A Sea of Change at GRAPH EXPO
Did someone say, “change?” Even after just one day of walking the floor, attendees can definitely see change—a sea of change, if you will — at the 2010 edition of GRAPH EXPO. The annual trade show is, after all, a microcosm of the changing printing industry, which continues to evolve before our eyes in North America and globally. The Official Show Daily publication had a conversation the other day with Ralph Nappi, president of the Graphic Arts Show Company (GASC) and NPES, about what’s new at this year’s show.
Show Daily: Tell us what is different at GRAPH EXPO 2010.
Ralph Nappi: One thing we’re very excited about this year is the News Print Pavilion’s debut, which is aimed at newspaper production executives on the web-offset side. We are seeing more and more convergence of newspaper and commercial print, so it made sense to dedicate space on the show floor to the latest trends and technologies within the newspaper printing and publishing industry. We started with a 5,000-square foot area, which sold out relatively quickly. So now it’s more than 6, 000 sq. ft. with some 25 companies—and that doesn’t include the dozens of exhibitors, such as the KBA, manroland and Muller-Martini, which serve that segment and are located nearby, but outside the pavilion’s perimeter.
Show Daily: We’ve heard the buzz that there are more co-located industry events planned around GRAPH EXPO than usual this year.
Ralph Nappi: Yes, that is true. Dovetailing with the big show this year are more than 20 co-located meetings representing both associations and proprietary user groups—everything from workflow, mailing and postpress to quick printing, in-plants and digital transactional printing. I’m quite enthused about this because people are basically saying, ‘In a challenged economy, if I can only get my people at one event, GRAPH EXPO is the place to be.’ It started with the newspaper and web-offset people: on Saturday, the International Newspaper Group met, as did the Muller-Martini users group (Saturday and Sunday), while manroland users met yesterday and today; KBA’s is tomorrow. Word spread from there. HP scheduled a Dscoop event, Agfa, EFI, Kodak, the G7 Summit and Xplor are all here in Chicago this week, just to name a few. We couldn’t be happier about that.
Show Daily: What kind of buying mood do you anticipate?
Ralph Nappi: The pendulum seems to be swinging back and people are starting to buy—or at least starting their decision process for 2011 purchases. Clearly, the trend for the past several years is that most companies send fewer representatives to GRAPH EXPO than in the past, but the people who are here shopping this week are ‘highly qualified’ leads, which is of most importance to the vendors on display. There are other capital-equipment investment considerations, of course, regarding tax incentives.
On September 27, President Obama signed into law the Small Business Jobs and Credit Act enacted by Congress, again extending expensing and bonus depreciation. NPES urged enactment of the new law, which extends 50% first-year bonus depreciation, retroactive to January 1, 2010, for equipment placed in service by December 31, 2010. IRC Section 179 expensing also is extended for tax years beginning in 2010 and 2011, and the amount taxpayers can write-off in the first year is increased from $250,000 to $500,000, with the phase-out threshold moving up from $800,000 to $2 million.
The Obama administration’s macro-economic stance favors small business loans, which could bode well for everyone in our industry. The legislation also continues the enhancement of popular Small Business Administration (SBA) 7(a) and 504 loan programs, extends expiring loan guarantees and borrower fee reductions, and provides a new $30 billion fund for smaller banks to lend to small businesses. So, the money is there. The question is, will they release it?
