Each year, the print industry pauses to take stock of where its technologies are heading — and WhatTheyThink's seventh annual Technology Outlook webinar series, beginning August 24, offers that moment of collective reckoning. Spanning five days and five domains of print production, the series brings together analysts, suppliers, and practitioners in a structured conversation about what is being built, what is being bought, and what it all means for businesses navigating digital transformation. It is less a product showcase than a map — drawn by people who have been watching the terrain long en
WhatTheyThink Launches Seventh Annual Technology Outlook Webinar Series
Suppliers announce, buyers listen, everyone stays current.
Mark
Why does WhatTheyThink keep doing this series year after year? What's the actual problem it solves?
Mimi
Print shops are making capital equipment decisions—sometimes six-figure decisions—without always having current information about what's actually available. Equipment announcements happen constantly, but they're scattered across press releases and trade shows. This series pulls it together in one place, with analysts who understand the context.
Mark
So it's really about information asymmetry. The suppliers know what they're building, but the buyers don't always know what exists.
Mimi
Exactly. And it goes both ways. Suppliers want to reach the right audience—people actually evaluating equipment—without paying for broad advertising. These webinars are efficient for both sides.
Mark
Why separate production print from labels and packaging? Aren't they both digital printing?
Mimi
They're fundamentally different businesses. A production print shop and a label converter face different economics, different customer demands, different technology priorities. Mixing them would dilute the relevance for both.
Mark
And the archive piece—that seems important.
Mimi
It is. Not everyone can attend live. But more than that, someone might watch a session about inkjet technology in August and then six months later, when they're actually ready to buy, they need to reference what was said. The archive makes the information persistent, not ephemeral.
The Pulse
- Print businesses face a relentless pressure to know which technologies are worth investing in before competitors do — and the cost of guessing wrong is measured in years and capital.
- The series compresses an entire industry's worth of announcements, trends, and analysis into a single week, reducing the noise that typically scatters critical information across trade shows, press releases, and vendor calls.
- Canon PPS anchors the opening session on production inkjet — the segment where volume, speed, and economics are shifting fastest — giving the week an immediate sense of stakes.
- Five analysts, each a specialist in their domain, move the series from production print through display graphics, labels, software, and finishing, ensuring no major corner of the industry goes unexamined.
- Archived downloads extend the series beyond its live window, turning a five-day event into a durable reference for operators making capital decisions months or years from now.
Each year, the print industry pauses to take stock of where its technologies are heading — and WhatTheyThink's seventh annual Technology Outlook webinar series, beginning August 24, offers that moment of collective reckoning. Spanning five days and five domains of print production, the series brings together analysts, suppliers, and practitioners in a structured conversation about what is being built, what is being bought, and what it all means for businesses navigating digital transformation. It is less a product showcase than a map — drawn by people who have been watching the terrain long enough to know which paths lead somewhere.
WhatTheyThink is opening its seventh annual Technology Outlook webinar series on August 24, and the timing reflects something real about where the print industry stands — still mid-transformation, still asking hard questions about where to invest and what to believe.
The opening session, sponsored by Canon PPS and hosted by Mary Schilling, centers on production inkjet: what distinguishes the newest equipment from what came before, how inkjet is reshaping market economics, what forces are actually driving growth, and how operators can run their systems more efficiently. These are not abstract questions — they are the ones that determine whether a print business expands or contracts.
The series runs through August 28 across five distinct segments. Richard Romano and Cary Sherburne cover display graphics and textiles on the 25th. David Zwang takes labels and packaging on the 26th. Pat McGrew and Ryan McAbee address software and workflow on the 27th. Don Carli closes with appearance management — the finishing and coating technologies that add measurable value to printed output.
The format is deliberately bilateral: suppliers reach an audience that is actively listening for product news, while print producers get a structured, analyst-filtered view of the technology landscape without having to chase information across dozens of sources. Every session is archived for download after it concludes, making the content available to anyone who couldn't attend live or needs to revisit a session before committing to a capital purchase.
Registration is open for individual sessions or the full five-day pass — a concentrated window into what the industry is building and where it is heading.
WhatTheyThink is launching its seventh annual Technology Outlook webinar series on August 24, beginning with a deep dive into production printing technology. The opening session, sponsored by Canon PPS and hosted by Mary Schilling, starts at 1 pm ET and will focus on the latest innovations in production inkjet digital printing equipment—the machines and systems that industrial print operations depend on to compete.
The session is built around four core questions that matter to print business owners and operators: What features distinguish the newest press technology from what came before? How is inkjet reshaping different market segments and the economics of print shops themselves? What market forces are actually driving volume and profit growth right now? And how can a printer differentiate their operation and run their inkjet systems more efficiently? These are not theoretical questions. They're the ones that determine whether a print business grows, stagnates, or shrinks.
The Technology Outlook Week format itself reflects a deliberate design. WhatTheyThink positions these webinars as a meeting ground—suppliers get a platform to announce new products and capabilities to an audience actively listening for exactly that information, while print producers get a structured way to stay current on the technology landscape without having to hunt for information across a dozen different sources. The series draws on established industry analysts and thought leaders who maintain ongoing relationships with equipment manufacturers, ensuring that what gets presented is current and substantive rather than recycled marketing material.
The full week runs through August 28 and covers five distinct areas of the print industry. After production print on the 24th, August 25 brings sessions on display graphics and signage alongside textiles and apparel, both presented by Richard Romano and Cary Sherburne. David Zwang takes the labels and packaging segment on August 26. Pat McGrew and Ryan McAbee cover software and workflow systems on August 27. Don Carli closes the series on August 28 with a session on appearance management—the finishing, coating, and surface treatment technologies that add value to printed products.
For anyone unable to attend live, WhatTheyThink is making the entire archive available for download after each session concludes. That means the slides, the audio, and the substantive content remain accessible indefinitely—useful for someone who gets pulled into a meeting at 1 pm ET on a Tuesday, or for a print shop owner who wants to review a session twice, or for someone planning capital equipment purchases months down the line and needing to reference what was said about a particular technology.
Registration is open for individual sessions or for the full five-day pass. For a print industry still navigating the economics of digital transformation and the ongoing question of where to invest next, the series offers a rare concentrated window into what the equipment makers are actually building and where the market is moving.
Want the full story?
Read the original at WhatTheyThink ↗
Economy & Finance