Final Day of PRINTING United Expo 2024 Ended on a Strong Note

As Day Three brought PRINTING United Expo to a close, the event ended on a high note. Enthusiasm remained high right up to the end, and not even the late night After Dark networking events could slow down the conversations, demos, sales, and deals. And with more than 800 exhibitors spanning over 380,000 sq.ft. of space, in two different halls in the Las Vegas Convention Center, there was certainly a lot to take in.

But don't just take my word for it.

Jamie Campos, with Hard Copy HQ attended PRINTING United for the first time this year, and noted that not only was it her first time at this show - it was her first trade show at all. "We've been in business three years, and I have a lot to learn. So it's been nice to get to see and feel and talk to people and see where we need to go as a business," she said. But her number one takeaway? "It's been great for networking, actually. I feel like what I needed more than anything was people to talk to about my business, my challenges, what I'm going through, and I was able to connect with some great people to do that."

Another brand new attendee experiencing PRINTING United Expo for the first time was Jason Jaikaran, with Innovative Displays. From the first day, he noted, he was "definitely in awe. The technology, the setup, the people here - you saw everyone's faces, some you haven't seen in a while, and it was just really amazing to see things. The layout is just perfect." For him, the biggest takeaways from the show were found in the booths themselves. "Technology, and how it's just rapidly come so far." He noted that he had been to other shows, pre-COVID, and, "it's just amazing to see in four years how far things have come, and how different things have become."

Also with Innovative Displays, Jason Hamilton isn't a stranger to PRINTING United Expo - or to other events put on by The Alliance, such as its Summits, which are offered throughout the year for different segments. About this year's show, he noted, "I think it's a continuing example of how PRINTING United puts on great events - not just the Summits, but just the overall community build that they create with this event. And I think it's an expression of how exciting our industry is, and how PRINTING United continues to push that, and show everybody in the world how awesome we really are." When it comes to his biggest takeaway from the event, after joking that it's all the walking, he noted that in all seriousness, "we don't look at ourselves as individual companies anymore. I think the the collaboration is so much greater, like even joining up multiple companies in the same meeting, just so that we can all understand and share concepts and ideas. And I think even the vendors are showing that they're even more open to that as well. I think it's just a great expression of how the community continues to grow and how PRINTING United supports it in just an amazing fashion."

One of those vendors was MHP Technology, and Emil Montag took a moment to share his impressions of this year's show. "We were really excited, and we lined up quite a few appointments already, in advance. We got great feedback from prospects and clients that they'll also be at the show, and Vegas is kind of a big party, and then our booth has, like, a big family reunion. So it's been good. [The show] was super busy. We closed the deal, so the show's been really worth it, awesome." Building on that family reunion vibe is what he notes was his biggest takeaway. "We're based out of Germany, so we don't see everybody because we're in Europe. So it's, it's just great to see everybody in this family reunion aspect. That's, I think, the coolest part, and the key takeaway is that we've built great relationships. And we're not just doing transactions, selling a machine - we're building partnerships with our customers, and we build a network, globally, across customer suppliers and partners in the industry."

Those were just a few of the great conversations had on the floor. While technology of all sizes, shapes, and types always seems to take center stage, the connections this year felt just as powerful, with many people echoing the sentiment that they look forward to PRINTING United Expo all year as a time to catch up with people they don't get to see in person often, and meet new people they might not otherwise cross paths with. Phrases like "the best show I have ever been to" were uttered by more than one person on the show floor as the excitement carried through all three days.

Technology and Creativity on Display

Beyond the networking and connections made at the show, there is no denying that, at the end of the day, PRINTING United Expo is a technology show - and there were plenty of high-tech wonders to behold, and creative ways of using it on display.

One great demonstration of technology and creativity in action was seeing a Tesla Cybertruck being wrapped at the Roland DGA booth throughout the event. A team from Digital EFX was on hand in the booth, using graphics produced on the TrueVIS VG3 and AP-640 wide-format printers the company was highlighting as part of the compliment of technologies it brought to the show. Not only was the process a big draw, bringing people in to see the truck transformed with vibrant graphics, it afterwards became a destination in that part of the show floor, with people stopping to have their pictures taken with the truck, even as the team was preparing to pull off the wrap and do it all over again the next day.

EFI debuted two brand new presses at the show, alongside several that were unveiled at drupa in Germany this past spring. The new presses were the 3.2-meter VUTEk M3h hybrid flatbed/roll-fed LED printer, designed for print providers looking to make the move to higher-volume, production-level printing; and the the 3.5-meter VUTEk X3r roll-to-roll LED printer, which is engineered for high-volume production of a wide range of indoor and outdoor sign and display applications. The company also featured the VUTEk Q3h XP high-speed hybrid flatbed/roll-fed LED printer, on display for those in the United States to check out for the first time.

EFI’s vice president of worldwide marketing, Ken Hanulec said, “The EFI team was delighted to see the crowds at PRINTING United in Las Vegas this year. The industry is clearly alive and thriving. So great to see so many innovators and thought leaders under one roof!”

Canon was also showcasing a wide range of innovations at its booth. Everything from the Colorado Wallcovering Challenge, in which they sent the same file to shops around the country and asked them to print it on their Colorado printers - without knowing who else was printing a panel, or what they might be doing with it. And then they put those panels side-by-side in the booth to demonstrate just how consistent the color and quality are, even when there's no communication between facilities. It was an understated, but impressive, display of just how far wide-format printing has come in the last decade.

Canon also showed off it's own vehicle wrap capabilities, and the power of white ink to get vibrant colors that can easily handle outdoor applications, as well as the Arizona 1300 FLXflow series, the full integration of the FLXflow technology into the Arizona 1300 series wide-format printers, bringing even greater automation to mid-to-high volume shops. Everywhere you turned in the Canon booth, there was another application to be amazed by, and to explore just how much you can do with a single wide-format printer and the creativity to push it to its limits.

In truth, that is barely a drop in the bucket as to the technologies - hardware, software, consumables, and more, oh my - that were found on this year's show floor. No one who attended walked away without at least a few new ideas for how to grow their business, how to use the equipment in ways they hadn't considered, how to capture new verticals, and more. PRINTING United Expo lived up to its reputation as the premier print show in North America, and while they might have left tired, with sore feet that needed a good massage, attendees certainly didn't leave Las Vegas empty handed.

And if you don't want to miss out on everything the show has to offer next year, mark your calendar now for PRINTING United Expo 2025 — to be held October 22-24, 2025, in Orlando, Florida. Get out the sunscreen, break in those comfortable shoes, and start prepping now because even three days isn't ever enough to see it all.