We noticed that the show was a bit quiet. Was it because the venue is larger? Was it because some of the scientific attendance didnt come this year, given the change in location? Everybody seemed to agree on the better organization, nicer choice for the largest show in optics/photonics of the year. Rumors were contradicting each other as to when the show would go back to San Jose: next year? in 3 years? in 5 years? The later the better.

The South Hall gathered all the best/big players in my opinion and Amplitude/Crystal Laser/Imagine Optic/Fastlite booth was impressive: large, well designed, well situated, with loads of dynamic features (among which, disco lights, much to the taste of Samuel Bucourt).

Quantel had also made great improvement to their booth. A new marketing campaign, with bold colors and fun pictures. They indicated the traffic on the booth was way better than in San Jose, maybe due to a larger booth, better visibility and good situation.

The French pavilion was more open, and hosted regular visitors of the show: IXFiber, KLOE, Teem Photonics, Cordouan Technologies, etc.

The talk with executive perspectives on the world of optics and photonics provided us with a few insights:

• The active photonics market represents 127 billions worldwide. Flat panels market is the #1 market, by far. Solar shipments (PV) have grown dramatically and on a constant basis since 1980. Laser shipments from 1968 to 2009 show an average of 13% growth rate but we can notice a downturn about every nine years. The last one was in 2000, and 2009 proved to be one as well.

Read this excerpt of "LASER MARKETPLACE 2010: How wide is the chasm?" : "Despite the economy, financial performance of individual laser companies was largely a function of the particular market sectors served. While semiconductor, telecom, and materials processing were hit hard in 2009, instrumentation, military, and biomedical sectors fared better.

(...)So taking into account last year's "cyclic" performance, tempered with the upbeat attitude (and increasing orders) of most laser manufacturers going into 2010, all while heeding the caution that the bottom we've hit could be long and wide, Laser Focus World forecasts an increase of 11.1% in laser sales worldwide for 2010, bringing the sales total to $5.91 billion-still a long way from the $7.01 billion actuals in 2008. That said, laser sales are very much dependent on the health of the particular market segment in which they play. In 2009 as in previous years, 81% of laser industry sales were concentrated in three primary market segments: communications, data storage, and materials processing. And in 2010 (as in 2009), certain sectors will fare better than the rest."

To read more, click here.

• Discussions among the panel showed that generally speaking, industry executives thought the market hit botton in Mid-2009 and started to recover afterward. How much is recovery and how much is rebuilding the inventory? we'll know that in 6 months.

Europe was last to come down and fast to come back. Recovery was driven by R&D (stimulus) and semi-conductor OEMs. There were concerns about the resets of budgets in academia in a couple of years, once the stimulus is over. On the 8 billions the NIH got from the stimulus, only 2 were spent and it is not clear on what they were spent on. The panel expected more consolidation to come in 2010, especially if the economy picks up. Now is a great time to buy but a poor time to sell: as some dont have any choice but to sell, the rest will try to hold to their companies.

See you next year.