The trip over to Dusseldorf was uneventful….EXCEPT for my luggage being lost for a day and a half and the seat on the airplane being too small for me. That was a pain, but the luggage showed up and the colleagues that I was working with in the Canon booth were very pleased that I could change into some clean clothes.
Spent most the first two days setting the cross media demo up and practicing with the team assigned to the area. There were a few bumps and bruises along the way and it is finally running like a top this morning. The biggest pain was getting the audio running on the server (which we never did). Had something to do with Windows Server 2003 and the audio chip. Eventually, we brought in a XP machine and used it as the client to run the demo and NOW we can hear the sound of the interactive video message that was included in the demo. That got everyone’s attention. And the VDP posters that we printed from the demo looked great. They all love the demo!
Coming to shows like this is always a pleasure because I get to see many of my old friends and make some new ones. The Agfa booth is across the aisle and got to reconnect with many of my international friends.
The show was slow yesterday (first day of Drupa) and in the ride back to the hotel, the taxi driver was telling me that it appeared the attendance was down, based on his lack of business and the hotels having vacancies, which is very unusual for this show. I guess it indicates the economic times and how the printing industry is coming under pressure from other media. Everyone here is trying to be optimistic, but they all realize the times are changing. Print is getting pressured by other media options and no one expects this to change long term. Print has its place, but it is smaller than it use to be. That’s the reality of the world today.
Got to go and finish morning set up, so….
