ProFusion

ProFusion 2014

The Art of Show and Tell

By GUIDO KONDRUSS

CSC Executive Officer Susan Saranchuk, Co-Vice President Carlos Esteves csc, and associate CSC member Koroth Narayanan Nambiar.

Credit: Guido Kondruss

The art of show and tell jumped a few notches with ProFusion 2014. More professionals, more vendors, new location and date all conspired to give Canada’s premier professional imaging tradeshow an edgier, upbeat vibe than in previous years. Until now, ProFusion has always been a late spring event, held in the far Northwest reaches of Toronto, near Pearson International Airport. After changing the dates to October 15 to 16, uptown flew downtown with ProFusion 2014 landing in the heart of the city at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Jennifer Pidgen, marketing manager for Vistek – the producers of ProFusion – says there are two pivotal reasons behind the date and location moves. “We wanted to be in October or September to capture the students from colleges and universities,” she said. “Getting them involved in June was a non-starter because students aren’t in school in June. Moving the date to the fall allowed us to open up that channel. The other reason is because being downtown allowed us access to the studios in the area. People can easily pop into ProFusion and not spend a couple of hours in traffic getting to and from the site.” Turning up the heat further were the first new product launches for ProFusion 2014: three new cameras, for first–in-Canada reveals came from Canon with its EOS 7D Mark II, Sony with its PXW-FS7 and GoPro with its Hero4: Black Edition. With double the floor space and thousands of attendees passing through its doors, ProFusion 2014 seems to have entered a whole new era. “We created this show for the pros out there who were wondering why they had to fly to Vegas or Europe to see the latest pro imaging gear,” Christopher Huchenski, Vistek creative director, said. “It has taken five years of hard work, but we are finally being recognized as an international event amongst the big players.” Rob Sim, president of SIM Digital, whose company had a good-sized footprint at this year’s event, shared the enthusiasm for ProFusion’s changes and direction. “It’s been 100 per cent improvement, the turnout is much better,” Sim said. “There also seems to be more suppliers here than in previous years. It’s a good mix of broadcast and film, which plays to our traditional market and into the cine field where we’ve expanded.” Manning the booth for the Canadian Society of Cinematographers at ProFusion 2014 was CSC Co-Vice President Carlos Esteves csc, DP Jim Kozmik csc, CSC Executive Board member Carolyn Wong, CSC associate member Koroth Narayanan Nambiar, CSC Executive Officer Susan Saranchuk, and myself. Hundreds of copies of Canadian Cinematographer magazine were see Profusion page 26