They moved the exhibition to the middle of May to coincide with the feast of Saint Drupus, patron saint of no air conditioning. It is still in Dusseldorf, a German city known for bratwurst, beer, and asparagus that has not been color corrected. The hotels no longer take cash; payment is in gold ingots.

Heidelberg wanted to expand its space and had to settle for a 10-story addition. HP rented the Rhine River for 14 days and all boat traffic was re-routed through the Baltic Sea. For hotel rooms, the USS Ronald Reagan was leased, with direct flights to the ship; there is a surcharge for baggage and ballistic missiles. There are so many new exhibitors that some have special exhibition areas on the trams and in the rest rooms.

The offset press people were very busy over the last few years. KBA has a new 16-foot sheetfed press, which takes large format offset to its largest format. The platemaker is now the 51st state. Muller-Martini has a folder for it that doubles as a harvester for wheat. New press technology is introduced that eliminates plates -- imaging is direct to cylinder. Anilox inking is on many presses; makeready is down to 30 seconds and most presses have no operators because of TOA -- Total Offset Automation. Press operators wear uniforms like airline pilots and sit in a cockpit: “We are now cruising at 20,000 sheets an hour and do not expect turbulence.”