Reston, VA - One of the best potential growth markets in color printing today, and a market Americas commercial printers could be in danger of allowing to slip away from them, will get special attention at this falls GRAPH EXPO and CONVERTING EXPO 2002. This market is large format inkjet printing, and a recent industry study suggests it will be worth as much as $11 billion annually by 2005. The study, The Current and Future Status of Inkjet Technology in the Graphic Arts Market, was recently completed for NPES The Association for Suppliers of Printing, Publishing and Converting Technologies by IT Strategies of Hanover, MA. Findings illustrate that even though large format inkjet printing represents a large and growing incremental print market, commercial printers are currently getting only about 15 percent of this business. The NPES study projects that retail sales of large format print output could reach $11.3 billion by 2005. However, the study states that only around 15% of these retail dollars pass through more or less conventional graphic arts channels, the rest passing through non-traditional channels. Therefore, commercial printers arguably miss out on 85% of the incremental revenue derived from inkjet technology. GASC President Regis J. Delmontagne noted that alerting printers to emerging new markets, such as this one, and helping companies equip themselves to pursue these opportunities are core missions of GRAPH EXPO and CONVERTING EXPO. Our goal is always to provide the right mix of product information and demonstrations on the show floor and technical knowledge in the seminar rooms, he said. Moreover, our study indicates that technological progress and quality improvement in large format printing are going to be very quick, yet another factor making GRAPH EXPO and CONVERTING EXPO indispensable to anyone who wants to realize this opportunity, Delmontagne said. Everything the printer needs in order to seize this opportunity and expand into large format inkjet printing will be on display at GRAPH EXPO and CONVERTING EXPO, October 6-9 at McCormick Place South in Chicago, Illinois. The Graphic Arts Show Company (GASC), the shows producer, reports exhibitors scheduled to show large format inkjet systems include companies such as Canon USA, Digital Output, ENCAD, Epson America, MacDermid Graphic Arts, Océ Printing Systems, One Vision, Scitex Digital Printing and Xeikon America. In addition, three sessions of the GRAPH EXPO and CONVERTING EXPO seminar program will focus on the large format specialty. Two sessions will explore the types of products being produced by large format inkjets, the hottest market segments, prospective size of the market, how to break in, and diverse technological challenges associated with the process. The third session will be a vendor panel on wide format printing, which will bring together company experts to discuss applications and product trends in what the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation (GATF) calls the fastest growing area of print output. Over 400 companies will exhibit at GRAPH EXPO and CONVERTING EXPO, covering the entire spectrum of printing, publishing, converting and digital equipment technologies from design to delivery. With nearly 360,000 net square feet of booth space, this will be the largest and most comprehensive industry exhibition in the Americas this year. Additional details about GRAPH EXPO and CONVERTING EXPO are available at www.graphexpo.com, where updated information will be posted frequently in the months leading up to the show. Web site visitors can also obtain information about other GASC-managed events, including PRINT, the GUTENBERG FESTIVAL, GRAPHIC ARTS THE CHARLOTTE SHOW and the VUE/POINT Conference. GASC is owned by the National Association for Printing Leadership (NAPL), NPES The Association for Suppliers of Printing, Publishing and Converting Technologies and the Printing Industries of America (PIA). GASC is located at 1899 Preston White Drive, Reston, VA 20191-4367 USA, telephone: 703/264-7200, fax: 703/620-9187, e-mail: [email protected], www.gasc.org