Days to go to PacPrint – Print 21 feature

Four years is a long time between feeds – if we consider PacPrint to be our quadrennial printing banquet. Opinion on major trade exhibitions of this kind are mixed – some say they are not necessary in the era of the World Wide Web and instant sharing of knowledge. Some exhibitors say there are too many shows and they cost too much to stage. Some, like CPI, prefer to take a token exhibit area (71.5 m2 as against about 1000 m2 in 2001) – and take visitors out of PacPrint by helicopter to their working showroom.

Salivating at the technology

PacPrint is a feeding frenzy for both exhibitors and visitors. The exhibitors vie for the orders and do dog-eat-dog deals because their opposition is only yards away. Visitors are on the hunt for a unique piece of technology, an application, a methodology or piece of information that will give them a Darwinian edge in the print communications evolution stakes. Survival of the quickest.

The 200-odd exhibitors know what PacPrint means to them. A lot of planning and cost, late nights, tired limbs and maybe an order or two at – or after – the show. More than one 'hissy fit' can be expected as gear doesn't turn up on time or contractors say 'well you didn't order that service.' At one nameless trade show, I turned up with my equipment and technical team - and there was no stand. 'Oh, we thought you were building your own.' No my friend, here is the signed contract for you to build the walls, lay the carpet, install the electrics etc…be a good sport; gissa stand, eh?

After all the preparation and expectation, what does PacPrint mean to the punters – the printers, designers, publishers, packagers, agencies, government departments, students and teachers who traipse the aisles?

More for the masses than Murdochs
It's fair to say that the 'big end' of our industry is informed enough not to need PacPrint as a technology-revealing showcase. This is evidenced by the huge orders already in train for heatset and coldest web presses, 'long' perfectors, bindery and, particulary flexo, as reported by Patrick Howard in the last issue. December quarter 2004 investment expectation is an incredible $1.2 billion over the next 18 months - almost double it has ever been. The Murdochs, Hannans, Hills and McMillans don't front up at the turnstiles, chequebook in hand. The (supplier) 'mountains' go to 'Mohammed.' In the 80s, I was reporting on the ANPA (now NeXpo) newspaper show in Las Vegas. The day before the official opening, I espied Rupert Murdoch being zoomed up and down the aisles in golf buggy. “G'day Rupe,” says I, (he was still Australian then), “how about an interview then?”

“Too busy,” he trailed off, Doppler-effect stretching his words. His perennial gentleman general Ken Cowley went into bat for me later and I got as far as a kind letter from New York that said; “Too busy.” Ah well, I'll try Lachlan next.

So PacPrint is mainly for the SMEs - small to medium sized businesses which comprise the majority of people employed in our industry and the backbone of the economy. Sure, a bit of high corporate schmoozing and PR goes on, and so it should, but it's the Mom and Pops, 60 and under employee, start-ups, wannabees and need-to-bees that get the most out of it.

Outsiders welcome
Added to them is the most fascinating sector. Visitors from outside of what we know as our 'core' industry. This is the sector that lures the likes of Xerox, Canon, Océ, HP-Indigo, Xeikon, Konica-Minolta, Epson and Ricoh. These exhibitors also lure 'outside' people to the show with their direct invitations. The enabling factor of course is digital printing.

Digital printing, as Graeme Philipson eloquently says in this month's issue, makes us indistinguishable from the IT industry. Heck, we are part of the IT industry, since IT permeates every business sector, which means that PacPrint should appeal to the entire business community of Australia. If they are exposed to the wonders of offset, gravure, flexo, screen and bindery - this can only be good. They may think “Wow, my printer really knows his business and has much fancier technology that I imagined.”

Of course, Harvey Norman is not about to put in a 64pp MAN Roland and print its own catalogues, but a dimension of PacPrint that has never been fully exploited is Print Buyers. Today, without exception, all companies do some of their own printing whether it is a full-blown inplant, or laser and inkjet desktop gadgets and MFPs. Many of the exhibitors have technology that transcends industrial applications, and crosses over into the corporate and SOHO arena. Those who buy the end results should figure in our thinking.

Thank Prince Albert for PacPrint
On a more philosophical note, credit for the modern history of trade exhibitions can be accorded to Prince Albert, Victoria's consort, who championed the London Great Exhibition of 1851 which six million people visited. France had held a few industry exhibitions previously, starting in 1798 by the Marquis d'Aveze and, in 1849, held a blockbuster in Paris. Anything the French did, the British just had to do better and the 1851 Great Exhibition was a huge success - and the progenitor for IPEX as it had a large printing machinery section.

For scholars of ancient history, it could be argued that the first 'trade' exhibition was held in 483BC when the Persian King Xerxes called all the 'riches and splendour' of his empire 'from India even unto Ethiopia,' together in one place. PacPrint will have to make do with 'from Wangaratta, even unto Melbourne.'

Following the first Drupa after WWII, members of the Australian industry – primarily moved by what is today Printing Industries – decided to hold a show of equipment and the output of the industry at a facility located next to Wynyard Station, George Street, Sydney. Effectively, this was our first PacPrint and the decision was made to hold a show one year after each Drupa because, in those days, not everyone could easily make it to Europe. Even by plane it took 3-4 days.

The original concept was to promote actual printed communications, careers and the image of printing, as well as equipment. To this end it is gratifying to see, at last, the National Print Awards held in conjunction with PacPrint. After awarding one raspberry, I sound a loud 'hurrah!' to the people who decided this.

My 'raspberry of the show' goes to CPI for its helicopter hijacking. I also think it is a dumb marketing move. About 28,000 people will visit PacPrint – you'll need more helicopters than the US Army to get even 5% of them to Braeside. Some of them won't want to risk life and limb in a whirlybird and the ones you say 'no' to because either you are full up or they aren't important enough, will be offended. Komori puts on some of the best shows in the world at Drupa, IPEX, Print Chicago and Igas – visitors will be deprived of this at PacPrint, because of this parsimonious decision.

Gnash teeth - or dine gracefully?

Maybe calling PacPrint a feeding frenzy is too harsh.

As Michael Caine concluded in the film 'Alfie:' “What's it all about then?” He was referring to life and pain in general, but if we ask the same of PacPrint, perhaps the answer might be that it's our Xerxian celebration. Because we feel that we must, we gather like clans in one place to ogle, to admire, to brag, to criticise, to learn, to chatter, to feel the undeniable powerful bond of being part of a much greater whole: an intellectual and commercial empire of knowledge, information and communication that remains the most influential on Earth today.

We call it the printing industry.