Stateside Printing Rediscovers its Mojo
Ford Bowers of SGIA (L) and Dave Leskusky of NAPCO Media (R)
Walking from our hotel to the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas for the opening of the first PRINTING United the buzz and anticipation were palpable. For me, it was the first time in a long time where I felt excited to be going to a print show. Read on for the FuturePrint review of the show. And I have to say that it didn’t disappoint.
The organisers have certainly taken their game onto another level when compared to the last SGIA Expo that I attended. The event looked better. More attention has been paid to the little touches from branding banners with the wow factor, to opening performances, to more networking opportunities and a wide array of content, plus a comprehensive satellite event programme. Pre-show marketing seemed to cover all the bases as well, with innovative direct mail; considerable on the page advertising; PR and a social media campaign across wide format and commercial print sectors.
Whilst the overall job that the team had achieved was indeed impressive, it is important however to note that this was not in the strictest sense a launch exhibition. There was a very strong base already in place with which to build on. For those of us who do not regularly attend shows in the US, SGIA Expo itself was already a highly successful wide format, screen-printing and textile printing show and already one of the strongest US print shows. But regardless of that, the achievement of re-launching the show, and growing the event aligned with the theme of convergence between print sectors should not be underestimated or diminished. PRINTING United has bucked the trend of most shows in the print sector.
First off, I asked my Co-director, Frazer Chesterman, his opinion “We know how challenging the (print) market is at the moment, plus there is a strong degree of global uncertainty. What PRINTING United have succeeded in doing is creating a mission and a crusade around unifying the market behind a cause in the US. Exhibitors have really bought into this and feel committed to getting behind it. For any event, this is so important. Congratulations to Ford, Mark, Dave and Frank and all at SGIA and the NAPCO team for a really good event.”
At the opening event, Ford Bowers SGIA President explained how the transition from SGIA Expo, a strong wide format and screen printing show has in one cycle, become a printing show which incorporates commercial print and some packaging as well.
“It all started 3 years ago when I met Mark Subers who was then VP at NAPCO and is now President of PRINTING United. It was January 2017. We sat down for a quick coffee and 3 hours later we were still talking. In fact, our discussions with NAPCO went so well and we came up with lots of ideas and just wanted to make them happen. So it eventually made complete sense to work together closely and then for SGIA to acquire NAPCO media which is now a wholly-owned LLC for SGIA.”
NAPCO is a leading publishing house serving the printing sector in the USA and owns some of the leading publications while also running the Inkjet Summit.
Ford continues, “They (NAPCO) will still operate independently as they are so different from SGIA in our structure and model. SGIA remains member-driven but it makes sense for us to collaborate closely as it has been really successful so far. In the future, what you will see is more audience development and communications for printers who need good strong content. It is this combination of resources what we feel the market needs. Because we so value this unique relationship, this is not an acquisition where we cut staff and cost and then run the business as lean as possible to reclaim our investment. We want to build our community and working with the talented people at NAPCO will help us to realise this ambition. Our collective research capabilities are also really useful. There are a lot of things we can do together and you’ll see more of this over the coming months.”
Ford was joined on stage by Dave Leskusky, who is President of NAPCO and he explained, “The NAPCO partnership with SGIA is different and unorthodox, but when you look deeper it makes sense. We are both mission-driven to help the industry grow and to do that we realise we need to provide that value year-long across the industry on several different platforms in line with the convergence we can see happening. We can see commercial printers getting into packaging, and garments etc. and the market converging. We want to be the primary resource to help them grow their businesses and diversify. This can extend beyond the industry upstream into the creative arts for example.”
We have noted that the key personnel within the SGIA and NAPCO teams has also grown significantly with recruits such as Frank Tueckmantel, Steve Duccilli and Denise Gustavson making up what some people have called ‘dream team’ which extends beyond the show into media and research.
