This is third year I have had the privilege to work with GASC and create The PrinterverseTM, a GRAPH EXPO show floor feature, and it has its perks! The biggest reward in my opinion is being able to host the community in an open space and have real conversations with attendees and exhibitors, and an emerging group in the grey area with exhibitor agenda’s sans the booth space. We will get to the latter a little further into this post, but let’s start here – during my time in Chicago I didn’t meet or speak to one person who didn’t have, or wasn’t having, an amazing and/or profitable experience at the show!
I wanted to get that out right at the start before I made a slight right turn to mention an odd comment I kept hearing which was, “The show is much smaller than it was in 2012.” Really? The PRINT show is smaller than it was two years ago. I’m still not quite sure what relevance that comment has other than to reflect the overall state of the industry. With mergers and acquisitions, and a general overall decline in printing volume pretty much everywhere in the world, why wouldn’t the show take some hits space wise. That doesn’t mean it was any LESS of a show, in fact, it seemed to me more like the cream had risen to the top both exhibitor and attendee wise.
The exhibitors who came to The Printerverse were exhausted and seeking momentary refuge from the inundation of crowds gathered in their spaces buying products and services. The attendees came in waves seeking knowledge from our amazing Alliance Partners, speakers and panels. Including our always engaged social media audience and those watching via livestream, this year far surpassed any previous year in regard to informed participation online and in the booth. That intense focus kept everyone on their toes, surprised a few speakers with questions they weren’t prepared for, and raised the level of dialogue beyond service provider/prospect/customer/pitch, to a human conversation about the industry, where it’s going, and how we can all help each other get there. The Printerverse truly lived up to its name and mission this year, and I am so proud of our community for supporting our efforts regardless of their physical whereabouts.
Speaking of that, I am all for finding a better way to do things and working the system when its’s workable, but one trend that kind of irked me this year was something I’m going to call booth squatting. Booth squatting is occupying an official presence at the show in a booth that officially belongs to someone else. Yes, there are exceptions… some big companies had partners with them and were showing how products worked together so it makes sense to be together on some level, but others just squatted to avoid paying for a booth. It was pretty obvious on social media who was supporting the industry and the show, and who was enjoying a free ride. If we counted up all of the squatters I wonder how many hundreds and hundreds of square feet that would have added to the South Hall of McCormick Place… for those counting such things. I hope that GRAPH EXPO finds a way to politely deal with that. It just doesn’t seem fair to me, not when you see from the inside all that goes into producing the show.
Now a few things I learned during my time in Chicago… and through the Printerverse educational sessions…
DIRECT MAIL is a hot topic. H.O.T. So hot that Trish Witkowski is dedicating an initiative to it called Rock The Mailbox. We had a glitch during the show so that demo didn’t get recorded or broadcast over livestream. GOOD NEWS – Trish agreed to do another demo on Oct 23 at 1PM ET! Info/register here.
FINISHING is the REAL value add. Leave the better price, better service, better quality conversation to those without capabilities. If you don’t have any finishing in house get some, NOW. If you have typical finishing, see how it can be enhanced. I saw some COOL STUFF that won’t break the bank from a print customer standpoint, and would be a great way to open new conversations in the “look what we can do” coolness factor.
SUBSTRATES ROCK and always will. Get samples. Learn what works and won’t in your presses, and figure out how to use what you can use to open new revenue streams with new verticals.
WIDE FORMAT is still very relevant and can be very affordable for commercial printers enabling new revenue channels with existing customers and the ability to attract new business.
INKJET is not going away, and seems to be waiting for all of us to catch up. Customer stories are the key here as the early adapters have figured out very interesting ways to use this print technology by using it! HP brought their customers to the Printerverse to talk with us. Listening to them was certainly inspiring, and hearing other customer stories from Pat McGrew was a like a master print class taught by Macgyver. HP also launched a new high speed inkjet web press at the show. David J. Murphy came to the Printerverse to tell us about it and bought everyone lunch to boot! If you are interested I have his presentation as a PDF. Just email me and I will send it over!
SOFTWARE and automation technology will help you be able to help your customers print smarter, and faster. That is a great line to use when asked “what makes you different than the 40 other printers who have called on me this week.” As a buyer, that is something I’d be interested in hearing about, and for a big brand it would be imperative to help them reach customers in the manner they need to be reached – and it’s not always print if some of your customers are sight-challenged for example. David Day and Jonathan McGrew from Crawford Technologies presented a very fun and informative Case Study Cafe’ on workflow, document management and accessibility.
Really, you need to check out the Printerverse Playlist and watch the sessions! Daniel Dejan, Dr. Twyla Cummings, Semper International on “What is a Techcreative?”, Mary Beth Smith’s Market Your Printing Company panel, and the Girls Who Print Day Award AND annual mentorship panel… the meet the Alliance sessions, Blippar on Print and Augmented Reality, our PMC #PrintChat Press Conference… WOW… looking at this programming I am ready to go back to McCormick and do it over again… it really was a stellar year in the Printerverse!
The last thing I’d like to do here is offer some Thank You’s!
My sincere gratitude again to Ralph Nappi, Chris Price, Debbie Vieder, Kelly Kilga, Erin Omwake, Jodie Hayes and everyone over at TEAM GASC (who is already working on GRAPH EXPO 15 and was before the show!) for the monumental task of putting the show together for us every year! – and for working with me to create the Printerverse for all of you. Beyond that, thanks also for looking at each GRAPH EXPO as an opportunity to bring something new and relevant to the show floor, and for attracting a large mix of top-shelf exhibitors so we can see everything in one place once a year!
A HUGE thank you to Mary Beth Smith, Sandy Hubbard, Brian Rothschild, Pat McGrew, Chad Henk, The Xplor Ryerson crew, Scott Baker, Leonardo Vasone, Melissa DeVietri, our amazing and awesome Intergalactic Alliance, our amazing and awesome speakers and panelists… and last but not least… my mom @LadyScanalot – who not only helps me run the booth, but also spent 2 days traveling with me in trains, planes, automobiles, cabs and buses to make it to McCormick!
It will be hard in many ways to top GRAPH EXPO 14… Good news is that I have officially been invited back, and I’m already plotting ways to make The Printerverse at GRAPH EXPO15 out of this world! See you next year in Chicago!
