@tekwych : the media industry is the only industry in which the names of the crew is mentioned at all.

You might know what architect designed your house (if you’re lucky and it was a prestige project), but there is practically zero chance that you will know (or know where to find) the names of all the contractors and other people who made it possible.

The same thing happens with pretty much any product we use. At best we get to see the names of a few high profile designers who are famous/connected/skilled enough to have their names printed & listed, but the vast majority of products are designed, produced and maintained by an unnamed mass of people.

Yes it would be nice to know and give credit where it is due, but at the same time … it is a job like any other. Few if any get any royalties for any of the work they do, despite the fact that the companies they work for make a lot of profit because of the work the little people did.

And yet here’s the thing : if you know who made your favourite product … how are you going to use that info ?
You can’t exactly tell company X that you need more of designer Y’s models (or fewer of designer Z), because that’s not how companies work. Besides … you’re already have a way for that : vote with your wallet.

Are you going to avoid buying stuff because of the names attached ?
Shouldn’t we look at the final product and judge it for what it was and not judge it for who made it ?
Judge a book not for its cover, but for its content ? Isn’t that what an anti-discrimination message really is ?

The democratization of the manufacturing proces has been a blessing and a curse.
It meant that anyone can make things to sell to consumers, which removes some of the barriers to getting your product in the market.
It also means that anyone can make things to sell to consumers, which floods the market.
And it’s not something that can be solved … or if it is then it surely will be worthy of a Nobel prize or something equally significant.

I think the biggest problem for this industry is that it relies on people interacting physically with the products.
You can’t replace this with a virtual marketplace, because … well that is what the internet already is.

Trying to twist this failure to do what existing websites/channels have been doing since the dawn of time into a political message is sad and lazy.  Instead of reinventing the wheel they should have looked at what already is out there and focus on that.

We already have competing websites that try to curate the flood of new products so it becomes a more managable flow of news. And as with any curation there will be a bias, because the curation is why the flow is limited.

Origins – online could have worked if they had invested in an on-line/virtual equavalent decades ago when the show began.
Except … few (if any) within this industry saw the need for an on-line  presence.

And I’ve noticed that there is a distinct fear of any technology within this hobby, which is why we’re still stuck in the dark ages while the rest of the entertainment industry (and the consumers) have moved on. There was always going to be a price to pay for this in a digital era.

Blaming outside factors for things like this is lazy and shows that the industry is unwilling to accept that they have been lagging behind for a long time.

The companies within this industry that were ahead of the curve in the digital market were also the ones that were the fastest to adapt to the problems the pandemic caused due to the cancelling of events.

You can sort of see the same thing happening with 3D printing … the companies that are adapting to that as part of their products are going to be the ones who will survive the next thing that happens in the world outside of their bubble.

To expect big events to return to form next year is to underestimate the impact it has had on how we consume news as a result.
Heck, most of us could only dream of visiting the big events anyway, so we already relied on websites to cover events of this nature.
The only thing that has happened is that the lucky few lost their favourite holiday.
Journalists within this industry now have to work for a living instead of relying on the news that is fed to them during these events.

As nice as it was to have an Origins … I think the flood of info during those events was starting to become counter-productive.
The little guys still got lost …
Only the big boys had the means to stay visible during the event.