By Andy Slawetsky – EFI Connect 2017 was at The Wynn in Las Vegas January 17 – 20. This was billed as the second largest end user show of it’s kind behind Drupa and it may be the largest in 2017 as Drupa won’t be back for a few years.
Over 1,500 attendees including 100+ press/analysts and 1,000+ customers from all over the world were here to learn and to see the future of production print. The 17th EFI Connect was their biggest yet and it was up from about 1,200 last year. Once again, it was a sold out show.
This is a pretty incredible show. Commercial printers of all sizes come for a variety of reasons. They come to learn about new products. They come to sit in dozens of educational sessions where they learn the benefits of adding new technology (what can this bring to your print shop), hiring and on-boarding, how to use tools in their workflow, wide-format printing and on and on.
The educational track is unbelievable and second to none compared to any company I cover. It’s like a University for printers where they can learn about anything and everything at all levels – from management/ownership down to the people on the floor running the shop. There are so many sessions, it’s amazing.
All Event Photos and Video
Zun cutter in action at #eficonnect. Pretty cool. pic.twitter.com/G8U6qFzihG
— Industry Analysts (@aslawetsky) January 19, 2017
Attendees also come to see the future. EFI always talks about trends, where the industry is going and where they’re setting their sites. While last year’s buzzword was automation, this year was Artificial Intelligence (AI). Looking to the future, EFI believes AI will be a huge part of the print industry and they aim to capitalize on that. This builds nicely on the automation theme from the previous Connect.
CEO Guy Gecht held two of his famous Fireside Chats at his year’s event. On the first day, he sat with Xerox’s new CEO Jeff Jacobson. The more I hear Jeff speak, the more I like him and his vision for Xerox. We’ll see what happens but you have to root for the guy.
The second chat was with EFI customer Joel Quadracci, CEO of Quad/Graphics (QG). This session was excellent and really showed you where commercial print is going…or is.
QG started as a local family print shop. Where others have struggled, QG has prospered – to the tune of now being a $2 billion company (twice the size of EFI). When traditional print volume declined, they got into other areas that complimented or drove print.
More importantly, they’ve adapted and added whatever they needed to in order to provide customers with everything they need, from signage to video production and mobile strategies that compliment their customer’s print and make it more effective. It’s clearly not about the cost of the piece but what you do with that piece and how it’s used. Watch the video from EFI of the session, it was fascinating.
https://youtu.be/xYUhwxyAPJ8
The number of analysts and media from the US and abroad was impressive. It’s not often I see that many of my colleagues in one place outside of a Drupa. Even GraphExpo doesn’t seem to have nearly this many of “us” at a customer event.
Besides the education, keynotes and informative presentations on product updates, strategy, etc., attendees spent a great deal of time in front of the booths from sponsors including companies such as Canon, Konica Minolta, Ricoh, Xerox and others.
It was a smart setup as vendors had their hardware and workflow positioned all around the room where we sat during the presentations (and had cocktails and food afterwards). There was serious big iron on the floor including massive VUTEk printers (one of which was sold during the show). These larger printers hadn’t made appearances in the past but EFI pulled out all the stops this year.
Why Dealers Should Attend
If you sell to commercial printers, you need to have someone attend this show, preferably your specialists. Rather than wait for a workflow to come down from your OEM, dealers that want to compete at the highest levels in this arena need to know What’s Happenin’. This is several days of pure education on things that will help your customers drive print and position you as a truly informed expert in your field.
Your people should be knowledgeable at how these solutions work, what’s available and how commercial printers might be using them. The imaging industry is just starting to recognize what EFI has now become and there were some new faces from “our world” in the crowd.
I ran into Jennie Fisher from GreatAmerica walking the floor to learn what kinds of things GA should consider financing as well as some senior Konica Minolta management (Kevin Kern and Gavin Jordan-Smith), Canon USA had an exec there and Xerox brought the biggest one they have!
I guarantee if you send your people they will reference this conference all the time and it will provide them and your dealership/branch with credibility. The knowledge they will obtain about the industry, customers and the products they sell is invaluable. I will do a better job informing you all when next year’s sign-up begins for EFI Connect 2018. It’s well worth your time, or at least that of your production team.
Final Thoughts
You can feel the momentum with EFI. They’re like a little snowball that’s now halfway down the hill and they’re not so little anymore. They’re a billion dollar company (give or take) with strong management, an incredible vision and a rabidly loyal customer base.
Who would have thought a somewhat small print controller manufacturer could become who and what they are today? This was an incredibly informative conference and I learned a ton. Til next year!
~Andy Slawetsky
