As tempting as it was to buy into the argument that the poor attendance at Chicago's Print 09 exhibition was the fault of traffic caused by serial do-gooder Bono and his band U2 playing a nearby concert, it was a bit of a stretch to imagine tailbacks of frustrated printers. The reality, of course, was that the recession and a fall in demand for print meant some companies did not have the budget for the expense and time involved in visiting the show.

However, the manufacturers were out in force, including many European com­­­panies. From the press giants to the pre-press minnows, manufacturers were flying the flag of print's recovery. Perhaps surprisingly, given the lower than average attendance, many of them said the show had gone well.

Apparently, this was mainly due to the fact that a higher percentage of "key decision makers" attended than previous shows. Also, customers reportedly spent longer on the stands and participated in more in-depth discussions. So was it a case of less is more?

Positive outlook
Kevin Joyce, vice-president of sales and marketing at Kodak's Digital Printing Solutions group, says the show was "considerably busy" and that sales had "exceeded expectations by orders of magnitude". He adds that he found there to be a high level of optimism about the future.

Organiser GASC is also positive, revealing that the customers attending Print 09 were there with "laser focus on new technologies" and were shopping in preparation for the industry to rebound.

GASC president Ralph Nappi says there were stories of buyers unknown to the manufacturers popping up from nowhere with a genuine interest in equipment.

This positivity was perhaps justified with the first sale coming on day one of the show, with Goss International the lucky seller. The web press and print finishing company announced that the Church of Scientology will be installing a colour web offset Goss Sunday 2000 press in 2010.

UK exhibitors were slightly under-represented, but success was by no means elusive. For example, StudioRIP sales director Andy Hemmings says there was a high level of interest from a number of large corporations looking to OEM its eponymous RIP.

"Demonstrations were in such demand that we were even still showing a customer our product when the lights went off at the end of one day," says Hemmings.

Tony Brinton, director of London-based supplier of pre-press and pressroom consumables Ultrachem, was also impressed with the interest shown, revealing that the leads generated were found to be of very high quality.

"We expect our UV ink to be running in North America by the end of the year through direct sales and distributors," he says.

Poor timing
However, Niall Coady, owner of Surrey-based Targetcolour, says his first impressions were negative. For a start, he says, the timing was wrong.

"Big music concerts and great weather were factors that led to a unanimous opinion that this was the worst Print or Graph Expo attendance in 26 years," says Coady.

Targetcolour's partners, including Lacrosse Litho, ICS and GMI, reached the same conclusion. Coady says the exhibition never really showed signs of delivering real business and that his  attendance was necessary in order to "show strength in this highly competitive marketplace".

Coady admits, though, that the show was a successful realisation for the company's technology, including its MPX system.

Grant Penfield, managing director of ink companies Druckfarben, blames the poor attendance on the fact that many companies spent their budgets at Drupa. He expects that Ipex will suffer from fewer visitors next year for the same reason.

Despite this, he says that he made contact with people from all over the world that were interested in importing Shackell Edwards ink, which is owned by Druckfarben, and he pinpointed Fuji's presence as a highlight.

"Fuji pushing large-format digital was impressive," he says. "It seems that digital is stealing the show every year."
Other exhibitors included Sun Chemical and Toyo Inks, along with a few Chinese ink dealers and small manufacturers. Huber Group and Flint Group, though, were absent.

General downturn
Manroland were in atten­dance and marketing manager Paul Foszcz says that activity had been light at first, but blamed it on the relative downturn in commercial printer's business. However, he said the much-talked-of trend towards bringing entrepreneurial skills back into businesses was evident through­out the show.

Charlie Morgan, owner of Chicago-based pressroom plates and supplies company Stratford, was also positive. He claims the show could be the start of the recovery of the market.

So despite the expected absence of a packed exhibition hall, there were positives to take away. Digital and software for business management attracted the most interest and optimism was high. Print may be down, but on this evidence, it is still fighting back.