After testing the waters in its first foray into the U.S., FESPA announced an ongoing relationship with Graphics of the Americas (GOA) to co-locate its inaugural FESPA Americas event in 2011. The announcement came immediately following the close of the FESPA Global Summit in Miami, which attracted participants from Europe, the Americas, New Zealand, and Hong Kong.

For those of you not familiar with FESPA, it is an association representing screen and digital printers from 26 European countries and which holds educational summits and major trade shows. It has lately been branching out by adding shows in India, Thailand, and Mexico. The new FESPA Americas show is expected to attract participants from North, South, and Central America and will replace the FESPA Mexico event.

What’s it mean to our industry? Well, for starters, it is a new North American print-related show with substantial international backing at a time when other U.S. print shows are declining. It also should help attract additional attendees to GOA, which has moved from Miami to Orlando largely due to sagging attendance. Also, although not directly connected to our industry segment, it will provide competition for SGIA and the ISA sign show; the two shows that now dominate the sign and specialty digital graphics markets. Finally, it is another indication of how digital is blurring the distinction among various print market segments.

It will be interesting to see how this move affects GOA next year and how FESPA will play to its new Pan-American audience.

I just got back from the annual PostNet Thrive Conference in Atlanta and I have to say I was impressed by the enthusiasm of the attendees. The system is mounting a major effort to move into the quick and small commercial digital printing arena and this was the first time Quick Printing, or any other print magazine, has been invited to attend.

My overview presentation on the industry was well received and they even laughed at the couple of stories I told. However, what really was an eye-opener for both me and publisher Kelley Holmes was how our little tabletop booth was mobbed by attendees at the trade show. They were hungry for information and we probably signed up 50 or more new subscribers to QP. What really blew me away, though, was the interest in our sister publication Wide-Format Imaging. We gave out all of the copies of WFI in the first three hours of the trade show.

I was very much aware of the plans to beef up the system’s digital printing operations after several conversations with the founders, CEO Steve Greenbaum and COO Brian Spindel, but had not realized how strong the interest in wide-format digital printing was among their franchisees.

PostNet has been franchising since 1993 and many of its franchisees have already jumped into digital printing in a big way. The push now is to build up those capabilities system-wide to become a significant player in the quick/small commercial printing franchise segment of the industry. Judging from what we saw in Atlanta, they’ve got a darned good shot at it.

Karen has just finished tabulating the results of Quick Printing’s Annual Franchise Review, which will appear in our April Issue. The results are not pretty, but that was to be expected considering the economic disaster that was 2009. The question is, are things looking up for 2010?

Since we’re only a couple months into the year it is hard to say how 2010 will turn out, but there are some glimmers of a recovery. The stock market has rebounded, the economy is stabilizing, and people are starting to spend money again. Will that last? We can only hope. I don’t think I’m giving away any company secrets when I say that QP’s ad sales are tracking better than in 2009. That said, a couple of cornerstone industry vendors have pulled back their spending.

How are things in your neighborhood? Are you seeing any signs of recovery? Let us know

Not long after Graphics of the Americas wound down, QP got a call from an irate reader who had attended a presentation by to-the-trade printer 4over announcing a new program called Project Red Tag. According to the reader, this program would threaten quick and small commercial printers by going directly to end users to solicit business.

Naturally, we called 4over to see what was up. When we relayed these concerns, 4Over owner Zarik Megerdichian and director of marketing Veraz Gharakhanian assured me that this was not the case. As it was explained to me, Project Red Tag, which is due to roll out sometime this month, is part of a recently introduced loyalty program for its best customers that will give them both a cash payment and contact information for orders placed online from their geographic area. The two also sent me several laudatory emails from others who were at the GOA event.

Until we see the nuts and bolts after the official launch, there are still some unanswered questions about just how this program will work and what, if any, fees or other strings might be attached. In other words, it’s too early to pass judgment. That said, I found Megerdichian’s comment in an email following our phone conversation of interest. “It is great to see how you guys were on top of this story…trying to protect the exact same group of people that kept us in business for years—we are on the same page with you.”

Stay tuned.

Who could imagine a Graph Expo without Heidelberg? Well, that’s what’s in store for 2010 with both Heidelberg and Komori taking a pass this year.

Who could imaging Graphics of the Americas being held anywhere but Miami? Well, that’s what’s in store for 2011 as the show moves upstate to Orlando.

Significant changes? Of course. Earth-shattering? Not really.

First, Heidelberg spent a ton of money on Print 09, bringing in huge iron despite the company’s fiscal problems, so it isn’t much of a surprise that they are reallocating resources. They’ll do IPEX this year and Graph Expo next year. Meanwhile, HP jumped at the chance to grab Heidelberg’s prime show real estate and will be front and center in 2010. No, offset isn’t dead, but digital is going to continue to claim more and more of the spotlight as the printing industry evolves.

As far as GOA is concerned, the move from Miami to Orlando is an attempt to attract more North American attendees while still holding onto the South American contingent. Will Mouseland’s vacation opportunities be enough to offset Miami’s appeal to South American printers? We’ll see soon enough. GOA had obviously lost a lot of its North American appeal over the past couple of years. If you could only go to one major printing show, would you pick Orlando over Chicago rather than Miami over Chicago?

I’d still pick Chicago simply because I like that city better than either Miami or Orlando. Oh, and then there is the fact that, even with the offset defections, Graph Expo is simply a better all-round show.