Graph Expo 2010 kicks off this Sunday, and along with the hundreds of exhibitor offerings there will also be a solid slate of seminars. Of particular interest to quick and small commercial printers are the Sunday sessions that include the insights and expertise of Quick Printing’s great group of columnists.

Kicking off the Sunday presentations will be “Keeping it Real—Essential Steps to Success for Quick and Small Commercial Printers” sponsored by Quick Printing, Graphic Arts Show Company, and NAQP. The 8:30 a.m. panel will include Mitch Evans, Dave Fellman, and Tawnya Starr and will be moderated by yours truly.

At 10:30, Dave Fellman will present “Blockbuster Business Growth Solutions for Quick and Small Commercial Printers.” Then at 12:30, Tawnya Starr will offer the free seminar session “Social Media, Search Engines, Printing and You.”

If you are going to attend Graph Expo 2010, be sure and take advantage of these sessions. If you are attending the NAQP Owners Conference, it would be worth your while to stay over and catch the Sunday offerings.

Hope to see you in Chicago.

At one time in my early years, I was a sergeant in the Army. Upon arriving at that lofty position, I had learned how to shoot a rifle, polish my boots, march in a straight line, give commands, and – most importantly – to always walk fast, look worried, and carry a clipboard. In the years since, I have had to learn any number of other skills – usually only when the situation demanded it.

As you may or may not know, Cygnus Graphics Media (QP, Printing News, Wide-Format Imaging, and MyPrintResource.com) has been awarded the contract to put out the GRAPH EXPO 2010 Show Daily. That’s four days at 64 pages a day. At first, I wasn’t that intimidated. After all, I used to help put out a daily newspaper. As I quickly found out, “help” was the operative word.

I had forgotten the intricacies and demands of layout, design, scheduling, and the like. More importantly, I had never bothered to learn how to delve into our complex database, which was essential to finding, gathering, and directing material to the proper pages of the Show Daily.

Needless to say, I now know at least the fundamentals of the database. I know enough to do the job. As with all things computerized, there is probably much more to learn and much more it can do. However, I’m like most everybody else. I’ll learn just enough to get done what I want to get done. So, you can teach an old dog new tricks, just don’t make them too complicated.

How relevant will this year’s Graph Expo be to most quick and small commercial printers? As printers prepare to descend on Chicago, they are pondering the questions about the evolution of printing and where it will be over the next decade. Will the trade show offer a “killer app” to drive customers to printing? Will there be a new development exhibited that will eliminate production problems and guarantee profits? Will printers see the future when they walk the floor of the expo?

Graph Expo will only be as relevant as the attending printer makes it to be. Everyone knows the industry is changing. The printing pie is shrinking and the shift of work from offset to digital is well documented. Printers shouldn’t expect to see solutions jump out and grab them as they walk by a booth, but if the printer has a plan, then he or she should begin to get an idea of where the industry is going.

You should see a lot of interest in booths featuring products that expand a printer’s role in the communication process. Web-based products that allow printers to integrate a customer’s printed message with the Internet should get a great deal of interest. Any booth that has anything to do with automating the order entry and prepress process should get a lot of traffic. Products that make it easier for a customer to order should also gain wide attention.

In reality, a lot of the industry-shattering booths will be overlooked. Printers will gravitate toward “big iron” and traditional print processes. The real action will be in the booths along the edges of the trade show floor where “the next big thing” will be trying to gain some attention.

I suggest you go to Graph Expo with a plan. Look for products and services you aren’t using now. Look for things that you don’t usually see on the trade show floor. The big innovations will be in the small booths. There is where you are going to find the future of printing.

I didn’t need a sci-fi robot to warn me of danger this weekend when a friend’s car accidentally crashed through the wall between our garage and our living room. There was no time for warnings. The whole thing happened in the blink of an eye. One second I was standing in the garage waiting for the driver to back in, the next second there was a gaping hole in the wall, the freezer was folded in half, and the back of the car was rolled up on top of the freezer and jutting into the living room. Electrical wiring, insulation, drywall, and busted 2×4s littered the area.

The upside is that everyone is safe, including our pets. The car only has a few scratches on the bumper. We are all well insured, so it’s just a matter of coordinating adjusters, contractors, and whoever else needs to get involved in the process. Not the easiest thing to do over a holiday weekend, let me tell you.

I have to confess, I was surprised by how well Bob and I handled the situation. It was just an accident, after all—stuff happens. Our friend called his insurance people, we called ours, then we cleared away all the debris, swept up, and put a big blue tarp over the hole in the wall. We even ran a heavy duty orange electrical cord into the living room so that we could get the lights back on (and the TV—it is football season, you know).

So let me once again share a few things that you already know, but trust me, none of us really think about them on a daily basis. Accidents are, by definition, things that happen when you least expect them, so make sure you are well insured against the unexpected in your home, your life, and your business. The knowledge that we could count on our respective insurance companies made this experience easier on all of us. Also, be very, very careful what you ask for—as in, “Bob, we have just got to paint this living room.” Right!

And finally, tell the important people in your life how much they mean to you, and do it often. If I’d been standing two feet to the left, this would be a very different story…and you wouldn’t be hearing it from me.