It was a privilege to deliver a keynote at EFI Connect—my first one—and I received many positive comments from vendors and print executives alike. I have not done a state of the industry presentation in a while, and if you wondered when there would be one, you now have access to it. Late in the presentation, I reviewed one of my regular topics—I don’t want it to be—the use of the phrase “print is not dead.” If this presentation helps push that combination out of the industry, I have done my job.

The video of the full presentation is online. I review “print is not dead” late, at about 47:45. I explain why “print is a baby” is a better approach that recognizes all of the amazing new benefits and possibilities that digital printing and other technologies offer. The groundwork for the discussion gets going at about 9:30 where I explain what’s happened as “mainstream printing” declined and specialty applications emerged. There were some nifty drawings about the metaphor of a river that had a change in its level, and what happened to the ships and boats in the process. The presentation began with some usual Dr. Doom stuff because I hate to disappoint the audience. 

At about 33:20, I explain the very curious profits and interest payment situation where small and medium size printers are outperforming the largest ones. This expands comments in my previous column. Legacy debts from soured acquisitions and capital malinvestment still haunt big printer financial performance. The slides from the event are at Slideshare.