If would be foolish to dismiss the doubt leading up to the ON DEMAND show. Chalk this up to declining advertising spend, economic uncertainty, or a shrinking manufacturing sector. Many industry suppliers commented that the show attendance was better then expected and that a majority of the attendees were closer to making purchase decisions (the show management has not released attendance numbers yet).

Jim Hamilton, Group Director at InfoTrends has a roundup of what technology was and wasn’t seen at On Demand 2009: What If People Actually Showed Up? A Report from ON DEMAND 2009.

As Jim points out in his blog post the finishing vendors brought a lot of hardware, while the print engine vendors that did attend slimmed back on hardware and concentrated their software offerings.

So the question is: was On Demand 2009 the tipping point in terms of workflow playing a more important role in on demand print production. Or was there simply less printing hardware on the show floor because our current economic environment? I think it a matter of both.

We are seeing incremental upgrades among the current digital printing systems on the market. Complex software systems are now needed to control the flow of information from the customer to the printed sheet. And while we have seen workflow the focus of previous shows, a level of maturity in these information systems has finally arrived that allows the printer to do amazing things with a data feed and a printing system.

That’s where I see On Demand. A place were best practices in new information-rich print applications can be discussed and demonstrated.

An upcoming WhatTheyThink educational webinar, sponsored by Océ and The Digital Nirvana, reveals keys to success in designing TransPromo communications

“TransPromo communications, or the blending of promotional messages into transactional documents, has received a lot of trade press attention,” said WhatTheyThink Senior Editor Cary Sherburne.. “It is clearly a growth opportunity for commercial printers, direct mailers and transactional service bureaus. What often is not discussed are the unique design considerations required to make TransPromo successful. InfoTrends has generously agreed to share recent research on this subject with our audience. This session will provide thought starters and advice from experts that should be considered when getting into the TransPromo game.”

Sherburne will be joined by Michael O’Leary, Director of InfoTrends’ Document Outsourcing Consulting Services, document and technology services veteran with over 24 years of leadership experience in the areas of document management, enterprise print, and information technology services. O’Leary is responsible for providing marketing, technical, and consulting services to outsourcing providers, technology service providers, commercial printers, quick printers, and in-plant operations.

The free event will be held Wednesday, March 11th, from 2:00 to 3:00 pm EST (-5 GMT). Register here.

Based on a recent press release from the Graphic Arts Show Company, I estimate that the average printing company attending Graph Expo 2008 brought 1.9 people, compared with the 2.3 people they sent last year. (You can read how I arrived at this number here.) The total number of those left at home this year was about 3,000. So who were the 3,000 who didn’t come this year, even though others from their company did?

I don’t know the answer, but here are some possible explanations for who the missing people were:

1. They were top managers who went to Drupa in May/June and figured they wouldn’t see anything new at Graph Expo
2. They were employees who, in previous years, would have gone as a “reward” for a job well done (but with no specific job-related purpose in attending)
3. They were people whose trip was vendor-subsidized in previous years, but who didn’t get that kind of support this year
4. They were people from the finance department whose services were not needed this year because there was no intention of buying anything
5. They were local “tire-kickers” from the Chicago region who usually come to Graph Expo in order to see what is new and because it is convenient to do so, but who decided to pass up the opportunity this year
6. They were employees who would have come again this year if they had not been among the “downsized” in our shrinking industry

There are probably other possibilities I haven’t thought of. It would be interesting to know what really happened, because that might tell us something about where the industry is headed.

Did your company send fewer people this year? Were you perhaps one of those who missed the trip? Who didn’t go, and why not? Please let the rest of us know.

TransPromo Summit the 2-day event focused on helping marketing executives and print service providers develop stratgies for using transpromo in advertising and marketing campaigns has annouced John Blossom, President of Shore Communications Inc. as keynote speaker:

John Blossom’s career spans more than twenty years of marketing, research, product management and development in advanced information and media venues, including major financial publishers and financial services companies (Citicorp, Quotron and for Reuters

Holdings PLC), as well as earlier experience in broadcast media and advertising. Blossom founded Shore Communications Inc. in 1997, specializing in research and advisory services and strategic marketing consulting for publishers and consumers of content services. Mr. Blossom’s engagements have included strategic marketing consulting for major corporations and startups that are using the Internet to position themselves in new and existing content markets.

Shore’s research, news analysis and weblogs, including major contributions from Mr. Blossom, have been recognized widely as leading sources of authoritative insights into the content industry, receiving top industry awards including the EContent Magazine 100, the Software and Information Industry Association CoDIE award for Best Media Blog and a Top Ten Analyst recognition from Technobabble 2.0.

Blossom’s extensive global experience with the marketing and management of financial information services, including real-time datafeeds, established him as one of the thought leaders in this important market segment, leading to strategic assignments with the executive management team of Reuters Group PLC. Mr. Blossom was also a key player in a number of ground-breaking Internet-oriented initiatives at Reuters, including the introduction of content management services and a global effort to integrate Internet-based information suppliers into the mainstream Reuters information services environment.

Transpromo Summit takes place August 13–14th, 2008 in New York City. More information is available at http://www.transpromosummit.com