BEIJING/HAMBURG—  China Print and Fespa set records on two continents. China Print held May 9th to the 13th and held  every 4 years attracted over 200,000 visitors. It's now the second largest industry show in the world following Drupa at 240,000. Fespa the worlds largest show for wide format pulled attendance from 139 countries with 700 exhibitors in nine halls. It is now held every year in Europe. Attendance was about 20,000.

MELBOURNE—  Landa has been blocked from entering the PacPrint tradeshow. The show manager blocked them after Landa refused to buy booth space but wanted to piggyback on the show holding presentations and meetings. Adrian Fleming of PacPrint said " We will not allow grorilla or ambush marketing". At a previous show the Komori agent had a small booth and flew customers to a show room in Braeside. PacPrint is Australia's largest printing trade show.

ONTARIO—  The provincial government is scrambling because of a printing error in provincial health card renewal forms. The error exposed health card numbers, birth dates and home addresses. The forms are double-sided.

VANCOUVER—  Scott Gray who has been at Met Fine Printers for 29 years has gone over to Mitchell Press. He has left on good terms and said " My career at MET has been a dream, the Kallas family have afforded me every opportunity".
Met Fine Printers was number 45 on Graphic Monthly's list of Canada's Top printers. They bought Rino Print in Calgary and have offices in 4 US cities. MET has sheet fed presses in both provinces.

MISSISSAUGA—  Printer Gateway will be moving into Somerset Graphics old building.The building is about 18,000 square feet. Currently Printer Gateway has about 10,000 square feet at the bottom of an office building in Toronto (no loading docks).They have also bought the Komori 6 colour  that Somerset had.Printer Gateway took over the building at the beginning of  May and expects to start their contolled and staged move  in  June.

NEW YORK— Digital packaging is estimated to be about $11 billion in 2016 world wide. A report by Future Marketing Insights estimates it will grow by 15.3% per year to over $52 billion by 2026. The report says the key factors driving demand is shorter runs and adoption of digital printing over conventional printing.

MONTREAL— The ninth edition of  Grafik' Art Montreal trade show was held in Montreal on May 12 and 13th. More than 3500 visitors plus exhibitors filled the aisles. Held at the Bonaventure convention center every second year. The show pulls heavily from Quebec but also gets some attendance from Atlantic Canada and eastern Ontario.

TORONTO—  Printingforrealtors.ca has just started up. Launced by Brandon Quan is a new printing company only for realtors. Built around a website aimed at servicing the individual realestate agents.They do all the creative and outsource the printing.There are over 8000 realestate company locations in Canada.

GERMANY—  Heidelberg has reported their best sales and profits since 2008 ( before the economy went off the cliff). Thanks to an excellent final quarter.CEO Rainer Hundsdorfer said "We now need to gear our strategy towards becoming a digital company focused on customer needs. This will bring the expected growth in sales and a further substantial improvement in profitability in the future," he added.

TORONTO—  St. Joseph Communications (part of St. Joseph Printing) has come out with a report on consumer brands. " Think Beyond Content" explores Brands that are focusing on how partnerships , technology, transparency and building engaged communities are essential. St. Joe's has come out with several trend reports on the consumer market.