New for the coming months is the launch of the Wide Format Summit which will be collocated with the Inkjet Summit. This additional event focuses on leadership within the wide-format industry and will follow a proven invite-only model. On top of this is Printing UX, which are user groups, which will host their meetings alongside PRINTING United in future.
Leskusky continued, “We are looking forward to an exciting future with the SGIA. This show has a buzz about it and it feels like 1997 all over again - it takes you back 20 years! Thanks to Ford for the opportunity and belief in NAPCO, we are confident and inspired to take the next show onto another level - and already we are reassured by really encouraging forward booth bookings.”
For us, it was great to be part of the content programme where we were able to share our thinking, insight and some of the findings from our research. Despite the event being more general in its profile, we were happy that it attracted some interest in our industrial inkjet focused sessions.
Printing United 2020 Atlanta 21-23 October
Looking ahead to the next version of PRINTING United, we shift attention from Texas to Georgia. Atlanta has already been home to several previous SGIA Expo’s so the venue and the City is not new to print or any of the exhibitors and visitors. Perhaps surprisingly, Bowers informed us that there are not so many venues in the US that can host PRINTING United given its current size and its expected footprint in 2020.
Ford Bowers concluded, “PRINTING United 2019 achieved a show floor space increase of 20% compared with SGIA Expo 2018. Bowers revealed the 2019’s show footprint, an impressive 724,000 sq. ft. “And it will be bigger again next year at what we forecast to be over a million Sq. ft. Before this show (2019) opens we already have 54% of space sold based on priority sales and once the show is over we expect to be 70-75% sold out. It will be bigger, better and bolder and will take place 21-23 Oct 2020 in Atlanta.
PRINTING United’s show tag line is certainly accurate! As well as the insight and info from the organisers I talked to several exhibitors about their view of the show.
Jessica Makrinos from Inkcups gives her impression of the show, “PRINTING United was a great show and we have generated lots of interest from major brands and commercial printers. At the show, we showcased our latest high-speed digital cylinder printer, the Revolution for the first time. The Revolution utilizes patented Helical printing technology to print images up to 218mm (8.6") on drinkware and other cylindrical items. Right now, this machine has been targeted towards those who have higher production volumes.”
Lynn Kolevsohn, Scodix, shares her thoughts, “PRINTING United was a great show, it was our first time here, we attracted lots of interest from the wide format sector, and we have previously not typically tried this approach before. We are really happy to be here and the show has generated a huge amount of interest in our digital special effect capabilities for commercial print and packaging.”
Paul Crocker, Anajet adds, “This show has been good, with a larger footprint, and with more exhibitors. The event has been good we have spoken to people we didn’t know - some shows you see the same people - here we have seen new people which is good.
At Printing United we launched the Ri 1000 Ricoh machine. We have put a lot into the development of it to make it an easier machine to use. For example, it has auto maintenance. The old machines would need downtime for the head cleans for effective printing. The Ri 1000 does it automatically by the clearing of the Ink flow. Now it’s walk-up ready! The cost per unit is $20,000 and the response to it has been excellent.”
Frazer Chesterman concludes, “The organisers have made the point that historically print hasn’t shouted about its virtues and abilities - and when attracting people and quality talent into the industry this is a big challenge. We certainly need to be on the radar of the economy. This is a good step towards this and the continued work, vision and leadership I am sure will elevate print further.”
In my opinion, this success is down to a change in leadership and culture at the SGIA. In a relatively short time, they have transformed the association from a rather inward and conservative organisation into one with a dynamic and outward view, a clear vision and a willingness to connect with people they believe have a similar vision. Even those outside the USA! And long may it continue.
The challenge ahead, however, is still there, and the fact is, for the commercial print market at least, there is a year on year decrease in demand of 3%. There is no getting around that fact, so to grow the commercial print footprint at PRINTING United will be a challenge even with a less competitive exhibition landscape.
But regardless, there is no doubt in my mind that PRINTING United was a big success, and we now look forward to how the next edition of PRINTING United develops in Atlanta in 2020.