RPSC’s virtual exhibition in October includes seminars

By Jesse Robitaille

The Royal Philatelic Society of Canada (RPSC) is set to kick off its first virtual exhibition this October in conjunction with this year’s online-only convention.

The Royal*2021*Royale Virtual National Philatelic Exhibition runs from Oct. 14-17, during the second and final part of this year’s convention, which began on June 14 with the society’s annual general meeting and a pair of seminars (“Two-part virtual Royal coming in June, October,” CSN Vol. 46 #3). This October’s virtual Royal exhibition will be hosted via canpex.ca by the organizers of Canpex, another national-level show typically held each fall in London, Ont. The four-day event will also include a series of eight English- and French-language seminars.

“I am hoping the viewing public will enjoy the exhibits and events surrounding the virtual show,” said RPSC director Steve Johnson, a national-level judge from London, Ont., who’s serving as the virtual exhibition’s exhibits chair. “The show has been in the works since May, so there has been a great deal of planning.”

Viewers can browse through the 72 competitive single- and multi-frame exhibits on the Canpex website frame by frame and page by page. A magnification function also allows viewers to zoom in to the high-resolution scans of each exhibit page.

“As the exhibits chair, I view every exhibit as a highlight,” said Johnson, who’s also a Canpex co-chair. “I think the viewers will see some amazing postal history and traditional exhibits. The Royal can boast having eight youth exhibits, which is tremendous, and we also have exhibits from India, Guatemala and Australia to name a few countries.”

Since the July 31 application deadline, many of the accepted exhibits have been uploaded to the show site and are on display through the end of the exhibition.

“Comments so far have been positive,” added Johnson. “Like every exhibitor, they await the results and look for feedback on how to improve their exhibit.”

Single-frame exhibits achieving a vermeil medal or higher will be eligible to compete at CAPEX 22, the world’s first international one-frame exhibition, coming to Toronto next June 9-12.

While this spring’s National Virtual One-Frame Philatelic Exhibition – commonly called “Virtual Canpex” – was also held via canpex.ca, the exhibition platform was expanded for this October’s Royal.

“Additional programming was needed as we have multi-frame exhibits this time around,” said Johnson, who also commended the jury’s “planning and work” in preparing for the upcoming exhibition.

“Judging a virtual show takes up a great deal of personal time. I certainly appreciate their dedication to the hobby.”

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