A NIGHT AT THE OPERA FOR STILL CREEK PRESS

The company may be called Still Creek Press, but for the company’s 30+-year history, it has been anything but still. Based in Vancouver, B.C., Still Creek Press was founded by Len McClean to originally print business forms. Now run by his son Cameron, Still Creek Press has evolved over the decades and now offers—in addition to the original business forms—full digital printing and wide-format graphics, and even some packaging printing.

“We’ve had to adapt to offer different products just to keep in line with what’s in demand,” said Eric Benes, Still Creek Press’s sales representative and cousin of Cameron McClean. “So now we still do business forms and we’ve got sheetfed capabilities, a full digital department and a wide-format department.”

Still Creek Press began producing wide-format graphics about five years ago, and the company expanded its capabilities organically.

“We landed a few customers, and they were all interested in various types of wide format, and we started off by just jobbing it out to other companies nearby that we had relationships with,” Benes said. “Once it got to a certain point where it made sense, we decided to jump in and buy some equipment and allocate some space in our building to it. And it’s been growing since.”

The company has two Roland rollfed printers and a Flora flatbed.

“We can run a four by eight sheet [on the Flora] and as long as the surface is flat, we can print up to four inches,” he added.

A cutter that complements the Rolands and a laminator, round out Still Creek Press’s wide-format equipment roster.

Still Creek Press’ customer base is a healthy mix of chains, in particular restaurants, and an array of local businesses such as dentists.

“We have dental offices around us that reach out saying, ‘We need a banner for an event coming up,’ or sales reps contacting us for backdrops for Zoom meetings—that has been kind of big lately.”

With Vancouver’s substantial movie and television industry, the company has started pursuing some projects with studios.

“We have an ideal location,” Benes said, “just around the corner from one of the largest studios.”

Founded more than 30 years ago as a business forms printer, Vancouver’s Still Creek Press has evolved over the years.

By Richard Romano

One recent project that the company tackled was a floor graphics project for the University of British Columbia (UBC), where students in the Opera program traditionally stage and perform a number of operas each year. That was put on hold when indoor entertainment venues across Canada had to close, but, undaunted, UBC Opera decided to put on several virtual events in late November. The students performed at the University’s venue, and the show was streamed live to audiences watching online.

Still Creek Press’ role in the project was to produce stage graphics that simulated a dirt road. However, their involvement in the project came at the last minute after a lot of on-again-off-again decision-making regarding live events, and a realization that the traditional method of stage design would not be feasible.

“What they typically do is they lay fabric down across the stage and someone or a small team will actually paint the fabric,” Benes said. “Once it’s painted, they have the ability to roll it up and take it off the stage, because often they’ll have various productions coming in at the same time and they need to switch back and forth between them.”

Initially, the opera company had been given the go-ahead to stage an in-person production. However, after tickets had been sold, the government announced that since the virus was getting worse again, in-person events were a no-go. So UBC Opera decided—at the 11th hour—to instead stage it as a virtual show.

“Because of this, they only had about a week to get the stage set up, and that wasn’t enough time to paint the fabric stage.”

Enter printed floor graphics.

“We were in that space a little bit with some of our other clients and they ended up getting referred to us,” Benes said. “They contacted us to see if we had any ideas as to how we could expedite it and get it done.”

Enter Still Creek Press’s Roland printers (SOLJET Pro 4 XR-640s) and Drytac SpotOn Floor 200 vinyl film. Over a marathon four day/night session one long weekend, Still Creek Press produced graphics covering an area of 70 x 90 feet.

“We needed [a floor vinyl] that was going to apply easily with no fuss and that was going to come up easily,” Benes said. “I’ve used SpotOn quite a bit over the years and I knew it would do the job.”

Benes kept an eye on the installation, which went without a hitch.

“When you do these projects, there’s always something that comes up, but it went really well,” he said.

There was only one minor incident in which one panel had to be reprinted, but other than that, it couldn’t have gone more smoothly.

“That was the only thing over the entire course of the project, so I was pretty happy about that.”

Another project that Benes is especially proud of was a series of glass panels for the Parq Vancouver hotel.

“There’s a massive array of 15-foot-tall glass panels facing the exterior of the building, and we had to do a frosted pattern across them,” he said. “It was about a three-day install that went really well.”

Still Creek Press has kept evolving, but as with virtually everyone, the pandemic has put the kibosh on a lot of forward thinking and future planning and even looking at new application areas to branch into.

“Typically, our minds would be going a million miles a minute on different things and different ideas, but right now, in the current climate, everyone’s Read More… pretty locked down.” Find article at

Still, the company’s wide- PrintingNews. format capabilities cover the com/21148784 waterfront in terms of what the company is usually called on to produce.

