Print 09 Thoughts?

[Cory Smith]

for those that went, how did you feel about Print 09?

Traffic was light the first few days, but it seemed to increase each day as it went along.

Kodak not bringing any equipment? For what it was, I thought it was a good setup. Personally I like to see equipment. Guess I am a hands on type of person.


I wish the Fuji Inkjet press was running, anyone know why it wasn't? couldn't even find printed samples from it.


The Agfa booth with the cut out crowds was an odd choice.


You can checkout photos, reports and videos from the show here:

http://members.whattheythink.com/events/print-09/

What were your thoughts?

[SteveAgfa]

Hi Cory:

Good to see you at the show.

Our "crowds" did indeed attract notice.

They "hid" a giant pillar on one corner,
created virtual conference rooms when
casual discussions turned more serious,
and helped in the changing booth dynamics
as our "human count-down clock/moving
crowd" changed the face (faces) of our booth.

It took some getting used to, but by the show's
end, I thought this was brilliant. (Now if I could
only get that Belgian folk song out of my mind!)

And oh - our Dotrix digital UV inkjet web
press ran like a charm!

[edited note - our ":" in front of the Dotrix product
name generates this... otrix. Yes, our live demos
of the Dotrix was indeed something to smile about!]

[Gail_NK]

Every now and then real arms with red gloves popped up through the "forest" of printed people and waved. It was a great juxtaposition of real and artificial!

Gail N-K
WhatTheyThink Going Green

[gordo]

I thought it was a pretty good show - but not very much was causing any show floor buzz - no "oh wow did you see what they've got/doing/showing at booth xyz."

Most of the folks I spoke with felt that the Kodak booth was high on flash but low on making their solutions or products visible. "No substance" was a term I heard several times. A great many people either couldn't figure out how to use the RFID triggered displays (and other displays), or once they did weren't that impressed by the content. "Why go to a tradeshow to see what you could see on the web?"

The outstanding thing for me at the Kodak booth was their ONE magazine which demonstrated Staccato screening printed with flexo. It was easy to miss if you didn't read the production notes - and there wasn't to my knowledge any reference to this amazing technology that I'm sure that flexo printers would have wanted to know more about.

BTW MAN-Roland also had no equipment in their booth (without the fanfare) - but their solutions were very well displayed and articulated.

Agfa, Screen, Heidelberg, and Fuji all had very standard booths (not that there's anything wrong with that) - and probably the only ones that showed CtP devices.

It was great finally seeing the Xingraphics no-process plate - but I'll bet many people missed that.

There was a very strong and well organized presence from Chinese suppliers - they're coming on much stronger than in previous years.

East Indian print and prepress suppliers were represented for the first time - but not that well IMHO.

I was surprised and disappointed that Esko didn't have a booth at this show. I'm not sure that they were that well represented by their partners.

Some presenters seemed to pop up at different booths (Barb Pellow comes to mind) making the same pitch about variable/personalized/become a marketing services provider rather than just a printer. As a result, the message seems interchangeable between vendors like Kodak, Canon, Xerox, et al. No vendor differentiation. Also, no solutions stories for other market segments - e.g. publication, packaging, commercial printers who don't want to go down that road.

Personally, it was great for me to finally be able to visit vendor's booths, like Agfa's without being thrown out. I lie, Agfa was always been gracious about competitors like the former me visiting their booth - the other vendors not so much though.

The show itself was better promoted and organized than previous years.
The food was just as expensive and mediocre.
Thankfully the weather turned from the originally predicted thunderstorms and rain to very pleasant sunny days.

All in all, a very sedate show which required more effort on the part of attendees to extract the value of attending than previous years.

I'd love to know the actual attendance figures - judging by the lack of lineups and empty seats at the Plateroom restaurant I would guess it was about 1/3 to 1/2 of Print '05.

Best, gordon p

[tkarg]

To answer the earlier question about the Fujifilm Digital Inkjet Press, we made a decision not to run the product live at the show because it was a technology display, not a product for current sale. Fujifilm will make additional announcements regarding this technology at IPEX (May 2010).

