Anyone at GraphExpo?

[gordo]

Love to hear your impressions rather than the media/vendor missives.

 

[seratne]

I was there today. I don't attend the seminars, mostly usually just walk the floor to see the new stuff that's out there. This year was disappointing from a "wow" factor standpoint. I'm used to seeing presses, platesetters, workflows, and large booths. I guess it's a sign of the direction the industry is taking. Lots of digital. I don't think I saw one offset press. The offset manufacturers that were there just had tables setup to make deals. The large groups of attendees were all around the new digital machines. Disappointing that some of the Big vendors weren't even there (Agfa, Heidelberg...).

I guess companies that are looking for presses realize it's all a relatively level field, and are more concerned with the price they can get it for. And the companies that are looking at digital are looking for the solutions that the short-run machines can provide. As evidenced by Xerox's booth, which had a few machines, but had more of their floor space setup for XMPie.

 

[gordo]

Thanks seratne!

Anyone care to post some pics?

This is the only one I've seen (not too inspiring)...

 

[D Ink Man]

Any nanoo nanoo?

 

[PricelineNegotiator]

I was there yesterday and will be there today. Last year was a very different. The registration was in a separate area, which made it very dramatic when you first stepped in, as the exhibitor's booths were right in front of your face. This year, the registration was in the place of Xerox and Canon(they were pushed back just a bit) and then after you walked in, Xerox seemed to have several "buffer" zones. Once you got to the Versant, which was impressive, there was a very large open space and then the iGen, 1000 and CiPres were spread out. The J75 was actually in Duplo's booth which was down the line a bit. The layout this year at the entrance was underwhelming.

Ryobi did have a 5 color press which they had running. I'm guessing most companies don't want to pay for the personnel to run the machine, all the supplies, and transporting the machine, PLUS selling it at a heavily discounted rate. I don't know how many they sell due to the display, but I'm guessing it just wasn't worth it anymore because the 4+ color press market is seemingly saturated with machines currently.

 

[prwhite]

There was a good crowd on Monday. Yes, it's a much smaller show, but there are lots of really great solutions there, in spite of smaller floor space and the lack of traditional offset vendors.

More than one vendor mentioned that cost is a major factor with the McCormick venue. Label Expo, for example (also located in the metro Chicago area), was cited as being 1/3 rd the cost of exhibiting at McCormick. And, with Graph Expo's smaller footprint, more locations could accommodate it.

The new inkjet presses along with some very creative finishing solutions are worth the price of admission.

 

[Deleted member 16349]

Ryobi did have a 5 color press which they had running.

It would be nice if people let Ryobi know that positive ink feed (ITB) would help them. Nice sized presses that could benefit the smaller printer and their older presses can be easily retrofitted too. Unashamed plug for sure.

It is nice to see them still promoting offset lithography.