From the Editor’s Desk
The imaging industry continues to redefine and escalate its emphasis on key imaging industry market segments.
Above: Frank Mallozzi, chief revenue officer, EFI (left), and Larry Weiss, president and CEO, Atlantic, Tomorrow’s Office begin building a groundbreaking new partnership. Read the full story here.
Next month, the production and industrial print season begins with PRINT 19 in Chicago, October 3″“5, followed by PRINTING United in Dallas, October 23″“25.
Of course, those aren’t the only shows dedicated to production and industrial print that take place throughout the year. Two we’ve covered this year include inPrint USA held in April in Louisville, Kentucky, and ITMA 2019 in June in Barcelona, Spain. Additionally, there are the OEM dealer meetings and other OEM-sponsored events with companies such as Canon, EFI, Konica Minolta, Kyocera, and Ricoh showcasing their production and industrial print portfolios.
With all this attention devoted to production and industrial print, do you think someone might be sending you a message?
Consider our founder Frank Cannata. He remains one of the imaging industry’s biggest advocates for production and industrial print and has spent the last five years or so perched on his production and industrial print soapbox. Having worked closely with him for more than three years, I guarantee he won’t refrain from taking that message to the dealer channel even if, more often than not, it’s an uphill ascent.
It still surprises me how few dealers attend conferences devoted to production and industrial print. True, it’s not for everyone. But with dealer representation at some of these events in the single digits, one can’t help but question the industry’s interest and commitment. And just because a dealership is aligned with an OEM with a strong production and industrial print product line, that doesn’t mean everything one needs to know about these product categories can be derived from a single manufacturer.
That’s tunnel vision. I suggest a broader perspective, which is exactly what you get when you attend these conferences. These events offer an opportunity to see what a host of vendors are doing and interact with production and industrial print customers. Those interactions and attending breakout sessions can enhance a dealer’s understanding of customer buying motivations and challenges, and the type of work they produce on these devices.
This month, we are taking a deep dive into production and industrial print, as well as textile printing. Our cover story examines a special partnership between a dealer who is all in on production and industrial print and a vendor that has created a new program that is helping dealers be more successful selling its wide-format devices. In addition, we have stories on ITMA 2019, wide-format inkjet, and a timely article on how dealerships with no prior experience in production print can get started in this segment.
These articles offer deeper insights into a category of print that is a prime diversification opportunity for the dealer channel. Maybe they’ll even provide you with the inspiration to take the steps necessary to transition your dealership into production and industrial print if you haven’t done so already.
In the meantime, we’ll keep beating the drum and look forward to seeing your dealership at the next production print event.
Scott Cullen
Editor-in-Chief
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