No time like show time to come together: McCourt's eye
Trade exhibitions are terrific ways to glean new ideas, see new applications and network with both customers and suppliers. However, there can be little doubt that there are too many events on the calendar and this presents time and cost barriers for both exhibitors and visitors. Andy McCourt explains why.
Digital printing has had a unifying effect in many areas of imaging. Take the recent Digital Life (PIMA) photographic exhibition in Melbourne. When photography was all film and chemistry, you would never see commercial graphic arts equipment on display as such shows. Today, the same Epson, Canon, HP and other wide-format printers transcend the boundaries between photo-imaging and commercial graphic arts.
Even more significant is that A3 digital presses are now part and parcel of making Photobooks and it is not unusual to see HP Indigos, Konica Minolta, MGI, Canon and Xerox presses at photo trade shows.
The convergence of digital imaging technologies and applications therefore, has introduced challenges for trade exhibition organisers, industry associations and visitors alike.
The answer then must surely be, in a converging technology market, converge the trade events – and maybe the associations too. Unfortunately, politics and “turf wars” come into play and this is often a doomed enterprise. As with Gollum in Lord of the Rings, so long as he could hold onto his precious ring, freshly bitten off the finger of Frodo, he was happy – even as he disappeared under a sea of volcanic lava. It’s in people’s nature not to want to let go of established turf and customs.
So, it is with delight and admiration that I commend the convergence of, not two, but five trade events occurring at Sydney’s Darling Harbour in September. Not just because they have converged, but because of what it will deliver in benefits for both exhibitors and visitors.
From Monday 20th to Wednesday 22nd of September, visitors to the Visual Impact Image Expo (VIEE – itself a convergence of two competing shows), will enjoy the added presence of the following:
VIEE – the main event in terms of floor space and an increasingly popular one with over 7,000 delegates attending. Showcasing wide format, signage and display products and organized by VISA, the sign industry association.
PrintWorks – a new event staged by GASAA and showcasing the effectiveness of all print – not just wide format – as a communications medium.
PODi App Forum – the Print-On-Demand initiative, held for the past three years will be co-located with the other events.
POPAI – the Point-of-Purchase marketing event at Retail Expo, POPAI is a global association of both end users such as Cadbury, PepsiCo, Schweppes and Hasbro, and POP manufacturers plus equipment and materials suppliers.
Retail Expo 2010 – a combined exhibition and conference on retail techniques, fit-outs, technologies, the ‘store of the future’ and generally better retailing.
The above five events, plus conferences and awards, are co-located at the same time at Darling Harbour, with a single registration gaining entry to all of them.
The brilliance of this strategy is that it brings together the entire community of parties who use print and visual communication for commercial purposes. The retailers themselves (70 per cent of purchasing decisions are made in-store), will be there to see print applications they may never have otherwise seen. The point-of-purchase designers and specifiers will be there and, while they may never buy a five-meter wide UV digital printer, they certainly buy the various kinds of output such machines produce.
Who knows who else will turn up with the greater reach engendered by this co-operation? For sure the 7,000 visitor number mark will be smashed and could even get into the 10,000-plus area – towards a PrintEx kind of attendance figure.
Wide format digital, signage, POP, vehicle wraps, shelf-talkers and so on will be complemented by sheetfed digital printing to present a world of colourful, persuasive and effective print communication.
However they managed to get four trade associations and five events together like this is a mystery to me … maybe it was hypnotism or mind-altering medication slipped into the cappuccino machine. Whatever, it is a fantastic achievement and is a surefire winner. I am looking forward to VIEE/Printworks/POPAI/RetailExpo with immense anticipation and hope you will get along there even if you are an offset printer – to see what the digital print production world can really deliver.