Impressions and Takeaways from the PRINTING United Expo

One week ago, an overhead closing announcement brought the 2024 PRINTING United Expo to a close. The attendees headed home. Exhibitors packed up and then did the same. The exhibition halls emptied in time for the next show on its schedule. And while the event is over, its feeling – what it represented and what it meant – continues to percolate in my brain. So, I thought I’d take a few minutes to share my thoughts.

As members of the press, my Wide-format Impressions colleagues and I faced the same challenge as other attendees: the is so much expo to explore. So, like the PSP owners and reps on hand, we had to prioritize to get what we needed during days where the space between 9am and 5pm seemed to pass in about 60 minutes. Did I see everything? No. Did I see enough to understand the profound changes taking place in the broader printing industry? Absolutely.

When the first PRINITNG United Expo was held in Dallas, 2019, members of the major print communities of the printing industry – wide-format, commercial printing, package printing, apparel decoration, and more – seemed to be uncertain of their commonalities. That event felt much more siloed that the 2024 expo. And I think the concept of convergence, which was coined for our industry in advance of the 2019 show, is now a visible, palpable reality in the printing industry.

In his presentation at a pre-expo press event, held by PRINTING United Alliance, CEO Ford Bowers described the expo as “one of the 30 biggest marketplaces in terms of conventions.” I think that the concept of the event being a marketplace rings true, especially at this year’s event. In addition to being a marketplace of equipment, materials, and solutions, it is also one of possibility, of opportunity, of ideas. It is a place to consider the questions, “what’s next,” and “what if?”

Truly, not every machine, substrate, or software package presented by the more than 810 exhibitors is the “right” thing for every attendee on the expo floor, and that’s the beauty of it. It has what each needs and more, and fosters the consideration of adjacent opportunities, and the setting of strategies to grow, diversify, differentiate, and … converge.

And a less siloed industry is a good thing, period. By bridging, and eventually erasing, the gaps between segments, PSPs of all stripes can find spaces of new opportunity – they just need to be willing to “go there.” In a 1961 speech, John F. Kennedy said, “What unites us is far greater than what divides us.” And while that is true of the world, it’s also increasingly true for our converging printing industry. And it was thrilling to see the interaction (call it cross-pollination if you wish) between members of different print segments – sharing perspectives, learning from each other, finding what they have in common even while they understand their end products are vastly different.

I am excited to see what the 2025 PRINTING United Expo (October 22-24 in Orlando, Florida) will bring. My sense is that during our three short days there, we will experience even more industry integration, and even more concepts to process in the days and weeks that follow. I hope to see you there.