What Just Happened?

I don’t know about you, but I found myself asking that question quite a bit this year. 2008 has been pretty topsy turvy. I’d drive down the street one day and gas would be $3.64 a gallon, but three days later it would be $3.89. One week Merrill Lynch is a solid company, and the next it is part of the problem resulting in a $700 billion bail out. What just happened?

As a nation, we’ve seen unprecedented fuel prices, an economic downturn that may not have hit bottom yet, and by the time this issue hits the streets, a historic presidential election. What’s particularly impressive to me is the resiliency of the market packagePRINTING serves. Maybe it’s just that package printers are a pretty optimistic bunch, but in almost every interview I conducted this year, I asked about how the current economic conditions had been affecting one business or another, and off the top of my head, I can’t think of one that said the condition of the U.S. economy was having any adverse effects on their businesses. Whoa. No effects? You’ve got to be kidding me. Outside of a rise in costs of consumables, package printers are not saying these hard economic times have hurt them. That’s a pretty impressive feat considering the ups and downs we’ve all witnessed on Wall Street of late.

Our country’s reliance on foreign oil has taken center stage on many occassions during this election season. Some candidates espoused drilling offshore. Others considered clean energy or nuclear energy as viable alternatives to foreign oil. Rising fuel costs may have been sucking up everyone’s greenbacks, but in the process, everywhere I turn, more and more people are turning green—and not with envy.

From economic vehicles to canvas grocery bags, thousands of people across the country are trying to find green alternatives to help save our environment and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Along the way, perhaps the most pervasive term our industry has seen since Wal-Mart hit the ground running with RFID is sustainability.

I’ve been to my fair share of trade shows during my career. Always enjoyable are the hospitality suites, or the promotional items companies give the press (by the way, keep the media kits on thumb drives coming!), and everyone enjoys the tourist attractions around a trade show’s venue. Of late, the trade shows I’ve attended have all had something about sustainability attached to them. It could be a conference session or an entire pavilion highlighting the environmentally friendly wares of any number of companies. But, what I haven’t seen is a major trade show that markets itself as an event that operates sustainably. I don’t see recycling containers for paper, aluminum, or plastic. For all the hospitality events at booths at one industry event just a few months ago, there was an awful lot of comingling of recyclables with regular refuse. Which made me ask again, what just happened?

I’m not saying that all the industry events should close their doors and wait until they find a convention center that is completely green. It’s just too difficult a task. But would it be that hard for show organizers to put receptacles out for recycling? It could be their way of saying, “Hey, trade press, we’re trying to practice what you preach.”

This month featured a business management story on brand differentiation strategies. Editor-in-Chief Tom Polischuk cites sustainability as one way for converters and brand owners to distinguish their brands and differentiate themselves from the pack as being serious about sustainability. He also explains that it is critical to market what you are doing as a means to differentiate yourself. The trade show business is no different.

If the shows I’ve been to recently are operating in a sustainable fashion, outward signs like no recycling bins make it impossible for me to know for sure. Green pavilions and conference sessions covering sustainability are great, but organizers should start planning their shows with sustainability in mind. They should make sure every attendee knows that they are doing their part to match the exhibitors’ zeal for creating sustainable alternatives to what’s out there on the market today. Attendees should know what show planners are doing to operate sustainably as soon as they walk through the main entrance.

So next year, I hope I look around at recycling bins and huge signs announcing trade shows’ sustainable efforts so I can turn to Missy and say, “What just happened?” pP