We love boxes. Segments. Categories. They make us feel organized and important. But they don’t reflect reality. Printing companies don’t live in silos—only conferences, associations, and trade media do.

Before the first PRINTING United, I was told “convergence” was the future. Under one roof. Because printers don’t fit neatly into categories. True. But let’s not kid ourselves—this was also a survival strategy. When shows shrink, when budgets tighten, when exhibitors disappear, you merge audiences, or you die. Full stop.

Then LabelExpo does exactly the same thing by adding a folding carton, and everyone applauds. “Perfect fit,” they say. Funny how convergence is visionary when you do it, and controversial when someone else does. Full stop.

The truth is simple: these artificial divisions no longer serve the industry. They serve business models built around them.

The media insists on hyper-segmentation. Associations defend their territory. Suppliers market to narrower and narrower niches. And meanwhile, printers everywhere face the same problems: insufficient demand, excessive complexity, margin pressure, labor shortages, and customers who don’t understand—or care—how we classify ourselves. Full stop.

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. OEMs see declining sales and respond by selling faster machines. Faster. In a shrinking market. That is not a strategy—that’s denial. Doing less work faster does not create growth. It destroys utilization. Full stop.

And don’t tell me this is “innovation.” If you sell ultra-specialized consumables and are shocked when volume suppliers catch up, that’s not disruption—that’s economics catching up. Full stop.

Leadership? Too often disconnected. Corporate communication teams that barely understand the technology they’re selling. Executives who haven’t met real customers in years. Marketing that talks at the market instead of listening to it. And then everyone wonders why growth is hard. Full stop!

So no—the industry isn’t doomed. But parts of it are lazy. Comfortable. Self-referential. We keep talking to ourselves and calling it insight. Stop thinking in silos. Stop hiding behind segments. Stop mistaking internal logic for market reality.

The challenges are shared. The solutions must be shared.
Let’s stop pretending otherwise. Full stop.