The 2000 PMA, Las Vegas was a great excursion Canon took us on a Helicoptor ride over Las Vegas Strip followed by Dinner at Osteria Del Circo, Bellagio Hotel and then into the Cirque Du Soleil “O show” at Bellagio Hotel. What an experience. Myself and Mike Elliott were falling asleep in the show which was spectacular, but food and wine followed by comfy seats in a darkened room don’t go well together!Host
Angela Mason
Press
Peter Bargh, Mike Elliott
A five day stint at PMA, Las Vegas included a press event organised by Olympus to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Track. We got to fly around the track at 170mph 3/4in off the ground in a two-seat purpose built champ car.
Host
Hannah Shepherd
Press
Peter Bargh
Donna Willingham (at the time Wade) and I were on an Agfa Pudding Club Christmas lunch. We then went with them to a London bar, can’t recall which one, and in popped Chris Evans. We only had an Agfa single-use camera with us. Donna took a photo and cut Chris off!! I took one with all of her in and most of him. The two were merged for this photo. Good times.
Chris came over to us because Donna was smoking and the cheeky bugger scrounged a fag.
Sadly I cannot remember time, date or year. It will have been early December and it was on our days together on Digital PhotoFX magazine so I’ve taken a stab at 1999.
A Kodak press trip, which included a visit to the HQ of Kodak in Rochester, but I can’t remember what the event was.
We watched football in our hotel, and the hotel overlooked Niagara Falls.
We flew on to Philadelphia but it’s all a blur. I’d just found out found my wife was having an affair with a neighbour so my mind was a bit scrambled through to December.
Hosts
Claire Fleerackers
Press
Peter Bargh, Dan Lezano,
I can’t remember why, but Olympus invited us to the premier of Star Wars Phantom Menace at the Warner Village complex 02 in London, plus food at Zuccato Cafe Urbano.
I remember saying to Dan Lezano that the boy won. He was looking forward to seeing the film and I spoiled the ending of the race. He never forgave me 😉
Host
Sara Cubitt
Press
Peter Bargh
I represented Digital PhotoFX at TIPA’s annual conference where we decided on which products should receive the prestigious TIPA Awards. It was held in Fribourg Switzerland. I flew over on BA 710 from London to Zurich in Seat 35F. We stopped in Hotel du Lac, Vevey.
While we were there we visited the Ilford Research Centre, Marly
Other events included:
Eye of Scienece exhibition,
Du Foyer Panorama, Golden Tulip
Grand Pont La Tour Rouge Route de Bourguillon
Cocktails at Caveau de L’Embuscade
Vevey (Lake of Geneva)
Visit Gruyere
Swiss Camera Museum Tour
School of Photography
Boat trip on steam ship Rhone
Olympic Museum in Lausanne
A feature packed and hectic, but enjoyable few days!
Sony invite to Cebit in Hanover, with a Workshop thrown in
Fly out to Hanover from Heathrow on BA548 seat 05A
Across to Cebit and then back to Treff hotel in Kassel via train
Following morning was Sony Workshop
PR
Sarah Bell
Attending
Peter Bargh, Roger Payne
Canon press launch in Amsterdam.
I appear to have lost the agenda for day one which doesn’t surprise me as I lost my mind on that afternoon thanks to Eileen Martin and Patrick Mullan who I joined on a coffee trip (if you know what I mean) at one of Amsterdam’s typical bars. Some cake and a few spliffs later and I got stuck at 4pm…for a very, very long time. Had to skip the evening entertainment and let the boys from Dallas on TV talk to me.
Also experienced a selection of flavoured Genever’s at a Gin bar before the cake.
Day 2 Breakfast in Wintergarden of Grand Hotel .
Visit to Canon European Headquarters
Product unveiling in Century Plaza
Tour of Canon European Warehouse
Lunch and flight home
PR HostsPat Marlo, Yamani Parekh, Time Potter, Elodie Thorel, Fraser MacDonald, Celine Gruizinga, Nick Gardner, Geoff Thorn, Dominic Boland, Ingrid Fisher
Press
Peter Bargh, Roy Bird, Richard Burton, Lance Cocannon, Martin Courtney, Adele Dyer, Owen Gibson, Paul Hales, Fai Lee, Claire Melvin, Nicholas Merritt, Patrick Mullan, Matthew Richards, Simon Robinson, Eamonn Sullivan, Iain Thomson, Ursula Tolaini, Dapo Williams, Margaert Williams
Although I’d like cameras still to be made in the UK, I was always grateful when we were invited on a press trip to the factory of those made abroad, especially when Nikon invited me to Thailand to see the production of the APS camera the Nikon Pronia
We flew Thai Airways TG911, Royal Executive Class from Heathrow to Bangkok. I sat next to Elaine in Seat 16K. The flight had individual movie players. I can’t remember what I watched. We stopped in the Royal Orchid Sheraton Hotel
Nikon delivered a feature packed schedule over our five day trip included a two hour factory trip to see the Nikon Pronia being made. This was an SLR using APS film, and it was amazing to see how every single step of the assembly process was hand done.
Events
Royal River Hotel International Buffet
Tour of Nikon Thailand Corp Production facilities in Ayuthhaya
Express Boat Choa River to Phra A Thit pier
Tuk Tuks to Grand Palace
Emerald Buddha Temple
Thai Cultural evening Rose Garden Nakorn Pathom,
Festival of the season “Loy Krathong” village possession
Nikon Hosts
Simon Coleman, Elaine Swift
Press Attending
Peter Bargh, Dan Lezano, Damien Demolder , Neil Whitford, Shirley Kilpatrick, Raul Golden
On this trip I learned that girls can do incredible things with ping pong balls, Elephants are not just in the wild, mosquitoes can create huge bites, certain men are more attractive than certain women, not to go in a tuk tuk to the jewelery show rooms, Thai food can be incredible, Simon had a bizarre choice of swimming trunks and the Nikon Pronia was a totally hand assembled camera.
We were each given a Nikon Pronia which, at the time, was the best APS camera going.
Nikon invited press to the Goodwood Motor Circuit as Festival of Speed Sponsors in 1998
We got to watch the races and also have a go ourselves in the Nikon Rallysprint.
