Perspective Anthology 2

The manufacturer has the responsibility to create the products and services which initiate the channel process. A selection of the recent economic and technology influences and trends which guide their approach include product service integration, logistic / supply chain management, technological agility, lean manufacturer and international organisation building; these and many other impacts have placed manufacturers into a constant state of development. It can be seen by the shape of the graph above that manufacturers have in many cases been losing the fight to stay ahead of the trends that have impacting on them over the last 20 years and many have gone out of business and many more have entered our industry from areas outside of traditional printing; as can been seen by the changes in the exhibitor population of Graph Expo - Chicago (one of our international reference points) between 1993 and 2015 for example. However, this dynamism has and will continue to shape the channel in the years to come, as more players with more technology. After a lifetime building global distribution channels for manufacturers across the print world, we thought it was time to present the 'Trade Exhibition' in more detail as part of the Global Print Media Channel, this is merely an introduction in order to outline the work, the value, the role and purpose of the print trade exhibition i.e. the originator and creator of the 'promotable' product and/or service as a forum for marketing via the channel.Exhibitions: assist and support the other members of the GlobalPrintMedia Channel and provide and promote collective efforts to support the channel of the printing industry; with a focus on providing exhibitions for our industry as 'meeting places'. The framework for this perspective of adds into the mix two virtual emerging developments in trade show organising being made by Wayne Beckett (Printing Expo Online UK) and Cesar Lizano Depo (PrintAMERICAS USA) and makes a very early examination of how their (and others) initiatives may, could, will affect, change and develop the 'Physical to the Virtual Trade Show' commercial paradigm; when compared to the likes and for example the established indigenous players such as: Drupa, LabelExpo, ChinaPrint, PRINT (as was), PrintUnited, IPEX (as was), TPG (as was), GulfPrint&Pack, GEC (as was) et al. The 'as was' examples are used to present the case and suppport exhibitons as 'invaluable' although maybe not irreplacable meeting places. Many of us were brought up in our industry attending local shows, then occasionally regional shows and then even less occasionally at national shows and then exceptionally at international shows (of which Drupa has for decades been the prime example). Now the local and regional and most of the national have gone and the market is orientating itself to supra shows on 'regionally global basis' and this together with the changing technology landscape presents or suggests the opportunity for the two iterations of online shows (and others as they emerge), mentioned above. enter the field.