Delegates from all over the world and all sectors of the picture industry gather for a few days in Warsaw..
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CEPIC Congress: The Meeting Point of the Picture Industry

After a very successful Berlin Congress in 2014, this year's event was held in the heart of Warsaw, in the Sofitel Warsaw Victoria, set in the city centre with the Grand Theatre, University of Warsaw and Presidential Palace all a short walk away and showcasing views of Pilsudski Square and Saxon Garden only a few streets away from the Old City. The Sofitel was the perfect base for this event.
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"A very good congress ... everyone was serious and hard working. It was good for business."

The Congress was attended by slightly over 400 people from 32 countries representing all aspects of the picture industry: stock and press agencies, cultural heritage, video vendors and producers as well as crowdsourcing and microstock companies. Warsaw was, for three days, the centre of the photography business. The CEPIC Congresses have been the must-attend events along the years for all those who wish to keep an up-to-date stand in the picture industry. Given the number of participants and, above all, the energy and frantic activity developed in the generous networking area of the Sofitel hotel, it is clear that the photography business is quickly reinventing itself.

 

We have seen in recent years how the images industry had evolved, taken by the hand by technology and the social media, making us feel that every one of us has to be a great photographer by putting a smartphone in our hands. All that is happening now is revolutionizing our industry in similar ways that the music industry had seen its transformation, leading to what and how we enjoy music today. With changes in the European legislation and new business models consolidating photography, there is no other way but to move forward and be inspired by change, a monumental and unstoppable global transformation is taking place.Click here to add a title or text.

"Warsaw was a success with plenty of positive feedback about the city, hotel venue, food and productive business."

We are happy to see the meeting area complete with close to 70 tables all taken up and with fully-booked agendas: attendees reported having had very successful business meetings within the three days and pitch presentations every day. We have had key informative seminars: the CEPIC campaign for a better protection of images online, business opportunities that crowdsourcing of images is bringing to our members, new business models for cultural heritage libraries that are appearing, the lack of unique identifiers for images and the wish for better standards in our licensing business that are challenging monetization and faster innovation.
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First CEPIC Stock Photography Award

 It would not be right to finish this report without giving special mention to the 1st CEPIC Stock Photography Awards that was made possible thanks to the generous support and special dedication of the team from East News Photo Agency. The purpose of the awards was, and will continue to be in the forthcoming years, to define a precise segment of photography; one that shows how photography can generate visual concepts and ideas and to bring to light those photographers who produce them by opening a collaborative relationship between photo libraries and photographers.

From several hundreds of images received, 20 were shortlisted and the winners were:

The Grand Prix winner is “Letting Go” by Dylan Kitchener (Trevillion Images)

2nd Place Winner is “Indian Festival” by Rafael Campillo (age fotostock)

3rd Place Winner is “Jump for Joy” by Graham Oliver (Juice Images)

Please visit the awards website to see the pictures: http://www.cepic-photography-awards.com/

Thank You to our Sponsors in 2015!

Special mention for this congress also has to be given to our key events and conference partners: Warsaw Tourism Office, IPTC (IPTC conference), RDI (Workshop), East News (Stock Photography Awards), PAP (museum tickets), ČTK Fotobanka, Come Alive Images, BVPA and the essential sponsors: BING, Dissolve, Olympus, LG, PicScout and Wavebreak Media. All of them helped to build an extraordinary photography business event in Poland..
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- The CEPIC Team -