Marathons and More —Tom Polischuk
Let the games begin!
Thank God for the summer Olympics. For at least a two-week period, the news in our country was dominated by something other than another marathon contest that is taking place, not in Beijing, China, but in the good old U.S. of A. The other marathon, of course, is the run for the Oval Office, which seems as though it has been going on since Pheidippides ran the first marathon in 490 B.C.
The printing industry’s version of the Olympics, drupa, took place during the Spring trade show season. Also held every four years, it dominated our news in much the same way that the Olympics have been captivating the sporting world. And just like the Olympics highlighted a full spectrum of sports, drupa covered virtually every aspect of the printing industry.
In September, the printing and converting industry will begin phase two of the annual trade show lineup. In North America, the Fall trade show season will be highlighted by Labelexpo Americas 2008, Graph Expo, Pack Expo, and Converting & Package Printing (CPP) Expo. While drupa covers everything printing, these shows are more targeted, and present exhibitors and attendees with a good opportunity to focus on specific aspects of industry segments that are important to their businesses.
Labelexpo Americas starts the Fall season off in early September with its biennial event in Chicago. This show has enjoyed a healthy measure of success due to its focus on the narrow-web label industry. This year’s version promises more of the same. As you will see in our coverage beginning on p. 46, the show will include special features on digital printing, green/sustainability, and smart labels, along with a strong conference program put together by TLMI.
This issue also presents the award-winning entries from our 22nd annual Excellence Awards competition. This year’s contest was highlighted by a wide-range of extraordinary work, as evidenced by the number of contenders vying for Best of Show honors.
Congratulations go out to Doug Lingo and his team at MPI Label Systems of California for the superb job they did producing the Windmill Estates Chardonnay label for their customer, Michael-David Winery. This label earned the Best of Show award with an impressive blend of aesthetics and technical achievement. See all the coverage of this year’s Excellence Awards competition, beginning on p. 30.
We welcome your comments regarding any part of packagePRINTING. They can be addressed to Editor, packagePRINTING, 1500 Spring Garden St., 12th Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19130, or to tpolischuk@napco.com.