“With the way wide-format works, typically people come to us with a problem and it’s kind of fun when you get to think of ideas and problemsolve, troubleshoot and see what’s going to work for them.”

Still Creek Press was also heavily into events, which are still on hold, save for “virtual” events like the opera project. Once the pandemic lets up, Benes says the company is looking forward to picking up where they left off.

“We had been working a lot with the movie industry lately, so we’d like to continue that up.” ●

Consumer behavior has changed at an alarming rate and will continue to change, opening up new opportunities for new product innovation— and packaging.

FMCS, OR WHERE’S THE TOILET PAPER?

By David Zwang

Now that we are starting a new year, hopefully one that will see some global health and business stabilization, it is time to reflect on what we learned in 2020. For packaging, one of the lessons taught by 2020 was that responding quickly to changing market needs is critical.

For consumers, that immediacy was addressed through online purchasing in place of in store, but what if the product isn’t there to order? FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) manufacturers and/or brands were caught backfooted as they needed to shift their production from supplying the wholesale sizes and volumes of commercial users to consumer retail sizes and brands as a result of the limiting or closing of many of the commercial establishments.

From a purely practical standpoint, it isn’t as if there was a population explosion and that’s why your favorite product wasn’t available. Granted, some of the product shortages were a result of consumers squirreling away some product (think toilet paper), but the bulk of the problem was a result of shifting consumer behavior, according to Rodney McMullen chairman and CEO of Kroger, the second largest retailer in the U.S.

In the case of food, consumers went from dining out, to purchasing frozen foods, to purchasing ingredients and making their own. Kroger recognized a 92% bump in revenues in Q1 2020 as a result of the consumer behavior shift. According to McMullen, the “basket sizes of customers were bigger, and Kroger saw three years’ worth of growth in two weeks.” This shift happened so fast, and the FMCGs and supporting supply chain were not ready. According to McMullen, while the pandemic sped up an existing trend, “retail keeps getting faster and faster.” He does expect that the current growth rate

will subside a bit as thing start to stabilize, but consumer behavior has changed and will continue to change. So, what needs be done to prepare for FMCS (Fast Moving Consumer Shifts)?

FMCG/brands need to move out of their comfort zone.

While the supply chain needs to reconfigure to handle the increased rate of change, it really does need to start with the FMCG and brands. Historically, they have been very conservative in their thinking and, more importantly, how they do business. The product marketing groups spend an inordinate amount of time getting the product and packaging “just right” so that it has shelf appeal. However, the procurement groups look at packaging as a commodity. This difference of focus ultimately creates constraints on speed to market for new products and shifts in demand. On the other hand, it has opened up opportunities for new brands and products.

New Methods to Support Online Behavior

Amazon was probably the only retailer that was in a position to handle the immediacy of the consumer purchasing shifts, albeit with some brute force, according to many. Expansion of their dry goods processing wasn’t easy, but they already had a lot of the pieces in place, although they did need to expand their distribution network. Their Whole Foods grocery group wasn’t as prepared, but they have been working on expanding BOPIS (Buy Online Pickup In Store) and delivery into their entire chain. And while they had all been thinking about it prior to the pandemic, other retailers, both brick-and-mortar and online, realized they too needed to prepare for the new consumer purchasing realities faster than they had initially planned.

Kroger has already started to plan and prepare their own digital marketplace with third-party sellers (sound familiar?). They have also unveiled their own online grocery delivery service. The Kroger Ship direct-to-customer platform will extend its ship-to-home assortment beyond groceries to a range of other categories, including natural and organic products, international food, specialty items, housewares and toys. They have partnered with e-commerce provider Mirakl to make this happen. This third-party seller model, like Amazon’s, creates new opportunities for the new and smaller brands who couldn’t get the “shelf space” in brick-and-mortar stores.

Not to be outdone, the Dutch-headquartered Ahold Delhaize, the leading global grocery retailer with over 6,500 stores in 11 countries, including nearly 2,000 in the U.S., with brands including Food Lion, Giant, Hannaford and Stop & Shop, have acquired FreshDirect. FreshDirect already has direct grocery delivery to selected markets in seven U.S. and plans to expand to double their U.S. delivery markets in 2021.

But the stores will need to change, too.

Currently, the way that brick-and-mortar stores like Whole Foods facilitate BOPIS and delivery is through the use of “in-store shoppers,” that act as proxy shoppers for those who ordered online. They push carts through the aisles and use apps on their mobile device to select and bag the order for ultimate pickup or delivery. This very inefficient method competes with in-store consumers and adds overhead to the cost of the order.

