Print 09 was not a success but Kodak's stand did give a glimpse of the future

30 September 2009

Business

Unfortunately, I was unable to make it to Print 09, but I followed the event and comments about it on a wide range of media. I think that first and foremost, though some of the attendees may not agree, we can say with some certainty that the event was not a success. However, the decision by Kodak to present at the show in a new way was definitely something of interest.

The main problem with the show was visitor numbers. A successful event must have a decent attendance and it appears this was not the case at Print 09. On the first day, it was apparently more like a closing day. According to a number of commentators, attendance picked up later in

the event, but I think Frank Romano, the highly respected industry commentator, summed it up best with his
comment that at the end of the first day, there was no taxi queue. A telling absence. Part of the problem was starting
on a Friday, which means an unpopular weekend away from home.

Jeff Hayzlett, chief marketing officer of Kodak, tried to excuse the poor attendance by saying that five days was too long for a show. Come on guys! This is a flimsy excuse at best. This is supposed to be one of the world's major shows. How come a market as huge as North America finds five days too long, whereas in Europe and Japan we see shows from eight to fourteen days with good attendance every day?

I know that we are in a recession and printers have limited access to capital, so they see little point in attending a show. But still, the poor level of attendance either reflects the lack of future planning by North American printers or the lack of ability by Print 09's organisers to sell the benefits of coming to the event.

Older equipment
Heidelberg chairman and chief executive Bernhard Schreier may have hit on another reason. He told a US website that the USA had a relatively old installed base of equipment that couldn't achieve the waste reductions and other efficiencies that printers now realise they must achieve. In Europe and the Far East, there has been a much higher level of investment in the latest press automation, probably because the competition is much tougher.

I think it is interesting to see that, in general, North American printers are slower in adopting technologies to improve their operations than printers in Europe and South East Asia. Whether this impacted on the Print 09 visitor levels, however, is a matter of debate.

But Print 09 did throw up something of interest. Kodak set up a ‘virtual' booth, where there was no equipment at all - visitors could see whatever they were interested in via digital presentations instead.

This challenges the conventional view of how a trade show is set up and delivered. The Kodak presentations could easily be done online or from a laptop. This raises the possibility of a virtual conference, where attendees do not have to physically go anywhere, but instead log into an event.

Alternatively, if people come to trade shows to be educated and to network, then the trade show of the future could be a conference with virtual demonstration booths only.

The structure of trade shows has been a subject of discussion among vendors for years, many of whom see them as a great expense that fails to generate a good return on investment. Suppliers have talked for many years about reducing their investment in trade shows and moving more to road shows or private events.

Perhaps the Kodak approach will make this a mainstream discussion among vendors and we may see a rethink about what a future trade show should look like and how it should operate.

The next big trade show, and this one runs over eight days, is Ipex in the UK next May. It will be interesting to see if visitor numbers are better than at Print 09 and also if more ‘virtual' exhibitor booths will be present. However, in terms of the latter,

I am willing to bet that this time Kodak will not be totally ‘virtual' as the opportunity to bring the new Prosper Color XL Press to show their view of the future of printing will be too good to miss.