If you would like to see printed samples of the Fujifilm Digital Inkjet Press and / or the video describing the technology please speak with your local Fujifilm representative. People who booked with us ahead of time to see the press at the show (and there were over 200 appointments) received printed samples.

I thought the Kodak booth was an interesting attempt to change the dynamic of a trade show, but I agree it was high on flash and low on substance. I've learned more from reading their website than I got from their trade show booth. One important thought that I left their booth with was "if everyone did their trade show booth like this, would anyone actually come to a trade show?". The Printers I spoke to at the show were emphatic that the equipment was what brought them to the show and held their attention.

Regards
Tony

[dgraves@wendlingprinting.net]

I was there on the weekend and since there wasn't a crowd it was very easy to speak to the suppliers. The only piece of equipment I thought notable was the MGI Jet Varnish press. This is a 23 x 29 (I think) sheet size press that produces spot/flood UV. They are saying in 2 months a second head will allow variable print (black for mailing etc.).

My opinion of the Kodak booth was on the cheap. If I was interested in purchasing Kodak equipment at the show, this would leave a very bad taste in my mouth.

I think there was a very big push in large format offerings.

[Alex@Challenge]

From the product-finishing standpoint, we did well. We were anticipating low-turnout numbers with those coming to the event serious about buying. We did not reduce the number of products on display and we were rewarded with more products sold on the show floor than in the previous 10 years. This is not salesperson fluff - it's the truth. We told our dealers to come prepared to close deals, and they did. This was an opportunity for customers to compare our machines to its competitors, and we believe we came out far ahead. There was excellent fanfare on our new CMT130 perfect-bound book trimmer. We even had quite a bit of traffic on our large-format cutters.

If you were to ask us at the end of the day Friday, you'd have an entirely different answer!

[Happyprinter]

This was my first time at Print 09. I was not disappointed. Great show. On Sunday the crowds were small and I had alot of time with different vendors. We were in the market for a UV Coater and found a great deal to chose from. I do agree that the Kodak booth left alot to be desired, but, as for the rest of the show, I look forward to returning in the future.

[Printers Devil UK]

On this side of the pond we hear that it was a pretty poor attendance, though Cory said in his intro that it did pick up as the show went on. What was the overall impression on attendance?

What was the reaction to this concept of exhibiting at a show with no equipment (ie, Kodak and manroland). I can't see the point personally. Surely the whole idea of exhibiting at a show is to exhibit some equipment that people can see in action, get their hands on the kit/the output, and therefore get a clearer idea of what it can do! In saying that I do appreciate the significant costs involved in putting equipment on a stand. What was the reaction of visitors?

Printers Devil UK

[Mike Herndon]

I was there Sunday and Monday, mainly looking at pressroom/prepress technology. Attendance was real light on Sunday but that was fine with me. No surprise HP and Xerox had some of the nicest booths with the nod going to Xerox for their 4:00pm happy hour (beer was ice cold, thank you Xerox) and eye candy models. The twin tower iGen4 was cool and scary (scary as in “why buy a sheet-fed press?”) at the same time.

Working in an all Heidelberg shop I like going to shows to see what the other press manufacturers have going on. I was very happy to see KBA in attendance and spent quite a bit of time studying the 106 Rapida “Make Ready Champion”. The demonstrator was nice enough to stay after the show and give me a complete run through of the press. I was impressed and usually I’m not when it comes to presses since nowadays most due the same thing.

I felt sorrow for Mitsubishi, their new press looked nice but I never saw anyone in their booth.

We switched to Prinergy a while back so I’d planned to go by the Kodak booth to check out some things. But, decided to save time and go to their website instead.

Lots of cool stuff to see but nothing earth moving, most of the attendees I met were there researching ways to possibly reinvent themselves. The print world has definitely changed.

I had a good time at the show, always do. Plus Chicago is just a great town to visit.

Mike