The new hybrid model that is being kicked around by Amazon and others would have the consumer order online or when they get to the store, and if desired have the produce and fresh foods be able to be Read More… selected by the consumer, since Find article at that selection can be more sub- PrintingNews. jective, while the dry goods are com/21148783 being packed and even delivered using more automated methods like they currently do in their warehouses. This will get the consumer out of the store a lot faster, with the potential to reduce the store footprint and reduce the shelf space limitations, which will foster new product innovation.

And what about the packaging to support the new consumer behaviors? We will take a look at those new demands and some of the changes needed in Part 2. ●

VIRTUAL EVENTS:

THE PROS AND CONS

2020 and a good part of 2021 will be seen as the time of virtual events.

By Cary Sherburne

Event organizers around the globe have been hard-hit by the pandemic, including both for-profit organizations and non-profits such as associations, both of which count on event revenue for their very survival. And there have been many different responses, ranging from full cancellations, to postponements, to conversion to virtual events to carry these groups through the pandemic.

Drupa, for example, was originally scheduled for

June 2020 and postponed until spring of 2021. At the time, no one really thought this pandemic would last as long as it has. Finally, drupa cancelled the inperson event and is instead holding a “virtual drupa”

April 20 - 23. The show is on course for an in-person event May 28 - June 7, 2024. Interpack suffered a similar fate: cancelled for 2021 and rescheduled to occur May 4 - 10, 2023.

Here in North America, major events such as

PRINTING United and EFI Connect were re-envisioned as multi-day virtual events (PRINTING

United Digital Experience and EFI Engage, respectively). Both plan in-person events—PRINTING

United in Orlando with a planned exhibit space of 1.2 million square feet, Oct. 6 - 8, 2021. This may still be optimistic; it remains to be seen. EFI Connect will resume its in-person event in January 2022, at The Wynn in Las Vegas—let’s all hope we have this virus well under control by then!

During its virtual event, PRINTING United delivered more than 7,800 hours of video content, all of which was made available through Jan. 31, 2021. When we spoke to organizers in November, they reported more than 8,200 attendees from 108 countries, with more expected to view the archives at their convenience.

Xplor International shifted to a multi-day virtual event, and, as an association, is grateful to its sponsors for their continued support in helping them weather the pandemic. And the Flexo Labels Advantage Group (FLAG) did so, as well.

TexProcess/TechTextil postponed its in-person event to August 2021, which also may be a bit optimistic. But in the interim, the organization has been offering a series of webinars at the rate of two to three per month in lieu of a single virtual event to both keep themselves top of mind and get important and timely information out to its constituents. Event organizers reported that response to the webinars has been better than anticipated, and

more than 65% of attendees chose to view them live, rather than later from the archive.

PRINTING United/AATCC held its December Digital Textile Printing Conference virtually over two days in December 2020, and plans an in-person event for December 2021. AATCC has also been offering a number of virtual sessions during this period, including presenting research relevant to the pandemic, like development in antimicrobial fabric treatment and data with respect to effectiveness of various types of masks.

One company, whose business it is to provide trade show booths and other exhibit materials, took time during the early days of the pandemic to use its expertise to make its workplace safer, including a “check-in” kiosk that did temperature checks, monitored who was coming and going, and had a hand sanitizer dispenser and PPE available. The company then turned those items into products that companies can use in their facilities as we continue to weather this pandemic storm, creating a new revenue stream that will likely continue into the future, and replacing at least some of the lost revenue due to cancelled in-person events.

These are just a few examples of how the pandemic has affected the events industry. But what do the various constituents think about virtual events? We personally talked to several, and we also included a few questions in our “WhatTheyThink Fall 2020 Business Outlook Survey.”

Let’s take a look at the survey results first. The survey was conducted in November and December, and of course, there have been many changes since then, including a new administration aggressively working to control the virus, two approved vaccines and more on the horizon, and a downward trend in some of the metrics that we hope will continue. But with that in mind, here are the responses we received.

First, we wondered how comfortable people would feel attending events currently planned for later in 2021, and post-COVID in general. About onethird of respondents indicated they would attend without hesitation while another third said they would prefer to wait until there is a vaccine—it would be interesting to speak to that group in a month or so to see how they are feeling as the vaccines continue to roll out. Seventeen percent indicated they would prefer not to attend events until the virus is eradicated. Again, this would be a good group to follow up with, since many health professionals indicate we may never totally eradicate it, but have a lot of hope about the ability to bring it under control, and, hopefully, reduce the severity of symptoms that a vaccinated person might experience if they do happen to contract some new strain of the virus. Then we wondered how much of our audience actually attended or planned to attend virtual events; almost half attended at least some and another 18% had future plans to attend, leaving 35% with no interest in virtual events.

These findings are part of the WhatTheyThink Printing Outlook 2021 report which will be available later this week in our eStore.

