A “clear trend of more commercial printers getting into converting and package printing” was on display, along with thousands of new products and services, at September’s PRINT 05 & CONVERTINGSM 05 in Chicago. A total of 954 exhibitors mounted displays, filling nearly 750,000 square feet of booth space, including more than 200 exhibitors who offered products aimed to the package printing and converting marketplace. Attendance was approximately 62,000, including more than 7,100 international attendees from 99 nations, one of the larger international contingents for a PRINT show. PRINT 05 & CONVERTING 05 took place September 9-15 at McCormick Place in Chicago, and was the largest commercial, package printing and converting trade show in the world this year. Exhibitors across the board found new customers, met with existing customers, and made sales. “By today, we will have sold every machine in our booth,” commented C. L. Ho, Vice President/Sales at Brausse Group, on the show’s fourth day. “Yesterday,” he added, “was very, very busy. We used to go to a different show, but since we took part in PRINT 97, we find this show is better. We see more commercial printers buying our equipment. There’s a clear trend of more commercial printers getting into converting, because they can control the quality, cost and delivery time of their jobs, which is critical to the client.” At Bobst Group, another leading converting machinery exhibitor, Chris Raney, Vice President/Folding Carton Products, termed PRINT 05 & CONVERTING 05 “the busiest trade show in North America that I’ve seen in five years. I was surprised by how many folding-carton clients attended this show. That’s a lot of our niche. We’ve generated hundreds of leads and sold machines that we didn’t expect to sell right now.” Gallus, Inc., which provides high productivity systems for label printers, participated in the show within the huge display presented by Heidelberg. Company president Jonathan C. Guy noted this participation offered Gallus market intelligence as well as sales opportunities. “What we have learned from PRINT 05 & CONVERTING 05,” Guy said, “is that we have not even approached the boundaries of what our equipment can do. As we talk to customers using Gallus equipment, we are amazed at the many creative applications we see. You have to try to expand your market by letting people be creative and apply their own creative thinking in applying your equipment. At this show, we have been able to reach new prospects and spread the word about narrow web and in-line productivity among prospects who, without being here, would likely have had no opportunity to look at us. Without reaching out to these new prospects through a show like this, how would we get to know them?” Sun Chemical was also among the largest exhibitors in the show, and Marketing Manager John Kalkowski reported that “Three or four days into the show, I had about 400 leads, and at least half of those were leads on a new product we’re marketing. A lot of our visitors are past and current customers, and this show gives us an opportunity to make them aware of the new products we have available.” Alvin L. Nigrosh, President of Can-Am Packaging Equipment Corporation, said his company “generated over 50 quality leads and had some very qualified buyers. The attendees who visited our booth were the decision makers in this industry, and we had their full attention, which is very important.” Korber Paperlink also gained both leads and hard sales from its booth. “Virtually everyone who’s a player in the market is here, so we’re able to get ourselves exposed to the right people,” said Kevin Rolfe, Senior Vice President. “We’ve generated at least a couple hundred leads, sold a $1.4 million machine and had a lot of high interest in our products.” At Brandtjen & Kluge, company President H. A. Brandtjen III noted it was a challenge to keep up with the crowds. “Twice we’ve run out of sales literature and had to fly in some more,” he said. “We had 51 qualified leads the first day of the show, 57 the second and 81 the third. Do you know how much money it would cost me to go out and visit 51 people? The value of this show is very high.” Ryobi/xpedx Import Group “established contacts in a number of vertical markets in the high-end packaging and specialty printing industries,” at the show, said Darren George, Central Regional Manager. “The traffic has been superb and the quality of the prospects is fantastic,” he added. “We’ve done between $9 million and $10 million in sales and generated 400 to 500 quality leads. We’re very happy with the results.” “We were extremely pleased with the level of success our exhibitors found at PRINT 05 & CONVERTING 05, and it exceeded our expectations as well. The success of the new exhibitors in the package printing sector especially has reinforced our expectations for the success of our new event specifically for that market. In conjunction with the Flexographic Technical Association (FTA) we will be launching PackPrintSM 2007, to be held alongside GRAPH EXPO 2007 in McCormick place in Chicago,” noted Regis J. Delmontagne, president of Graphic Arts Show Company, producer of the international event. The next international PRINT show will be held in 2009. Next year, the national CONVERTING EXPO returns to Chicago in connection with GRAPH EXPO 2006. For 2007, GASC will team with the Flexographic Technical Association to produce a new event, PackPrint, which will be held along with GRAPH EXPO 2007. Information about the PRINT 05 & CONVERTING 05 show is available online at www.print05.com.