His Words: J. Page Crouch
My Teachers; Your Teachers
The first benefit of INFOFLEX is the most valuable of all! INFOFLEX is the easiest way to meet the leaders and technology brain trusts in every phase of the industry.
Whether it’s design or prepress, or the latest in ink technology or inline converting, the companies participating are represented by their best. Year after year, they were my “teachers.” As an educator, keeping up with what’s coming is essential to my validity as a teacher. INFOFLEX is one of the best functions to meet the people whose responsibility it is to keep up to date. These can be your teachers, too. Listen to what they say. Use it to your advantage. Store the advice away in your memory. Nurture it and share all that you learn.
INFOFLEX’s very purpose is to facilitate the implementation of the latest developments into the converters’ daily operations. If the converter doesn’t keep up with what’s new, they will become less and less competitive. Very few need to immediately implement every new development. But they all need to stay up with new capabilities and be ready to adopt when it’s appropriate.
New sometimes is found to be the “bleeding edge.” Most adopters need to follow “new” as it evolves and adopt when it’s right for them.
His Words: Dave Horsman
Tremendous Asset
INFOFLEX has proven to be a tremendous vehicle for FORUM attendees to learn about different technologies in a very friendly and informal atmosphere. Attendees definitely leave knowing more than they did when they came in.
In 1982, I was privileged to serve on my first of many FORUM Committees, as the FORUM that year was held in Toronto, where I lived. I was by far the youngest member of that committee that included some flexographic legends like Doug Tuttle, Charles Aboud and Gerry Fleury (chair). In fact, I may very well be one of the only people on that panel still on this side of the grass.
George Parisi, then FTA’s executive director and an eventual Hall of Fame member, surprised us one meeting and told us that we were going to have a tabletop exhibit as part of the FORUM—the first one ever! It would be chaired by Gerry Shields, another flexographic legend.
Most of us were dead set against it, feeling that we were crossing the non-commercial boundary we always had as an organization. Boy were we ever wrong!
That first INFOFLEX, although the name was not dreamed up as of then, was made up of 3-in. x 6-ft. tables, I believe, and there were restriction on what could be put on the tables—nothing higher than 24-in., if I recall exactly. We had tables in one good size room and even out in the hallway at the Royal York Hotel in downtown Toronto.
I can still see Jerry going from table to table with a tape measure making sure everyone followed the rules and he continued to do this for years afterward, including the FORUM I chaired, again in Toronto in 1991.
As a supplier who represented many companies in my beloved Canada, I came to love INFOFLEX as most our principles were there as exhibitors and it gave me and my staff the opportunity to show off our wares. I would be lying if I said it did not lead to many sales over my career.
As I said, watching it grow from being strictly a tabletop exhibit into the full-blown exhibition it has now become, has a been a tremendous asset for our industry—for both suppliers reaching out to potential customers and for printers who may learn of a technology and give them some new tools.
My very first boss back in the late 1960s once told me to always look out for a cannon supplier as we were fighting our battle with bows and arrows. INFOFLEX showcases these cannons.
As time has gone on, we have seen a real growth in FORUM attendees, many of them only for INFOFLEX, which brings in a bigger potential audience for our exhibitors and allows us to promote FTA to a much larger crowd.
As an old (maybe not that old) retired guy who attends FORUMs when he can, I look forward to INFOFLEX as it is my best chance to circulate and reconnect and meet up with many old friends and colleagues. Plus, I get to wear some fancy duds leaving no doubt as to my nationality.
His Words: Howard B. Vreeland, Jr
It Started in a Hallway!
As one who has been around for the 40 years of INFOFLEX, I had been fortunate to watch it grow and evolve into what it is today. Starting as tabletops—with literature and product samples—and growing to booths in which exhibitors display their wares.
Hard to imagine it started in the hallway!
Today, attendees can find the exhibits that are best suited for their needs and network their way through the show. Having added bars for adult beverages and tables for hors d’oeuvres helps keep the attendees in the exhibit halls.
With the availability of the internet, having face-to-face contact and a variety of exhibitors, the printers attending get the biggest bang for their dollars spent!