. Impact literally, as I attended the show with two paper scrapbook store retailers and it was sometimes painful to see how pushed around they felt by all the pixels. 

I noticed that paper retailers and scrapbook store owners were generally open to incorporating digital scrapbooking and technology into their stores, but most were unsure how to start, how to make a profit from it, and if doing so would further put their paper based sales in jeopardy.  

Sessions

Unfortunately, registration for Memory Trends was a bit rocky, and many classes had been canceled for low attendance.  I took the first day’s Education Session on Digital Scrapbooking Trends. After getting past a traditional make n’ take that had no connection to digital, it was great to see a packed class in rapt attention to Renee Pearson, Digital Scrapbooking’s Online Editor, and her demonstration of a creating a digital layout in Photoshop. April Oaks of Digital Scrapbook Memories also led a good digital Q&A.

I have to give big shout out to Ali Edwards and her amazing talk “Creating Students For Life.” If you get chance to see her, go!  Her well researched, organized and notated points made for an amazing talk. We also got a copy of her awesome book, Life Artist - Scrapbooking Life’s Journey.

Dennis Conforto (of A-Z Media and the Smart Group) gave a talk about the future of the scrapbooking industry which crystallized what I saw on the convention floor and focused on the point of the expo merger; Paper scrapbooking as a craft is in decline, but scrapbooking by other names (photobooks, digital scrapbooking, online at sites like MySpace and Facebook) are growing rapidly. 

I think some people misunderstood my question in Dennis’ talk, when I asked how training fit into the mix with so much new technology around and especially with software like Photoshop.  Dennis answered, time & money.  Women want a photo page pronto and Photoshop’s not it.

As a user and teacher, I agree that Photoshop’s learning curve is way beyond the average scrappers need and there are so many easy fast photobook solutions now (like Heritage Makers.) But part of my question was answered when talking to Lynda Angelastro, Digial Scrapbooking Magazine’s Managing Editor, about the next issue.  After a year on the market, and extensive polling of customers, the magazine is revamping to target the beg-intermediate, and advanced scrapbooker.  Their readers want technical and in depth articles and are adept at utilizing them.  Tutorials are for Photoshop.

There are distinct reasons that some scrappers, like the magazines’ readership, will still want to use Photoshop (or similar photo editing programs) and I will suggest that the “Photoshop” segment of the photo / scrap market are the new digital bloodline of the craft side of scrapbooking.

The Merger

I could really see the mental merger inside both the Photography and the Scrapbooking camps to understand just how they should fit together.  I visited a number of photobook and photo-gift booths from large kiosk and printing distributors , to new web based companies.  I saw the most integration between embellished “scrapbooking style” photo products in businesses who market, at least in part, directly to store retailers.  These companies like Rocket Life and larger Lucidiom offer consumers templates resembling scrapbook like layouts. There was still some disconnect, such as with  Rocket Life which did not directly offer 12×12 or 8×8 layout printing, although they said they could integrate it.

As I moved from those companies that offer retail store owner options, to those who manufacture photobook printers and technologies, there was a real lack of understanding of what the craft / hobby oriented term “scrapbook” was and how it applied to “photos and papers”. 

All of these vendors did want to know more.  I was drilled by two great guys at Imaging Solutions AG, a Swiss based co, on what digital scrapbooking was, who did it, how it worked and why Michaels closed its “Remembrance” stores and didn’t convert them to digital shops.  (I couldn’t answer that one!) 

One of the Sr. Marketing Managers at Kodak was stationed next to a display of professional photography albums, some costing $2000, in which you would be lucky to find a word of journaling or embellishment and maybe a few interesting photo borders (of course the photos themselves were amazing!)  While he seemed perplexed at the word scrapbooking and did ask more about it, he ended up directing us to another man who was keeping Kodak’s upcoming digi-negotiations very hushed. Hmmm…

It will be interesting to watch both the photo and paper scrapbooking industries merge and embrace digital scrapbooking in it’s many forms.  This is inevitable, as the the photobook industry is projected to reach $10 billion by 2012!