Hi, this is Frank Romano from WhatTheyThink.com.  Well, the Graph Expo Show is winding down, this is the last day.  I'm suppose I'll give you a little wrap up of the things that I observed at the show.  First of all, I thought the attendance was pretty good.  I met a lot of printers here and many of them are looking for equipment, many of them were looking for decisions.  And there was enough to make decisions about because there was new sheet fed color machines, there were new ink jet machines, roll fed, and sheet fed.

So there was enough really for everybody who wanted to buy something and they did buy.  So I'd I have to say that the show is one that perhaps the printing industry is starting to come back a little bit.  Too, the people are a little bit more optimistic.  I also noticed that some of the offset press people who were not at the show were now looking at next year.  Some of them with digital printing equipment as well.  So that was a very good sign.

The seminars were generally well attended, very good.  People went to them and learned something from them and then came to me and asked me questions about the things that they were talked about at the event.  Met a lot of old friends which means that the, you know, they're still alive and they're still in the industry.  Most of all I think that the thing I observed the most was the optimism that was there.  Although, people felt that they had been through hard at times and there were still some hard times to come, that there still would be a printing industry and they would still be apart of it.

Traditional trade associations didn't do very well but I met with a lot of peer groups, I met with a lot of specialty groups.  I gave talks to about 20 different groups over the five days that I was here.  And what's happening now is that many people are banding together to find solutions to their problems and trying to figure out a way to be with noncompetitive organizations that allow them to share information and share technology and even to do group buying in some way shape or form.

So I think the Graph Expo was a good indicator that the industry is coming back.  In any case the next time I see you I hope it will be the next Graph Expo which will be in 2011 and perhaps I'll even see you after that at DRUPA.  But in any case Graph Expo was a good show and a good indicator for the industry and that's my opinion.

Perhaps all the printer companies that do this should look for other sources of revenue.  Food or...