Graph Expo is Approaching

With Graph Expo 15 and CPP Expo 15 set to touch down in the Windy City’s McCormick Place from Sept. 13-16, we thought we’d offer you a glimpse of what will be new at this year’s event:

• Co-located Events. The annual printing and packaging event finds itself with new neighbors for 2015: Process Expo, the International Dairy Show and InterBev Process. Graph Expo and Process Expo will have a two-day overlap—Sept. 15 and 16—so attendees of any of the five events will enjoy all-access admission to all of the exhibit halls. Printers, packagers, processors and converters can network (over a glass of milk perhaps) and explore common ground and crossover opportunities.

• The Industrial Printing Pavilion. Interest in printing and plastics—namely, 3D printing, industrial and decorative applications—is high. Attendees can get a glimpse of the machines in action, along with a dossier of possible applications.

• Materials Matter. This booth celebrates the role materials play in the print ecosystem as multiple substrate manufacturers demonstrate their wares.

• Application Island. This island-themed exhibit shows off some of the hottest applications from the exhibit floor. Tiki presentations featuring some of the industry’s best-known gurus will provide sage advice on creating and selling these applications.

• Education Main Street. Printers looking for that next batch of skilled employees need look no further than Main Street, where representatives from colleges, universities and educational organizations will be on hand. Learn about curriculum, scholarships and even internship opportunities.

Graph Expo will offer pavilions dedicated to inkjet printing, in-plants, mailing and fulfillment, marketing and newspapers, to name a few. Executive Outlook, a four-hour preview event, will provide a glimpse of the technologies and trends that will be on display. The Must See ’Ems, as the name suggests, is a technological appetizer that spotlights some of the hottest new hardware, software and workflows to grace the industry. And, as always, attendees will have a choice of more than 50 educational seminars to whet their informational appetites.

400 Exhibitors Expected

According to Ralph Nappi, president of the Graphic Arts Show Co. (Graph Expo’s organizer), roughly 400 exhibitors representing more than 1,000 different product brands will be on hand, making it essentially the same size as the 2014 show. Nappi expects somewhere above 20,000 visitors to grace the South Hall.

As has been the case for the past several years, Nappi expects inkjet and packaging solutions to garner lots of attention at the show. “I think there will be a little more emphasis on workflow, too. There’s been a lot of interest there,” he says.

Nappi points out that the exhibition will play host to around 50 co-located events hosted by related organizations, a figure that will probably remain static in the foreseeable future. The fact that the show did not add a new market segment for the first time in about eight years further indicates that the event has come of age in representing all key facets of the industry.

That said, Graph Expo will take a break from Chicago in 2016

when it relocates to Orlando, FL, for a one-year commitment. It will mark the first time in 20 years that the annual event has stepped outside the Windy City.

Stepping Stone to Drupa

Jim Hamilton, Group Director, InfoTrends

So what will be whipping attendees into a frenzy next month? Jim Hamilton, group director of InfoTrends’ Production Group, sees this year’s Graph Expo as a stepping stone to drupa 16, and points out that a number of announcements made at the last drupa exhibition are now being commercialized. He feels that any big reveals will be held off until next spring in Germany. However, a number of products have already had their coming-out parties, such as Canon’s Océ VarioPrint i300 (formerly called Niagara) cut-sheet inkjet press and the Xerox iGen 150 digital press with the fifth color capability.

“In the past couple of years, some manufacturers have made their announcements too soon and it’s taken them a while to get the actual products to market,” Hamilton notes.

On the software end, Hamilton says that a number of companies, including Xerox with its FreeFlow, have done a good job of integrating digital printing workflows. The finishing side offers attractive value-add solutions from Scodix, Highcon and MGI, to name a few, especially as packaging becomes more of an application focus for digital.

Though there may be a few product surprises that will turn heads in Chicago, many announcements are being withheld until the eleventh hour, as manufacturers are finding it tougher to time their releases to coincide with the major printing shows. Marco Boer, vice president of IT Strategies, notes the development cycles are getting longer as the technology becomes more complicated. But while heavy iron will be tougher to spot in McCormick Place than a booth without a bowl of candy, Boer is confident that attendees will get a full serving of application examples from vendors, including Ricoh and Canon/Océ, demonstrating what substrates their machines are capable of using.

“We’ll see a lot of emphasis on improved print quality from companies like HP, with its HDNA (High Definition Nozzle Architecture) print heads,” Boer says. “There will be an emphasis on expanding the range of applications that inkjet can print on. Kodak will have some emphasis on package printing, for example. I also see toner [digital] machines being key, but not much offset. Xerox will be heavily promoting its iGen 5.”

For Trish Witkowski, the chief folding fanatic of online community foldfactory.com—known for her 60-second Fold of the Week videos—finishing provides an especially attractive menu of items at Graph Expo. She believes there’s a huge emphasis on value-added print gradually reversing the trend from printing being viewed as a commodity into something that commands a premium.

The ability to provide special formats and finishes stands as a differentiator for printers. “We’re seeing this play out not only in B2B environments, but also in B2C where the saturated photo card and wedding markets are adding foil, and special substrates and diecut shapes to get noticed,” says Witkowski.