A Little Ditty about Tradeshows: a Preview of Print ‘05

What’s the best way to see the show and get the most out of your limited time? Brief advice on planning your trip to the show, any show and a my own preview of Print ‘05.

What kind of strategy does the average attendee employ at an industry or trade show? Is it the “book 2 days, stay in an expensive hotel, run up and down the aisles grabbing all the product literature you can stuff in a plastic bag, eating show food, perhaps attend a vendor sponsored event in the evening and collapsing into your bed each night, struggling to remember the salient differentiations between devices, workflows, or job management applications” strategy?

Yes, for serious buyers, it’s the ultimate closing ground. Signing on the dotted line for a printing press, discounting that last bit of margin to flush the funnel, or pitting a couple of developers to get the best deal, yes, these shows do serious business. For those of you that are not ready to sign but are determined to get the information you need to plan (I’m big on planning) this article is written with you in mind.

Odds are you only have a couple of technology goals or investments to make in the next 12 months. What are they? Focus on those one or two initiatives. You should have 2 or 3 vendors for each initiative you want to visit. Concentrate on them first.

Don’t expect to get the time and attention you need by wandering the show floor. Rather than sit through the “cattle herd” demo, take the time to try and get an “appointment” with your top vendors at the show. How awesome — getting your top vendors to demo their “best fit” products all in a short amount of time, just for you, personally. You could never get that to happen in your own environment.

Most vendors will allot time throughout the show to do one-on-one demo’s for prospective customers. Here is the time to ask specific questions that are important to your workflow, so come prepared. By grouping the appointments close together, additional questions will naturally come up that you wouldn’t have otherwise have thought of. Don’t squeeze off-topics in between the appointments. Stay focused. If another vendor pops up unexpectedly stay vigilant to your requirements analysis (see my strategic technology planning article) — if they don’t make the score, don’t waste your time.

Once you get through your “must-see” vendors, then you can let down your hair and take a different approach to the show with your time you have left. Use the show to educate yourself on hot topics, trends in the industry, next year’s strategic goals if identified, and products receiving industry awards. If other decision-makers couldn’t make the show bringing back samples/demo’s are very important. If you managed to shorten your vendor list, make sure you leave the show with contact information so that you can arrange for specific demo’s for those key project investors.

Upcoming Events:

Print ’05, McCormick Place, Chicago
September 9-15th
Covering products and topics including commercial printing and converting, variable data, flexible packaging, wide format, folding carton and corrugated packaging, mailing and fulfillment, tag and label, digital prepress/workflow, RFID and JDF applications.

Seybold Conference, Hyatt Regency, McCormick Place, Chicago
September 11-14
Running almost concurrent with Print ‘05 is Seybold/Chicago, a publishing conference covering digital publishing workflow and asset management. Additional topics include XMP, taxonomy and PDF/X. Seybold (www.seybold365.com) is a well-respected source for publishing reporting and consulting. If you can’t catch it in Chicago in September, you can find it in New York in October and San Francisco in November.

SGIA ’05, New Orleans
Sept 28-Oct 1st
Cancelled due to hurricane Katrina, visit SGIA.org for details

Noteworthy Tidbits and Buzz

Stop the presses (I couldn’t resist): KBA will have 5 presses running, printing and coating a total of 40 different jobs on substrates including paper and board to plastic film. Their largest sheetfed offset press, a size 9 (80-inch) award-winning Rapida 205 will also be on display.

New Intelligence: the print media trade fair Drupa will for the first time showcase the Drupa Innovation Parc at Print 05. The Parc will focus on presentations involving the joint participation of six companies at Print 05 is divided into three sections: while “printing intelligence” will focus predominantly on topics such as JDF and workflows, the “communication intelligence” area will deal with databases and novel web2print solutions and the “creative intelligence” category will be represented in Chicago by two companies offering solutions for image editing problems.

Variable data stock options: Xeikon will demonstrate Fold-N-Go, a patent-pending product from Convertible Brands. According to the company, will dramatically simplify the creation of personalized, variable data print jobs that require perforations, payment envelopes or other complex conversions.

The Smithsonian will have an exhibit at Print ’05 emphasizing the history and importance of book illustration. It will feature images from books in the Libraries’ collecign including works by Redoute, William Morris, children’s alphabet books, and much more. Demonstrations will include wood engraving, intaglio printing and new approaches to illustration by a variety of instructors. A website dedicated to the exhibit may be viewed here.

The Armed Services: Print ‘05 will host a special display of U.S. Army mobile printing capability. The display will feature the Deployable Print Production Center (DPPC), which includes a work shelter mounted on a HumVee towing an equipment trailer. The display will offer live demonstrations of the U.S. Army’s on-site mobile printing capability. The system, equipped with operating presses, is used to print various psychological operations leaflets, flyers, and communiqués for foreign audiences in the field.

International presence: More than 20 formal international visitor delegations will arrive at Print ‘05.

The list of current international visitor delegations is headed by five groups of more than 100 people each, representing China, India, Russia, Brazil and Mexico. Visitors are expected from more than 75 nations.

SIDENOTE: I’ll be attending the show and booking journal entries from the show and sharing my observations with you as events unfold. I’ll be your eyes and ears, keeping you informed about upcoming trends in the industry!