Opinion: Vendors and attendees at the first Print conference in four years voice their optimism, while "sold" signs appear on the printing presses.CHICAGO—I used to live in Heidelberg, Pa., a small suburb of Pittsburgh. I am fairly certain that my former hometown had fewer square feet than Heidelberg's booth at the show, and I'm certain we had a smaller population.
Print 05 kicked off last Friday, and many predicted that this would be a great show, that the economy and the industry were on the rebound, and that printers were coming to the show with checkbooks in hand.
Despite estimations that nearly 80,000 would attend the show, attendance over the first three days did not seem to be that remarkable. The third exhibit hall was a virtual ghost town (of course, many people didn't even realize there was a third hall.)
The first few days of Print 05 were plagued by beautiful weather, not to mention the opening weekend of football season. You think I joke? On Saturday, I overheard at least three people comment about plans to skip out the next day to watch The Game. And I have no doubt that more than one person begged leave from work on Friday to attend the show, only to accidentally end up at the beach instead.
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The show anchors—the press manufacturers—looked busy enough. (Of course, you basically had to walk through Heidelberg or Xerox to get to anything else.) But many companies, especially the small to mid-size ones, often had more employees than attendees milling around.
By Sunday morning, the smaller vendors were disappointed but optimistic. I'm not sure of the logic behind starting a show this size on a Friday. It would have been better, I think, to open the show Monday and run through the following weekend; I heard a number of vendors express the same opinion.
Five different companies declined comment when I asked them about their early impressions of the show; they all expressed hope that traffic would improve on Monday when the work week started and when the co-located Seybold Seminars got under way.
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Another point to keep in mind: The U.S. graphics industry hasn't seen a show this big—or this long—in eight years, since Print 01 was effectively cut short mid-show. Even though estimates suggest that more people will visit this show than ever, they will be spread out over a longer period of time and a larger physical space, so the crowds won't seem as dense as they might at a shorter show.
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This isn't a year of revolutionary change; we aren't seeing the groundbreaking new technology like we did when computer-to-plate hit the market. That is not to say we aren't seeing any new products; of course there are. But the new products are more evolutionary than revolutionary.
We are now seeing the natural evolution and maturity of existing technology, as well as an expansion into new areas of related technology that aren't necessarily about putting ink on paper.
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Print 05 is certainly not just about printing. In fact, the full name of the show is "Print 05 & Converting 05". This year, to be more accurate, it should be "Print 05 & Converting 05 & Mailing and Fulfillment 05". The mailing & fulfillment area of the show floor, which takes up a significant chunk of one exhibit hall, seemed to be a target destination of many attendees.
Kevin Cassis, sales manager of The Whitley Company (a commercial printer in Austin, Texas) explained that his company was going to be making a significant investment in mailing technology within the next year. His company already offers fulfillment services, and he said those fulfillment services drive more print buying than anything else. "We call a customer and say, 'You need more of this flyer.' They say, 'Then print some more.'"
His reasons for moving into mailing were fairly indicative of many in the industry: "There are so many printers in our area, the market is saturated, and you can only lower your price so much before it's not profitable. The only way for us to really grow is to offer additional value-add."
Mailing, he said, is also the first necessary step toward full-scale variable-data integration: "We want to offer variable [data] services within a couple of years, but the way we look at it, variable data isn't much good if you can't get it where it needs to go."
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Regardless of attendance numbers, early predictions of printers ready to buy seemed to be accurate. Really, most companies wouldn't care if only 70 people came to the show, as long as those 70 were the ones doing the buying.
By Sunday morning, before the show opened to the public, "SOLD" signs started to appear on some of the heavy metal. Of course, some of these were sold before the show started, but new signs (a couple hand-written) had appeared overnight as well. And even though some of the machines were pre-sold before the show, the point is, they were sold.
