Andy & Julie Plata’s Industry Notes:
Canon Expo 2010 & the Future of Imaging
By Andy and Julie Plata
Owners of the OutputLinks Communications Group.
OutputLinks Reports on this Once-Every-Five-Year Exhibition, Which Looks at Next-Generation Imaging
We attended the Canon Expo in New York earlier this month, and were amazed! 
In our industry analyst roles, we have the opportunity to attend a number of vendor expositions and open houses, but the Canon Expo was a totally different experience.
Canon Expo 2010 happens only every five years in four different locations around the world – Tokyo, Paris, Shanghai, and New York City which is the one we attended. It was a massive production at the Javits Center which encompassed more than 150,000 square feet of exhibition space, or pods, surrounding a large, central networking core. Canon technology for medical, photograph, videography, copying and print was presented in hands-on, interactive pods. The merging of Canon’s and Océ’s technology and products was demonstrated in the wide format and high volume print pods which had large “Canon and Océ: The Power of Synergy” banners marking their entrance.
Canon U.S.A. announced that the Océ North America Wide Format Printing Systems division had been named a dealer of its award-winning imagePROGRAF large format printers. Later this year, Océ will add the award winning 12-color imagePROGRAF iPF8300, iPF6350 and iPF6300. We expect that Canon will soon begin selling Océ printers and software as well.
Since we, like many of our readers, with a long history in the high volume transaction output space were eager to see how Océ was represented after its acquisition by Canon. Large displays of Océ high volume and wide format technology as well as the great number of Océ employees at the event made it evident that Océ is and will be an important part of Canon’s global business.
In our discussions with print technology professionals around the world, we often urge them to think beyond print and to focus on the entire document supply chain.
At Canon Expo, we were exposed to a much bigger concept – look beyond print to the entire imaging supply chain. What we immediately realized at Expo was that Canon “speaks image”. They focus on the whole imaging ecosphere – not just printing or photography or scanning or... It became apparent as we visited each pod that the image is the basic component of everything Canon does. We could see how Canon's command of the world of imaging will have a definite impact on the world of print. Canon is now ranked 4th in patents in USA so keep tuned for more on this note.
If you attended the New York Expo we look forward to hearing your comments about the event and if you are planning to attend the Tokyo, Paris, Shanghai Expos let us know as we would like to hear your impressions of those shows.
The next Canon expo is only five years away. This is a good time to begin planning your trip to this mind blowing, single vendor technology exposition. We look forward to seeing you there.
Andy & Julie Plata
More Expo 2010 news from OutputLinksSearch
Andy and Julie Plata are business and married partners. Their OutputLinks Communications Group includes Graphic Communications World, MPSConnect, OutputLinks,The GreenSheet and CMOConnects, each narrow-casting to specific segments of the global corporate communications industry. They also own Computer Output Print & Internet (COPI) and CodeZ QR, the professional 1to1 QR code solution set. As recognized technology authorities the Plata’s are frequent speakers around the world and advise the world’s largest corporations in their stakeholder communication strategies.