This year’s Print 09 trade show in Chicago, Sept. 11-16, managed to both defy and confirm all the best and worst predictions made about it leading up to the big event.
Attendance was down, but those who did go to the show were there to do more than just “kick the tires.” In the words of EFI’s Guy Gecht, attendees took the attitude of “Recession schmessession.” Attendees were there to look at ways to expand their current technology, or look for new markets, or even just improve and innovate in their workflow.
Attendees realized that, economic issues aside, if a business stands still, it’s a chance for the competition to get a head start. These are the shops, worldwide, which will be leading the pack as the global world of print continues its recovery.
And it is recovering. While recession and financial troubles were being addressed by almost every major manufacturer, the mood on the show floor was optimistic. Vendors are seeing, for the most part, a slow increase in interest for everything from software to offset presses. They were pleasantly surprised by the number of machines sold from the show floor this year.
Prepress Makes a Mark
While there haven’t been any major new pieces of technology on display at the show, one big trend is in the prepress and workflow area. Many booths from some of the largest players in the industry demonstrated a full connected system, from the input of files through the output of a printed piece.
And we’re not talking about a theory. In several booths, customers are being invited to bring their own files, and then follow them around the booth, watching as each task is completed, including the final output. Ease of use, speed and efficiency are the three main themes of Print 09, with an emphasis of doing more, doing it faster, and doing it smarter than ever before.
Sun Chemical was showcasing this concept in its inks with products designed to improve productivity and bring value to customers in both the commercial and folding carton markets.
Promoting Press Efficiencies
The roll-out of the Inca Onset S20 has gone very well with healthy initial sales and there has been a steady stream of demos. We continue taking Inca Onset S20 orders and are adjusting our production schedule to meet the strong demand,” remarked Linda Bell, Inca Digital CEO. “Along with its obvious speed, we have been very pleased with the Inca Onset S20‘s print quality, and the feedback from our customers says that quality has been exceptional.”
Postpress Shines
For the most part, there weren’t too many brand new products at Print 09. There were quite a few North American debut technologies of things that had been launched at international shows all the way back to drupa, as well as new versions and capabilities to popular products, but not much that could genuinely be called new
Services in our industry have, traditionally, been something of an afterthought in many cases.
However, one company representative noted that, in the 
All in all, Print 09 was a fantastic show, with a lot to offer. We know we can’t cover everything that caught our eye this year, but stay tuned next week for Part 2 of our show coverage, where we’ll look a few more of the technologies that made waves.
