Graph Expo: The New Era of Print
Posted on Fri, Oct 01, 2010
It’s nice to get confirmation that your time and energy is not wasted. For some time now there has been a sense that we are whistling past the graveyard when it comes to print and that electronic technology will muscle out print altogether.
These days, it appears that the “paperless” society is even further away now than it was in the 80s when Charles Wang coined the term (Frank Romano hilariously points out that there are many more “wang-less” offices than paper-less offices).
It is the nature of media to adapt to new roles. Radio and movies survived TV. General interest magazines fragmented into specialty publications and continue to play a part in our society. Newspapers are struggling but continue to deliver more in-depth coverage than one gets on TV. Direct mail is still viable in the age of SPAM and inbound marketing.
Transactional documents will continue to be printed even as people view them online or on phones and PDAs. There is comfort in the familiar. There is security in stashing printed documents in a file drawer for future reference. I mean, you can see a copy of the Declaration of Independence from 1776 in the National Archive. A document stored on a floppy disc in 1993 is likely to be gone forever, or at least is locked in a media that can no longer be accessed.
True, the industry is changing. Continuous change is a hallmark of post-20th Century business. But these changes, while occasionally painful, are largely positive. Customers get better service. Documents are more accurate and easy to understand. There is a new transparency, an enhanced accountability, a more user-friendliness to the new documents being created on the latest technology.
No doubt new changes are in store. This is a watershed moment for HVTO. It’s changing rapidly, requiring service providers to adapt to new realities, bring on board new equipment and technology, make changes to basic infrastructure and plan better for a future that appears more than ever to be a moving target.
These trends will continue to impact HVTO and drive a greater need for information and advice. Graph Expo is just around the corner; the trade show promises to provide the latest insights into trends that affect your business; a trip to Chicago is advised.