Coming Together

Day three, and what an event it’s been. If today is your first day here, work fast! There is much to see. It’s time to complete your research, make final decisions and maybe even finalize the contract on a significant capital investment. Whatever your goals and aims for attending the 2018 SGIA Expo, we are confident the event was beneficial to your printing business.

A great trade show experience will be about learning, seeing and expanding. It should be about taking what you know and building on it, then building upon that as you move
toward your company’s future. It should expose you to ideas you’ve not yet considered, to concepts that point you toward carefully-chosen, opportunity-rich destinations.

While the 2018 SGIA Expo represents an unprecedented experience for you and others to learn from the experts and each other, “birds of a feather” have certain tendencies. So while you’re here, we challenge you to explore the industry in three unique ways, outlined below and designed to move you beyond your day-to-day thoughts about your printing business.

1. Explore a technology.

Choose a booth that seems interesting, but is unfamiliar. Introduce yourself and ask to learn what it is, how it works and/or what it does. Explain what you do and learn how (or if) it could benefit your business. If not, is there something that could? If so, find that, explore it and keep the process of discovery going.

2. Meet a stranger.

You may have more in common than you know. Despite the diversity of the technologies we use and the end-products we produce, the activity of running a business, of facing challenges and of charting a course for a next, new chapter is a universal concern. Grow your network. Reach out. Build your influence.

3. Ask for insight.

Many booth personnel spend time working directly with business owners like you, and may have insight into what’s happening in your core industry segment (or a segment into which you want to expand). Come up with three key questions for your business and ask around. You may be surprised what you find out.

With today’s 3 pm announcement that the 2018 SGIA Expo has closed, one door will close and another will open. SGIA Expo, in partnership with NAPCO Media, will re-emerge October 23-25, 2019, as PRINTING United, the biggest (and certainly best) printing trade show in North America. It will highlight the strong opportunities found in today’s printing industry, and will join the voices, and the inspiration, of all printing segments. If you’re in printing — any printing — then PRINTING United is your show. Mark your calendar and plan now to be there!

Last, SGIA invites you to continue the learning year-round. SGIA’s Journals, conferences, webinars and unique online content and resources keep you up-to-date on where printing — all of printing — is headed.