The ECRM and Levin Consulting Electronics and Photo Retail Summit, held last month in Chandler, AZ, was, once again, a solid success. The two organizations refer to the Summit as “the most comprehensive electronics and photo event of the year” and for what attendees are able to take from the event it’s a fair assessment.
Among the more interesting new technologies on display was 3M’s red-hot MPro 120 (an upgrade from the 110) micro projector. Based on the pico-projection technology, the 120 fits in the palm of a hand and throws off an image that stays sharp up to around 40-inches. The 120 has a better battery (4 hrs as opposed to 1), built-in stereo speakers, and a sleeker look, though a tad bigger than the 110. The extra bulk is worth it as it also houses better optics.
The folks at Cyber Clean displayed an interesting CE cleaning product that can be used on all sorts of gadgets to get out the grit and grime that accumulates after repeated use. It is essentially a green-colored goo that you press on to the surface of the device and press in to fill in any gaps. The dirt and such clings to the goo and you simply remove the stuff to lift out the dirt. Pretty cool.
Iomega continues to bring innovative solutions to the storage market and their eGO external drives are a slick little addition to their product line. A new Drop Guard feature protects the drive from a drop of over 50-inches. They also come in different colors including Ruby Red and are available in capacities up to 2TBs.
Sungale keeps raising the bar in the digital frame market and their new CD358LD Desk Lamp/Digi Frame continues the trend. The 358 is an energy efficient LED Desk Lamp with an ultra thin 3.5-inch LCD Screen that displays and stores photos and doubles as a video and audio player with built in speakers, calendar, analogue clock and alarm functions with user friendly navigation buttons and shortcut keys to access content. With internal memory storage of 512 MB with optional SD, MMC, and MS memory card support the Sungale CD358LD Desk Lamp can store up to 2 GB of JPEG, AVI and MP3 files, “ so watching movies, video clips and listening to music while studying is easy and convenient,” the company explained.
Memory Maker had their popular line of photo jewelry on display and also highlighted a deal for retailers involving the Sony Snap Lab. The company was making special offers on the Snab Lab as a bundle with a variety of Memory Maker merchandise. The quality level of the company’s photo jewelry products continues to rise and now they’ve set up a website whereby consumers can get their images printed to fit the jewelry – www.ezfitphoto.com.
The ECRM/Levin Summits are interesting in the way they are conducted. Organizers typically pick resort locations around the U.S. during off season times of the year. The participating companies take suites in the hotel for the presentation of products/services and the review of programs in the electronics/photo category. The event links retailers/buyers with the vendors for 20 minute one-on-one meetings. Once the 20-minute segment is up, the next buyer enters the room It’s hectic but effective with attendees darting up and down the hotel hallways.
The 3-day event also includes several networking opportunities at breakfasts, lunches and dinners each day as well as a general session that presents an examination of a topic of interest for attendees. This year NPD’s Stephen Baker discussed the 2009 Holiday Selling Season.
“The Electronics & Photo Retail Summit essentially provides attendees with the opportunity to conduct months of planning in just days. Leading buyers and suppliers worldwide have embraced this cost-effective, simple format,” ECRM said in a released statement.
The following CE categories were represented at the 209 event: Personal Electronics & Accessories; Computer Peripherals & Accessories; TV/Video/Home Entertainment; Photo/Imaging and Photo Processing/Printing.
For further information contact: Paul Wendling at 440-498-0500 x1910 or pwendling@ecrm.marketgate.com
