What's in This for You?

Welcome to New Orleans and the 2017 SGIA Expo! If you’ve visited the SGIA Expo before, you have experienced the diversity of solutions and opportunities you’ll find here. If you’re new this year, you’re in for a treat! Either way, I urge you to take advantage of this opportunity to consider some of technologies and markets outside your regular purview.

As I explore the aisles of the SGIA Expo and see the equipment, consumables and tools associated with our many print communities - graphics and sign, garment decoration, industrial printing, printed electronics, commercial printing and printed packaging - I’m struck by how the lines that once separated these segments have blurred. Digital printing technology and the opportunities it opens up continue to change the way images are produced, and redefine the ways imagers can enter new markets.

That’s part of the beauty of the SGIA Expo. You’re standing at the intersection of innovation, opportunity and creativity. The question is, what are you going to do about it? What will you discover, or purchase, or source, or learn here at the SGIA Expo that will take your company in a whole new direction? How will the new technologies and products you find here allow your company to access areas as yet untapped? The SGIA Expo is ripe with opportunity and always manages to surprise. Take advantage of it!

If you’re new to this print event, it is important for you to know that this isn’t your father’s print show. While all segments of the printing industry are certainly competitive, the segments presented here at the SGIA Expo offer abundant opportunity for forward-thinking print professionals committed to finding a new niche or mining a new opportunity. So, if you’re asking, “what’s in this for me,” take a look around and consider the myriad possibilities.

On behalf of SGIA, I invite you to take in all the Expo has to offer. See, experience, listen and learn. Attend educational sessions to learn the latest on equipment, techniques, markets and business efforts. Build your network by meeting people both inside and outside of your company’s core competency. Visit numerous booths and ask your essential questions. Visit the Golden Image Gallery to see the best in printing and print technologies. And when you’re back at your home base, use what you’ve learned to grow, expand and prosper.

One final thought. When you’re back at home, remember that SGIA is much more than three days at North America’s largest print-related trade show. The Specialty Graphic Imaging Association is a year-round source for thought-provoking industry content and education. Visit us at SGIA.org to learn about our intensive hands-on workshops, unsurpassed networking and conferences for wide-format graphics, garment decorators and industrial imaging.