OutputLinks' Chenlong He: Graph Expo 2010 Retrospect
Posted on Mon, Oct 11, 2010
Part Uno: Introduction
Hi, how are you? The reason you are reading this is probably one of the following:
Option 1. You are also a student interested in multimedia communication and the future of the previously mentioned industry.
Option 2. You are a subscriber\reader of the OutputLinks blog/newsletter (which if you haven't already subscribed, please subscribe because it will help you in your job! Scout's honor! )
Option 3. You also attended Graph Expo 2010, and loved every second of it.
Option 4. You are a senior corporate marketing professional managing highly personalized, interactive transaction and statement based communication.
Option 5. You are an HR person/ E recruiter checking up on me because you want to hire me for a high paying/ extremely lucrative job in the multimedia/marking business. (Hint: I graduate this December 2010)
If you are one of these above, I am confident that you will like what I have prepared in this and the upcoming blog posts. If you are option 4 and especially option 5 (wink wink), check out on my LinkedIn profile. Okay, I think it is time for me to formally introduce myself before you go off and start looking up/ adding me on LinkedIn, which I recommend you doing after reading this post.
Hello, my name is Chenlong He, and I am currently a senior at the University of Houston studying Organization Leadership and Supervision with direct emphasis on Graphic Communication.
So, why am I writing for OutputLinks? I am a 2010 OutputLinks Sponsors Scholarship recipient via EDSF (can't you tell that I'm very proud of it?). After I received my scholarship, I got in contact with my awesome sponsors Andy and Julie Plata (if you know them, then you know they are extremely cool/influential people of the industry). After our discussion they offered me an internship and that is why I am writing for OutputLinks.
Last month, EDSF kindly invited me to the Graph Expo 2010 knowing that I had never attended this event before. My experiences at Graph Expo and the EDSF Give back to Graph Scholarship Event were very enjoyable and very educationally enriching!
In this and my next few blog posts, I would like to take you on a virtual trip to share my experience and what I learned at Graph Expo. So, sit back and always put on your virtual seatbelt!
Getting There
With a bright and chirpy jingo, my cell phone alarm alerted me promptly at 6:00 a.m. Sunday, October 3. This time, I was not tempted to hit the snooze button. It was time to catch my 7:30 a.m. early bird flight to Chicago. I was not only excited to attend Graph Expo but I finally also got a chance to visit Chicago, the windy city. I quickly ate breakfast, got dressed, and made my way to the airport. After about two and a half hours, I landed at Chicago Midway Airport and took a cab to my hotel, the Essex Inn on Michigan Avenue. At my hotel, I noticed there is a beautiful park in front of the hotel called Grant Park and it is gracefully framed by a sea of modern skyscrapers. I was happy to learn that Grant Park is where President Obama had once made his speech.
Around 10:55 a.m., I got on the shuttle from my hotel to the McCormick Place. I was extremely excited and couldn't sit still on the bus ride. So, I snapped a couple of images of the beautiful and scenic Chicago, which I couldn't wait to share with my family and friends back home.
And Now - On To The Conference
Finally, I was at the grand entrance of McCormick Place. This large convention center has three main buildings, the South, North and West Buildings. The level 3 of the South building is where the Graph Expo is displayed. The 3rd floor features Exhibit Halls A1 and 2 which have a total combined space of 840,000 square feet (just close your eyes and imagine a football field). The ceiling even seemed like a mile high.
So, as you can probably visualize, this expo is hosted in a really large open space, and therefore it is a very good thing that I don't have agoraphobia. However, I must tell you, it was a pretty overwhelming sight for a first timer.
Large scale corporations notably Cannon, Cannon-Océ, Fujifilm, HP, Ricoh, and Xerox have displays and demos of their fastest and most efficient digital printers on the front of the show. Between all the large and crowded displays were some of the most expensive (and not very good) food venders I have ever seen (please don't buy the food there like I did. It was the only decision that I regretted on my trip).
Now that I have completed sharing my excitement about getting to Chicago and the Conference please come back to my future posts. I promise to give you a student’s perspective of your great industry and share my impressions of the technologies I previewed as well as the people I met with.
Goodbye my new friends and I look forward to seeing you on my next post.
Chenlong