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The annual Graph Expo printer migration to Chicago stepped up earlier this month for the quadrennial Print 09 show. For me, it’s all about the bus and taxi lines outside McCormick Place. To judge the success of a trade show, you can usually get a semi-accurate gauge by the lines (or lack of) at the cab stands come 5 p.m. While attendance admittedly was down, foot traffic did pick up as the show went on. Most exhibitors stressed the quality of leads they were getting over the quantity. The bottom line: more decision makers were ready to buy (see sidebar).

Because Print shows are held 15 months after Drupa, the cool thing about them is that we North Americans get a chance to see what many people could only read about from Dusseldorf last year. That was way back in May/June 2008, before the Great Recession hit the U.S. After last fall, with Print 09 one year away, people started pulling back. The Graphic Arts Show Co., which manages Graph Expo and Print, got creative to lure exhibitors with incentives via its own “economic stimulus plan.”

Still, Adobe was a no-show, which doesn’t bode well for a vendor/partner supposedly committed to our beloved print medium. Learning from past trade show missteps, KBA brought iron this year. But deep-pocketed HP didn’t bring its much ballyhooed 30-inch, high-speed inkjet web press that created much buzz in Germany. The formal commercialization of the now named T300 Color Inkjet Web Press was marked by a life-size interactive display in its booth. I’ve seen video of the actual press in action at Consolidated Graphics’ Frederic Printing, Aurora, Colo., and it looks quite a bit different from what I saw at Drupa—buku design improvements, definitely.

The following report is merely a glimpse (and is in no way intended to be comprehensive) of what else caught my eye at Print 09. Last week, Printing News Editor Toni McQuilken highlighted some of the software that impressed her at booth-side demonstrations. I’d like to add Responsive Solutions’ enhanced Customer+ product. Powered by Adobe InDesign Server, this online marketing automation system goes beyond Web-to-print to bring printers a comprehensive marketing resource center.

Whatever medium your customers need to communicate—direct mail, e-mail, pURLs—Customer+ offers them all up in a single browser. The digital asset management model handles images, audio and video. It even manages sub-contractors (T-shirt screen printers, gift vendors, etc.) within the supply chain. Hosted systems start at under $8,000. Another software product worth noting is Version 8 of ilinkONE, the multichannel marketing communications solution for print and fulfillment from interlinkONE.

Iron on Hand

While the presence of heavy iron was lessened at Print 09, there was still a lot of equipment operating among the floor’s more than 650 exhibitors and 600,000 square feet of exhibit space. The Heidelberg exhibit was a typically massive booth, sporting a 29-inch, 10-color Speedmaster XL 75 perfector with simultaneous plate changing, inline color and register control. KBA North America showed a 41-inch, eight-unit Rapida 106 (see sidebar) for the first time in the U.S. market, while press offerings from Komori America included a 41-inch, six-unit Lithrone SX 40. (Fry Communications is installing a unique configuration of this press in its Mechanicsburg, Pa., facility.) Komori also featured two 29-inch sheetfeds: a six-unit Lithrone SX 29 and a five-color Spica 29P configured as a convertible perfector. manroland’s exhibit showcased its service program and other value-added offerings, then showed off its iron off site at its North American headquarters in nearby Westmont, Ill. Before show hours, of course.

Heidelberg’s primary focus was its Prinect Press Center, which was a Worth-a-Look technology at the show, and also won a 2009 PIA InterTech Technology Award. The Prinect Press Center is designed to allow all tasks—from job preparation and press setup to print sheet measurement and evaluation—to be accomplished faster, more accurately and with greater reliability. This platform makes it easy for operators to keep track of the entire printing process, including the activation/deactivation of printing, dampening, inking and coating units. It is also possible to preset the printing speed, record okay sheets and waste, control sheet travel and regulate dryer settings, as well as the volumes of blast and air suction.

Mitsubishi Lithographic Presses (MLP USA) highlighted a 41-inch, six-unit, UV-equipped Diamond V3000 press in its exhibit. An eight-color version was recently sold to packaging specialist Southern Standard Cartons for its 225,000-sq-ft Louisville, Ky. facility, which is replacing a seven-color, 51-inch Mitsubishi 5FC. Meanwhile, MLP’s Diamond Color Navigator with color wheel selector was voted as a Must See ’Em technology in the offset press accessory category.