The Show Goes On... at Print 01 and All Over USA

Published: September 14, 2001, By Teresa Koltzenburg, Senior Editor

CHICAGO, IL, USA—The resolve of Americans (including that of our own converting industry) to get back to business in the face of September 11th's harrowing events is resolute. While some industry events have been postponed, Print 01 ended September 13th as scheduled. Though many attendees were preoccupied with the news and travel plans, typical trade show activities—product demos and business meetings—resumed the last two days of the event.

Other industry gatherings, such as TAPPI’s Engineering and Finishing & Converting Conference and Trade Fair, TLMI’s fall technical and IADD’s annual meeting, have been cancelled, but will be rescheduled, report the three associations.

For those that attended Print 01 on September 11, it was possible to keep up with the latest news via the convention center’s myriad television monitors. People all over McCormick Place congregated around these screens, and many watched as the tragic events in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania unfolded.

Yet the show went on, and as PFFC’s editor Yolanda Simonsis pointed out, it provided a means for attendees to share their shock and disbelief, but also share their good will and warm wishes for the victims and their families.

Friday, September 14th, around noon CST, the staff of PFFC, as well as of our sister publications Boxboard Containers International and American Printer, attended a "moment-of-silence" memorial at Daley Plaza here in downtown Chicago. On our way to the Plaza, we were joined by streams of people exiting their office buildings. The crowd was so large the area couldn’t hold all of us; many of us spilled out onto surrounding streets. Several events were held in cities and towns all over the US on September 14, many of the communities providing memoriam in the same way.

We might not be "back to business as usual" quite yet here at PFFC and all over America, but September 14th's commemoration events in New York, Washington, in our own "Sweet Home" Chicago, and all over our great nation reveals our solidarity and our determination to come back strong, both economically and emotionally, and win the "war" that's been waged upon us.

PFFC