Four years ago [URL="http://dpnow.com/3751.html"]I wrote an editorial[/URL] seriously wondering if PMA, the biggest international photography industry show, could survive, especially because of the organisers' insistence on choosing dates within a few weeks of the giant Consumer Electronics Show (CES).

It's true that PMA soldiered on in 2008 and 2009, and despite the loss of Canon the show took place last year, although at the less than ideal Anaheim, Los Angeles, location instead of the much-preferred Las Vegas venue. This year's PMA was postponed until September and widely recognised as a smart move, to keep the show well apart from the CES behemoth.

So imagine my surprise to hear the [URL="http://dpnow.com/8020.html"]news[/URL] that PMA has done a total U-turn, and more, and done a deal to become part of CES next January. This is great news for journalists like me because it means I can attend CES and PMA at the same time, saving considerably on costs. It's much more likely that exhibitors will cater for increased journalist exposure, too. For exhibitors there is the same welcome reduction in the cost and logistical nightmare of designing and executing two shows within a few weeks of each other. PMA@CES, as the revised show will be called, won't be at the Las Vegas Convention Center as it usually because CES gobbles up all the available space there, so instead the PMA exhibits will be at the Venetian Hotel and the Sands convention centre.

I don't know what has actually happened behind the scenes; for all I know this may still be the end of PMA as we know it and the start of its absorption in to CES once and for all. But form where I sit I can only see good things about this news. I just hope that the show can bring back some lapsed brands, like Canon, and also continue to be affordable for the many smaller exhibitors that traditionally attend PMA.