Background

Industry events like drupa and PRINTING United are an important resource for exhibitors, but even more so for print and packaging service providers. As we look at the continuing print industry transformation, and all that is driving it, the questions are many and so are the opportunities. I recently had an opportunity to speak with Mark Subers, the President of Events and Expositions for PRINTING United.

WhatTheyThink: Mark, you attended drupa. What were your observations?

Mark Subers: It was crazy, and that's really good. R&D cycles are moving on an annual basis now because digital’s development and acquisition are moving faster, and even analog developments are moving faster. Of course, the technology around some of the software advancements and workflow are also moving faster and playing a more important role in the minds of service providers. There were a lot of new developments at drupa, but the first time many will have an opportunity to see them be in the Americas at PRINTING United, so if people didn’t have the chance to get to Germany, this is a very important event.

There were a lot of exciting things is that I was trying to capture from drupa. I was able to meet with a lot of the North America marketing teams since they were not as busy as the European teams. Of course my question to them was, so with all the gear here, what's coming to the states and PU? What I heard was that some of the things that were at drupa are literally getting boxed right up and shipped right to Vegas.

WTT: What can we expect at PRINTING United?

MS: You know, there's always three legs of the expo stool. It's education, it's peer to peer and then it's the equipment, although the equipment is overwhelmingly what people come to see. Realistically, we're not going to have the breadth and depth of drupa because they're an every four years show and cover a much broader range of applications, and that’s why drupa has that pull. However, we are going to see the key new pieces of technology coming to PRINTING United, and maybe some other surprises.

We were known as the wide-format show, and we really jumped on production wide-format inkjet, and mistakenly didn't pay attention to the roots of screen printing, which were deep in our roots in the Specialty Graphic Industry Association (SGIA). When we started to expand and look toward technology and convergence opportunities for print service providers, with the increase in digital textile print, we are now reengaging them, resulting in a growing segment of the exhibition.

As we have in the past we are also starting to grab the attention of the digital label and packaging folks. While we are not a label or packaging show, we're arcing in that direction where we've had critical mass of solutions in the past events, plus other convergent opportunities that they might want to come and see. That’s how we grew from the 98th largest expo in North American to the 29th largest. And last year we won the best return on investment from any expo in the top a hundred. And that includes CES and everybody else.

WTT: The last two years have seen the event continue to grow, so what can we expect this year in Las Vegas?

MS: We are historically a North American show, which of course includes Canada. However, with the purchase of Graphics of the Americas, we are pulling all those audiences up from the Caribbean, Mexico and Central and South America. So while drupa is primarily a European show, we are trying to be the show of the Americas. I do think that exhibitors understand that and are trying their best bet to get in front of the largest print market. Of course, that means that the attendees also get the benefits associated with that exhibitor turn out.

The Vegas Convention Center is normally about 1.2 million square feet, but it is under construction so we are limited to space this year. This year, we are expecting over 800 exhibitors. The South hall has been totally filled out with the DTG (Direct to Garment), wide format, apparel and industrial exhibitors. Limited space is also a problem we're going to face for 2025 because, while we probably have a 1.1 million square feet this year, we're running out of space. When we go to Orlando next year, we only have about 950,000 square feet, which sounds like a big place, but it's not. We're really going to be wall-bound in Orlando. So we're really trying to make that point to the exhibitors. We've already started our presale for 2025, and we've already got almost 200 exhibitors signed up for that. Our guestimate is that there could be150 exhibitors on the outside looking in. We're just not going to have to space for them. In 2026 we are in Atlanta with about 1.3 million square feet, and space availability will be better.

WTT: At drupa there was an announcement that Messe Düsseldorf and PRINTING United were exploring opportunities. What does that mean?

MS: We have been talking with each other for years about how we can best support each other. I think we are now trying to take that to the next level. As it stands today, there's nothing we have decided other than we've decided we want to try to work something out. I'd love to see us get very deeply seated together. And I think that benefits everyone. Our expertise, combined with their expertise could be synergistic and powerful. Drupa has been the international show for decades. However, they recognize that we are the guys in North America, and have found a model that works well. Time will tell how this all shakes out.

WTT: What about the future?

MS: What we've been able to do in the last four to five years, merging PIA, IdeaAlliance, Graphics of the Americas, buying media, and bringing a whole new model to market, and making it happen successfully, has been quite a ride. I think now we're starting to look what a PRINTING United Alliance 2.0 would look like. What do we do in the next five years and who can we align with and partner with to make that a reality? And then just keep advancing.

(Watch David Zwang’s video interview with Mark Subers here.)