Woodie Rush, Principal at RSH DSC, is a
consultant and, in my opinion, is one of the most knowledgeable people ever to
grace the reprographics and graphic imaging industry. He recently attended the drupa event in
Dusseldorf, Germany and sent me his thoughts about drupa, which I’m now going
to share with our blog-visitors.
First, about Woodie, his former
positions, prior to founding Rush DCS:
VP of Global Strategic Services at ReproMAX
Vice President for Corporate Development at Plan Express
Vice President for Administrative Services at
Campbell Blueprint & Supply
And, here’s what Woodie says about Rush DCS’ area of
concentration:
Application of the principles of
supply chain management and comprehensive automation to the acquisition,
processing, and delivery of construction data via electronic or hardcopy
processing.
My goal is to maximize the
opportunities for automation and develop networks of interoperability and
integration within the construction technology marketplace.
Specialties
Finding solutions for integration of disparate
systems to meet desired customer services, and building bridges between
organizations that concurrently serve the same markets.
Okay, let’s get to Woodie’s comments about drupa:
To: Joel Salus at Reprographics 101
From: Woodie
Rush at Rush DCS
Your blog is
one that I consider a source of good information about what's happening in our
industry, and I thought I would drop you a line about my experiences at Drupa
this year.
I see that
you have had others report on their experiences as well, and I generally agree
with David Zwang's observations--specifically regarding the healthy optimism
about the future of the industry as evidenced by both the attendance and the
products being presented.
In the four
days I was there, it was impossible to see everything, but in my humble
opinion, THIS is the kind of venue that people in our industry should should
plan to attend..... sure, Drupa goes way beyond reprographics, but in today's
world, who ISN'T looking for new ways to generate revenue? While an international
event like this is, indeed, expensive, and held only every four years, I saw
more equipment, more software, and had opportunities to speak to more
"emerging faces" than I have had in years, and considered this a most
educational experience.
Your
reporting on Landa provides an excellent example. Founded by Benny Landa
in Israel, and a leader in the development of the Indigo acquired (several
years back) by HP, he began focusing on 'nanotechnology' in printing.
It's not easy to impress me with slick demos, but what I saw these 'inkjet'
printers do was truly innovative, and I began thinking of service offerings for
which that equipment would a great fit. Without being overly
enthusiastic, I would encourage your readers to take a look at their products.
One of the
most interesting aspects of Drupa for me was the fact that
"Canon-Oce" integration seems to be almost, if not totally
accomplished. All of us who regularly attend industry trade shows have
always looked for the huge round "Oce'" banner ----but not here!
The Canon branding was overwhelming. I actually had to ASK at the Canon
reception staff where to find the Oce large format devices such as the Velocity
(see Oce Velocity jpg) (Note to blog visitors – if my
attempt to post the picture of the Velocity worked, you’ll see it at the bottom
of this post!) .....
Oce was there, but to say the Oce brand was prominent would be an
overstatement. The Canon branding was overwhelming. I KNOW there MUST have been Oce-USA staff
here from the states, but, for the first time since I started attending these
kinds shows, I saw NO ONE from Oce' (US or Venlo) that I recognized---and
I went by the booth at least once time each day.
KIP was
there, and seemed to draw good crowds to their booth, especially the C7800,
which you reported about on your blog. A good friend of mine from Europe
told me that while he had never purchased KIP equipment before, he was
seriously considering the C7800. Sherman Sawtelle was there, and seemed
to be engaged with potential customers throughout my visits to their booth.
The HUGE
booths at Xerox (with XMPie), HP, Canon, Ricoh, Fuji-Film, and AGFA were
staffed with people with whom you could explore 'under the hood' how things
worked, and I learned a lot about the architecture of software systems supporting
these hardware providers. I was surprised to learn, for example, that
while Oce owns Onyx, the RIP behind the new Oce Velocity wide-foramt printer is
being powered by MemJet, which illustrated to me that interoperability and
integration remain a vital piece of tomorrow's software/hardware landscape.
But the
highlight for me was the time I spent at so many of the smaller, "standard
booths", where I found people from around the world who have their
thinking caps on, creating new opportunities that enterprising reprographers
should at least explore. For those looking to put a full range color
services online, a small company from Israel (B2cprint) seems to have come up
with an innovative approach that I found most interesting. Similarly, a
colleague from Germany showed me the scanning system being offered by Rowe that
may hold promise for automating scan workflows. These small companies
came from every corner of the globe, and I found discussions with their owners
and representatives often stimulating and thought provoking. With only a
4 day pass, there was absolutely no way I could get around to all of them, and
the 'Catalog" I purchased is 784 pages long---and that's not due to it
being presented in several languages. The bulk of the book is a directory
of companies exhibiting at the show. While the catalog is not
downloadable, the list of exhibitors can be downloaded for free at
I ran into
several folks from the reprographics industry around the world, but I was a bit
surprised that so few 'reprographers' from the US were there. This is one
show that (in my view) is well worth the investment, and if your readers intend
to remain a part of the quickly changing landscape of our industry, I would
urge that they begin planning now to attend the next drupa show, with not only
the principals attending, but also with key technical representatives attending.
Having attended many 'trade shows' in my career, I do consider Drupa to
be the best opportunity to see new hardware AND talk with folks who are more
than simply 'sales staff'. I would also encourage Reprographics 101 to
consider attending to provide a comprehensive, unbiased report on the industry
in general.
Overall,
this was a show well worth the investment.
Picture of the new Velocity from
Oce-Canon.
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