My recent experience with switching from Mac OS 9.1 to Mac OS X is a lot like being accustomed to driving in Philadelphia and then subjecting oneself to the Boston driving experience. In Philadelphia, I expect the streets to be mostly predictable in their patterns of direction and signage. I also have the advantage of familiarity and what pitfalls to avoid. Seybold Seminars is the premier semiannual event for anyone involved in publishing. The nature of Seybold has morphed over the last few years in reflection of the way publishing has transformed.
Publishing is no longer just pre-press, printing, and service bureaus.
My first Seybold Seminars show was the first and last one that was held in the Javits Convention Center in New York four years ago. Booth after booth was demonstrating output devices, especially large format color printers. Imagesetters, high end scanners, platemakers and proofing devices made up the majority of the rest of the show. The amount of content produced by the publishing industry has grown substantially in the last four years, but the percentage of content that is being produced in print has declined. This has resulted in flat, or even slightly diminished demand for printed material.