Finally, for those that attended virtual events, what did they think of them? The vast majority said they were inferior to or no substitute for inperson events. The conversations we had with various constituents lined up well with these larger survey results. Events like EFI Engage may be a bit of an exception, both because of the scheduling that enabled international access to certain sessions at a convenient time, as well as some sessions offered in other languages, and also because attendees most likely spent most of their time in a smaller number of sessions that were specific to the products they owned or were considering purchasing. Thus, their sessions were likely spread out conveniently over eight days and did not require continuous participation throughout. Some sessions were available as streaming content to be viewed later, including keynotes, that could be viewed at a convenient time. Since we are in the middle of EFI Engage as I write this, we have not had an opportunity to speak to any of the stakeholders to verify that assumption. But events like this—user groups specifically—enable a broader audience to attend. In the old days, a company might send 10 to 15 people to an event like EFI Connect or Graph Expo. But over time, that was reduced to one or two people in order to keep costs in line. With the virtual event, since there were no travel costs, more team members could attend the educational sessions.

We spoke with several sponsors/exhibitors, who agreed that if they could provide content during a virtual event as well as have a virtual presence, there was value. But if they could not provide content, there was little value. Especially for the consultants we spoke with, but really for everyone, a huge value of an in-person event is the ability to wander the halls and aisles, discover new things, catch up with old friends, and make new ones. In most cases, they were less than happy with the virtual exhibit halls—and likely there is much to learn about how to do those effectively. A couple of event organizers noted that exhibitors complained about lack of interactivity with the audience, but digging deeper, those were the ones that most likely were not doing any promotion ahead of time, as they would have done to have a successful

in-person event.

One outstanding example of a successful virtual event was FLAG—although it is a small group with just over 100 member companies, about 60% of its members participated. And feedback from exhibitors was also very positive. The way the virtual booths were structured was convenient and flexible. For example, it was easy for an attendee to schedule a meeting, and if no one was available to “staff” the booth, the chat function went away. This meant that sponsors didn’t have to have someone monitoring the booth all the time or attendees waiting vainly for a response to a chat request. It also alerted both sponsor and visitor that someone was actually in the booth, which many of the others did not. Content could be anything from video to brochures and white papers. And for sponsors, the booths were easy to populate.

APTech had already abandoned its large in-person event—Graph Expo/Print—and was planning smaller regional events, a plan they will continue to follow once it becomes possible again. Meanwhile, the organization will anchor its virtual events around specific topics that are focused and more likely to keep attendees engaged.

One equipment vendor we spoke with was doing a number of internal and external virtual meetings on a daily basis, including webinars, and found those useful, but concluded that virtual exhibitions simply do not work, mostly due to the lack of interaction among people, at least for the events he participated in.

In addition, we already had a trend toward vendors holding dedicated customer events, mostly in addition to trade shows—EFI Connect, Canon thINK, Ricoh Interact and many more. It will be interesting to see whether these smaller, more focused events—once we are back to in-person mode—will take share from larger trade shows, or whether vendors/exhibitors will still continue to do both at the same rate. I’m sure this is a conversation event organizers are having with their exhibitors.

For those planning in-person events later this year, and even into early 2022, most indicated they expect to see either mask mandates or at least a lot of people wearing masks. At the same time, convention venues have been busy upgrading ventilation, changing signage and taking other steps to make the facilities safer.

Even FLAG, which had very positive feedback from both sponsors and members, admitted that virtual events won’t replace in-person events once travel gets back to normal. A key element of its in-person event—and many others that I have attended—includes a visit to a nearby business, university or other important location where on-theground information is available—something difficult to duplicate in a virtual event.

For now, it seems, we will be limited to virtual events at least through most of the summer if not most of the year. What I have seen, though, is a lot of learning taking place in terms of the best way to conduct these events, and I believe in the future we will see more hybrid events—in-person events but with a virtual component that can include either folks who can’t or don’t want to travel. In-person will always be superior, but there will continue to be significant value in Read More… virtual events, as well. And most Find article at event organizers agreed that pre- PrintingNews. senting content in three- to four- com/21148743 hour chunks was more effective than full-day virtual events in order to keep people engaged. One example of this that I thought went very well was the PRINTING United/AATCC Digital Textile Conference, which had two to three hours of content in the morning and afternoon with a two-hour lunch break that made it feel much more like you were sitting in the conference room at the event and less guilty if you stepped away for a couple hours.

The bottom line is people want the education these events provide—in-person or virtual—but in the end, they would also like to take advantage of the natural networking that occurs at in-person events. As we get further into 2021 and see the global impact vaccines and other measures have, perhaps we will be able to get back to in-person events. Personally, I think it will be some time before these can be conducted at the scale we are used to, but we’ll see how it goes. At least we have the virtual options to keep us informed and engaged as we weather this unfortunate pandemic. ●