Congratulations to the Graphic Arts Show Company

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Well the Graph Expo 2012 is history, and the Graphic Arts Show Company should be extremely pleased with the results. I had the opportunity to see Ralph Nappi and Chris Price on the show floor and both had this kind of “Cheshire Cat” look on their face of satisfaction.

Attendance on Sunday, was the best I have seen in a couple years. Not sure whether it was the later start at noon, due to the Chicago Marathon or pent up anticipation to look at the latest and greatest technology, or both. Whatever it was, it worked.

Monday and Tuesday also had impressive traffic. (I left Tuesday afternoon to get back for a school activity for my daughter.)

The Xplor at Graph Expo Seminar attendance was down from 2011. Not sure if it was the day or time or the fact that there were a lot more educational events in 2012. We had great speakers, great feedback. Looking at doing something a bit different for Print 13.

Every year I say I am going to spend more time on the floor and every year I never get to see enough.  I will apologize to the dozens and dozens of vendors I did not get to but a couple highlights I saw in between meetings:

  • Congratulations to Deborah Corn and PrintMediaCentr on the first Printerverse – a new Show Floor Feature at Graph Expo! Went there on Monday and ended up designating it as my official meeting area. Neat application of the documobi technology, Girls Who Print and some great speakers including Kevin Keane. (If you ever have the opportunity to talk to him, it is certainly worth your time.)
  • Was great to see Delphax on the floor with new technology. Since I spent 10 years there I have always pulled for the company. General Manager, Steve Hubbard showed me their new elan™ System technology, which appears solid and puts them in the heart of the transactional document space again. For more information check out http://www.delphax.com/
  • While visiting the RICOH booth, Eric Staples, Senior Product Manager gave me a glimpse of their new product “Clickable Paper”, which appears to have a great deal of potential.
  • At the Kodak booth I spent time with Peter Bouchard, Paul Schiller and Rick Mazur looking at what was new at Kodak. Once again, as an alumni, I am always interested in see old friends and seeing what new things they have going on. I was particularly impressed with the samples they showed  from their “Fifth Imaging Unit Solution” on the NexPress. Fundamentally a host of different finishes which included gloss, spot gloss, red flourecing, linen, dimensional and watermark finishing.

Once again, I apologize to all of what and who I missed, but if you have any highlights you would like to share. Join the conversation.

Until next time.