As a global leader in digital inkjet technology, Memjet thrives on its relationships with more than 30 original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) that have adopted its high-performance VersaPass and DuraLink print technology. The opportunity to mingle with many of them in an all-new trade show venue is one reason why Memjet has signed on to exhibit at PRINTING United (Dallas, Texas, October 23-25, 2019).
Another reason, says Tina Voss, Memjet’s Global Marketing Communications Manager, is PRINTING United’s promise to draw the printing and brand management communities closer to each other — an objective that she thinks trade shows are overdue to accomplish.
“We like the concept of bringing more print market segments together with brand owners,” she says. “Recent studies show that a multi-channel approach that leverages the unique benefits of paper with the convenience and accessibility of digital will perform best at brand recall. Print is very much alive, and this show is very relevant to telling that story.”
Still another appeal for Memjet is PRINTING United’s theme of convergence: printers moving beyond their primary offerings to seek new profits in other print market segments. Voss notes that movement of the same kind can be seen among Memjet’s customers.
“We’re witnessing a print cross-pollination with our OEMs” as they build products around Memjet technology for markets they hadn’t previously addressed, she says. There’s good advice in this, Voss adds, for end-users of printing technologies.
“Smart printers are catching on that if you want to survive, you have to expand your offerings and specialize,” she says. Giving printers pathways to expansion and specialization is the core concept behind PRINTING United, a joint production of the Specialty Graphic Imaging Association (SGIA) and NAPCO Media.
PRINTING United is the successor to SGIA Expo, the industry’s premier showcase for graphic and visual communications. It will follow SGIA Expo’s final edition in Las Vegas (October 18-20, 2018) and will be accompanied by BRAND United, a co-located learning experience aimed at brand owners, marketers, and other consumers of the B2B products and services that PRINTING United will showcase.
What Memjet is looking forward to, according to Voss, is an event that will take “more of a consultative, storytelling approach” to print rather than the usual trade-show emphasis on equipment. This will help to foster “the new types of intelligent relationships” that Memjet is counting on making at PRINTING United, she says.