Remember those spring days in elementary school when you sat in class, bored out of your mind, counting the little holes in the ceiling tiles as the teacher droned on and on?

On Sunday morning (Oct. 6) that feeling returned to me as I arrived at my destination, the vast wasteland Graph Expo calls home, McCormick Place. Hey don’t get me wrong. Chicago is a beautiful City. It’s just that once you drop down into the belly of the beast and onto the show floor, all the charm that awaits you outside the confines of McCormick Place suddenly vanish. The show becomes a show, the selling begins and press conferences go on and on and on. Of course in spite of my complaining I love all of this, and would not miss it for anything. This is my job and I am there on behalf of my clients... printers, suppliers etc. to learn what new opportunities exist if any.

Later Sunday night in my hotel room, I was channel suffering while waiting for the start of The Sopranos. I caught the last ten marvelous minutes of Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I was mesmerized by Gene Wilder’s masterful transformation into Wonka.

I started thinking that if Gene Wilder as Willie Wonka greeted me each morning at McCormick Place, maybe I would have felt more excitement. Then it hit me. There is a Willie Wonka out there who electrifies every audience he speaks to - Mr. Steven Jobs, Apple’s CEO. Exactly the type of person Graph Expo needs to kick off the show. More on that later.

Attendance Formula
While this year’s show had its good moments, there were many things missing from Graph Expo 2002. Try several thousand people and many vendors who decided to stay home. It will be interesting to see the final show numbers. Show promoters expected 40,000 attendees.

This caused me to use my tried and true formula for measuring trade show attendance. C + HDC - SPIN = ASA. C stands for cabbies; HDC stands for Hotel Desk Clerks; SPIN is the normal extreme wishful thinking of the stakeholders; ASA is actual show attendance.

I spoke with many cabbies and hotel desk clerks. The cabbies complained that the show was miserable compared to previous years (granted last year was PRINT 01, but still) and hotel clerks kept the vacancy signs flashing 24/7.

Xerox Event
While nothing evolutionary or revolutionary came out from this year’s show there was news of interest. Xerox sponsored the most hyped event at Graph Expo, The Town Hall. The moderator was CNN’s Lou Dobbs and the panel was comprised of: former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich; Anne Mulcahy of Xerox; Lester Wunderman, the father of direct mail marketing; Stephanie Streeter of Banta Corporation; and Barb Pellow of the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Usually an event surrounded by such hype and big names cannot meet expectations but this was a nice break from all the other activities involved in attending a trade show, and is the type of event that should become the norm. This event actually exceeded expectations as Lou Dobbs did very well, the panel was first-rate and the presentation was excellent. I only wish there had been more time for questions.

EFI and the PDF Shootout
EFI introduced a new workflow solution specifically tailored for the high-end commercial printing world. Launching a product called Velocity OneFlow and a new high-speed production server. This is an interesting direction for EFI as they did very well in Phase Two of the PDF Shootout at Seybold San Francisco. I recommend anyone looking at workflow solutions to spend the money to purchase the full PDF Shootout report from Seybold. Creo did not run away with the event as their press releases might imply. Only a full review of Seybold’s complete analysis will show that there are many viable alternatives from companies like EFI and Dalim, which may meet your needs as well as Creo’s offerings and in some cases better.

Content Suggestions for Show Organizers
To the folks that run events like Graph Expo and On Demand the time has come to change the content of the shows slightly. As the printing industry moves towards variable data and database management it is time to broaden the speaker base. People like Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Oracle’s CEO Larry Ellison should become regular speakers at these events. Some seminars should be lead by people from outside the printing industry to broaden our knowledgebase in these key areas.

There is an opportunity for someone to take the lead here since Seybold seems to have passed the torch. Will it be Graph Expo Chicago or the On Demand Show in New York? One thing is for sure; show momentum has swung back to the East. This means all of us folks on the West Coast will need to fly a bit more often and smaller regional shows like Vuepoint will face challenging times as they fight to prove their value to visitors and sponsors. Or could a new West Coast show be in the future? Only time will tell, but the content must be adjusted with the times.

Smith Consulting Group’s First Annual GraphExpo Awards

Since many shows give out Best of Show Awards for different products and services, I decided to create my own awards for Graph Expo 2002.

Will He Stay or When Exactly Will He Go Award
This award goes to Benny Landa founder of Indigo. Bill McGlynn, VP and GM of HP Digital Publishing Solutions were commenting on rumors that Mr. Landa had retired. Mr. McGlynn explained that Mr. Landa had not retired and stated that Mr. Landa will be with HP for thirty years or more. Upon hearing that Mr. Landa, off stage and to the right of Mr. McGlynn held up three fingers and said, "three, three years."

Unbalanced Media Reaction Award
Winning this award are some of the media darlings who broke out into applause as if commanded to do so during Printcafe’s press conference. President Bush can only dream of such reactions by the media at his press conferences.

The Train has Already Left the Station Award
Bestcolor USA: Their release stated, "The printing industry has been awaiting reliable remote color proofing since the advent of digital files. Best Remoteproof now makes remote proofing not only possible, but completely practical and reliable." May I direct BestColor to www.rtimage.com (RealTimeImage) where numerous print and graphics professionals have been finding their remote proofing solution for more than three years.

Most Refreshing Remarks from a CEO Award
A tie between Coleman Kane, CEO of Printable and Stephanie Streeter, President and CEO of Banta Corporation

Coleman Kane: In a rare move at their press conference and to me in another conversation, Mr. Kane chose to follow the path less traveled and actually explained how his company measures revenue and growth. This is something most Print.com Ceo’s have stayed away from. Bravo Mr. Kane.

Stephanie Streeter: During the Town Hall, Ms. Streeter expressed a clear and refreshing view of the printing industry as a whole and what it takes to be successful. Printing executives should have been taking notes as she laid out a clear plan on what it takes to succeed in the present and future.

In closing, I send out the following challenge to the folks who run Graph Expo and the vendors who financially support this event: Broaden next year's Graph Expo by creating events that teach and educate printers on how to build the best business models and strategies for the present and future. Attract more vendors and speakers from outside the printing industry who can provide additional knowledge printers desperately need.

If this does not happen, printers will fail to achieve their goals and fail to embrace market changes. In turn, vendors will not see the the type of growth they expect. The future lies in the hands of many. The failure of printers will have far reaching implications for everyone involved.