To thank them for the support.

To celebrate its involvement in Vivid Sydney and commend its retail partners, last week Canon was host to 102 guests including photo specialty retailers Ted’s, CameraHouse, Michaels, Diamonds, Sun Studios, DigiDirect, DCW, CameraElectronic, Gearhouse, consumer electronics retailers Bing Lee and Harvey Norman, mass merchants Big W and Officeworks, the Narta buying group, as well as distributors Dynamic, Ingram and Alloys.

Addressing event attendees, Canon general manager of sales for consumer imaging, Troy Cabot (pictured below) said, “Welcome to Vivid. Why are we here? Quite simply, it brings more than 2 million people to Sydney over 23 nights. It is almost the largest light show of its kind. We want to embrace the fun and excitement and the beauty of Vivid and share it far and wide.

“What does that equal? Photography and printing. But there is a problem. Many people do not know how to take beautiful pictures of the lights. They are not sure how to capture it and how to get creative. So we are here to help. Canon is here to put camera equipment in their hands, but more than that, offering tips and showing them how to capture a beautiful image.

“You all help consumers enjoy photography and its wonders every day and for that, we want to say thank you and tonight is about us giving back to you.

“In a changing marketplace we want to add value, prompt debate and discussion. With change comes new challenges and new opportunities. The biggest challenge we have today is our competitive set. Our competition doesn’t come from a camera store or retailer down the road or an online competitor. Our competition is bigger than that, and so is our opportunity. We are in a fight for one thing and one thing only: consumers’ free time. We want to be the activity that consumers dedicate their time to.”

The evening consisted of dinner, drinks and a discussion around the Gruen transfer in shopping mall design that makes consumers more susceptible to impulse purchases. Panellists were GalKal Research director of cultural forecasting, Michelle Newton, Leo Burnett group business director, Jonny Bucknall, Mac Morgan partner for digital and data, Tim Lovitt and How to Impact managing director, Matt Whale.

L-R: Jack Turnbull (Canon), Megan Archer (Digital Camera Warehouse), Cate Brennan (Digital Camera Warehouse), Shaun Mah (Canon), Lucinda Dalton (Digital Camera Warehouse), Catherine Tanswell (Canon), Mitchell McMillan (Digital Camera Warehouse) and Mark McDonald (Digital Camera Warehouse)

L-R: David Utton (Ted’s), Mark Allister (Ted’s), Grant Webster (Ted’s), Aaron Berthelot (Canon), Nic Peasley (Ted’s), Scott Blay (Canon), Ian Leggat (Diamonds), Alistair Robins (Narta) and Darren Spencer (Narta)

L-R: Peter Pacevski (Canon), Charles Lombardo (Dynamic Supplies), Paul Manning (Dynamic Supplies), Sandra White (Dynamic Supplies) and Angela Spathis (Canon)