Back from Vegas: Embellishment Moves from Curiosity to Business Strategy

At Taktisphere Live!, industry leaders described a market moving beyond awareness of embellishment toward the practical work of selling, producing, and profiting from it.

https://youtu.be/muRzRL_t4WM

The most revealing conversations at PRINTING United Expo in Las Vegas were about what printers wanted to do before buying their next machine. According to Taktiful founder Kevin Abergel, commercial printers were asking for sales training, outsourcing partners, and ways to test customer demand. They understood the appeal of embellishment. Now they wanted a workable route into the business.

That shift became the central theme of “Back from Vegas,” the latest Taktisphere Live! event. Abergel and cohost Eric brought together representatives from PRINTING United Alliance, Sharp, Skandacor, Fujifilm, Impress Systems, and Konica Minolta for a discussion that connected show-floor enthusiasm with the harder questions awaiting printers back home.

Their accounts suggested growing confidence in specialty print, alongside an acknowledgment that impressive equipment alone cannot deliver a successful business.

Josh Carruth, representing PRINTING United Alliance, said the expo was “statistically our best Vegas show ever.” He admitted that the expense of exhibiting and organizing in Las Vegas had concerned him beforehand. Once the doors opened, however, the energy and feedback reassured him.

Carruth placed equal emphasis on the connections surrounding the machinery. Informal conversations can become partnerships, spark developments, or change a company’s direction. Bringing different print communities together, he argued, gives those encounters room to happen. He also acknowledged that the alliance could improve how it serves individual segments.

For Sharp’s Dino Pagliarello, the show demonstrated growth across labels, packaging, wide format, inkjet, and embellishment. The underlying opportunity was to add value and create different applications, extending the industry’s ambitions beyond production speed and price.

Pagliarello described the possibilities of combining physical print with digital connections, recalling a badge sticker that allowed others to connect with him electronically. Existing technologies, brought together creatively, could produce something new.

Sharp’s booth also linked the industry’s future to workforce development. Pagliarello discussed its involvement with the Mariano Rivera Foundation, including summer training that prepares students to become technicians. Rivera’s appearance attracted attention, but the program behind it addressed a practical need: helping young people enter technical careers.

At Skandacor, John Congdon reported a 105 percent increase in captured leads compared with the previous PRINTING United, along with the company’s highest number of deals written at a trade show. He said virtually all the equipment displayed was sold during the event.

More significant than those results was his description of changing conversations. Visitors arrived better informed about specialty finishing and wanted to understand how the capabilities would fit their production workflows. Samples and live demonstrations helped turn that prior awareness into something tangible.

Congdon also offered a useful qualification to the sales success. Skandacor had become more cautious about signing customers at the show, recognizing that excitement can outrun financial readiness. Asking whether buyers were certain helped distinguish a considered investment from an impulsive purchase.

Fujifilm’s Andrew Gunn urged attendees and exhibitors to remain curious. Staying inside a familiar booth or concentrating exclusively on one manufacturer, he said, risks missing useful ideas elsewhere, particularly among smaller exhibitors. Competitive awareness and cooperation could both strengthen the industry.

Gunn also described artificial intelligence moving into practical production. Discussing Fujifilm’s Revoria PC2120 demonstration, he said onboard AI tools reduced a task that previously took approximately 20 minutes to 15 seconds or less. His account illustrated why automation drew attention: customers could see a specific task completed faster.

The discussion broadened embellishment beyond foil and raised effects. Gunn included expanded color capability, white, specialty media, and other additions to CMYK within his definition. That perspective gives printers more ways to consider differentiation, depending on their customers and applications.

Impress Systems president Sam Glick brought the conversation to an accessible entry point. He said the company’s highest-priced machine was just under $9,000, positioning its digital foil equipment as a way to begin offering hot-stamping foil before investing in larger systems.

Glick reported selling more machines at this year’s show and speaking with more senior decision-makers and larger companies. Although he recalled greater visitor volume the previous year, this year’s conversations were more focused. Participation in the Taktiful tours helped bring interested prospects to the booth.

Konica Minolta’s Sean Roberts identified the challenge tying these experiences together: removing friction. Good technology, in his view, is already available. The advantage comes from making the surrounding activities easier, including design, estimating, marketing, sales, and production.

Roberts revisited his presentation’s instruction to “stop selling embellishments.” Print buyers care about what an effect accomplishes. That requires printers to explain its value in the customer’s terms and develop pricing that reflects that value. It also requires designers to understand what they can create.

He pointed to software and intelligent production controls as parts of that effort. His broader argument was that support around the machine deserves as much attention as the machine itself.

Abergel’s closing observations supplied a concrete example. He recalled roughly a dozen conversations with printers seeking training and outsourcing options before purchasing equipment. They wanted to prepare their teams, pursue opportunities, and build demand through existing producers. He interpreted that behavior as movement toward broader adoption, though the evidence presented was anecdotal.

The event also highlighted the people helping that transition. Abergel praised the Cal Poly students who assisted with the tours, while Eric described their ability to take responsibility when a wide-format tour needed support. Their contribution made workforce optimism more concrete.

Abergel also reported that roughly 80 people joined Taktisphere during the show. Roberts credited the independent community with bringing competing suppliers into the same conversation. Those observations underscored the importance of ongoing discussion, giving printers somewhere to ask practical production questions after the exhibition floor has been packed away.

For printers returning home, the hosts proposed manageable next steps: shortlist technologies worth another look, book demonstrations, map a workflow from beginning to end, and establish a 90-day check-in with a partner.

Those actions gave the recap its practical conclusion. The show had generated interest, introductions, and purchases. What happens next depends on whether printers can turn those encounters into repeatable ways to create, sell, and deliver work customers value.